Cassey Ho
Ho in 2022
Born (1987-01-16) January 16, 1987
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materWhittier College (BS)
Occupation(s)Video blogger, social-fitness entrepreneur
Years active2009–present
Known forPilates instruction
AwardsShorty Award 2013
YouTube information
Channel
GenreFitness
Subscribers7.36 million[1]
Total views1.8 billion[1]
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers
Last updated: March 7, 2022
Websitewww.blogilates.com

Cassey Ho Vinh (born in Los Angeles, January 16, 1987) is an American social media fitness entrepreneur with a YouTube channel and a website that sells fitness apparel. In 2013, she received a Shorty Award in the category of social fitness.[2] In 2014, after seeing a photoshopped photo of a model on Target’s website where the model had an unnatural-looking thigh gap, Ho wrote on her blog calling attention to the health implications of this type of photo editing. Target subsequently apologized for altering the photo.[3] In April 2015, Ho responded to negative comments about her body by creating a YouTube video called The "Perfect" Body. In 2017, Ho was listed in Time's third annual list of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet".[4]

Early life and education

Ho is Chinese-Vietnamese American and was born in Los Angeles, California, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.[5][6][7] Her parents are Bach Ho and Cuu Ho and she has a sister named Jackelyn, who is a yoga instructor.[7] Ho described how she grew up 'chubby', and that the way other children treated her made her become more aware of her body when she was young.[8] When she was a teenager, she started a bakery with her mother called "Cooplex Cookies & Candies," which lasted from 2001 to 2005.[7] Her interest in fitness and nutrition began when she was 16 and discovered Pilates.[9] Ho has also said that it was her "childhood dream to become a fashion designer."[10]

She went to James Logan High School.[7] In 2003, she won the San Francisco Miss Teen Chinatown beauty pageant.[11] She told Asian Fortune that coming from an Asian culture, her parents expected her to choose a career as a doctor or lawyer.[5] When she was 16, she told her father that she wanted to be a fashion designer. Her father, in response, told her that she would fail, make no money, and have no friends.[12] She went to Whittier College[13] on a John Greenleaf Whittier full tuition scholarship with the career aim of becoming a doctor.[14] She graduated in 2009[15] with a Bachelor of Science in biology.[5][6][16][17]

Career

Ho started her online fitness businesses while she was still in college.[16] In 2007, she was one of 18 winning designers featured at the "Emerging Stars" fashion show that occurred during San Francisco Fashion Week.[10] Ho started posting fitness videos on YouTube in 2009 after she decided to move from Los Angeles, California to Boston, Massachusetts for a full-time job as a fashion buyer.[15][5] She had been a part-time Pilates instructor and wanted to provide the students she was leaving with online fitness workouts after she moved to Boston.[15][5][18] The first video she uploaded to YouTube was called "POP Pilates: Total Body Sculpt video" and she had considerable trouble with its quality, audio, and editing.[15] After she uploaded the video, she received a number of comments requesting more videos on specific workouts for different muscle groups such legs, thighs, and abs, but she didn't pay attention to these requests for months.[15][19]

Nine months after she moved to Boston to work as a fashion buyer, she decided to quit because she disliked it.[15] She started teaching Pilates classes 12 times a week to pay for her food and rent.[15] She found teaching Pilates this often physically tiring, but because she was not working full-time, she had time to make more workout videos.[15] She began uploading her new videos to YouTube and her views and subscribers began to rapidly increase.[15] She then became a YouTube Partner and her website blogilates.com dramatically increased its web traffic.[15] She also believes that a feature of one of her bags in Shape magazine in 2010 was a contributing factor in the success she has had in her career.[19][20][14] After her bag was featured, she realized that she could make money selling bags and went to China to talk to manufacturers of bags.[20][14] When she started her YouTube channel and began her Internet marketing of clothing, bags, mats, and fitness apparel, she briefly worked with a PR company, but decided she could handle PR for her businesses.[14]

By October 2012, three years after she uploaded her first video to YouTube in 2009, she had 166,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel Blogilates[15] and by January 18, 2014, she reached more than 100 million views on her YouTube channel.[19] By April 2014, her YouTube subscribers had increased to 1.2 million[3][21] and a month later she had reached 138,000 Twitter followers.[14] By December 2014, her Blogilates channel on YouTube had 1.8 million subscribers, 8 million views a month, 60,000 views a day, and is the top fitness channel on YouTube[22] and by October 2016, her Blogilates channel on YouTube had over 3.2 million subscribers.[23]

Her workout videos are often featured in online newspapers and videos.[24][25][26][27] She is also considered a successful social media marketer who has appeared as an example of a successful social-media fitness entrepreneur in the book Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies[28] and other social media "how to" books.[29] In 2014, Lionsgate's BeFit YouTube channel added Ho to their channel lineup.[30] In an interview with EContent Magazine, Ho stated that she believes that one reason for her success on YouTube is because she keeps her videos "fun and playful."[18]

She was interviewed by Forbes in 2012 as a woman who is rapidly becoming a star on YouTube along with several other women such as Issa Rae and Cassandra Bankson.[15] She has been described as a poster child for Asian American entrepreneurial success on the Internet.[5] At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, she led yogilates workout sessions at the YouTube lounge.[19]

In 2012, she won Fitness Magazine's Fitterati blogger awards in the category of "Best Healthy Living Blog."[21] Sharecare also ranked her as the number 2 online influencer making a difference in the world of fitness just behind Jillian Michaels.[31] In 2013, Ho won a Shorty Award in the category of social fitness.[2][13]

In January 2014, MarketWatch[32] reported that Ho was first on their top 10 list of Social HealthMarkers on fitness by Sharecare.[33] In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ho's Blogilates YouTube channel was averaging almost 8 million views a month and that it is the top-ranked fitness channel on YouTube.[34] In September, Seventeen magazine announced that its October issue would be its first YouTube issue featuring 30 well known YouTubers, with Ho to present her workout routine.[35]

Clothing collection: Bodypop

In August 2014, Ho released "Bodypop", an activewear clothing collection.[36][37] According to Ro Kalonaros, writing for Shape, "The line is a mix between high fashion and practical—think peplum and bold prints."[36] At the release of her activewear collection, Ho also released a music video of three female athletes wearing Ho's activewear.[36] In January 2016, Ho launched the first collection of a new line, "Popflex."[38]

Views

YOLO Meal

In addition to her YouTube fitness videos, Ho also has a YouTube series Cheap, Clean Eats.[39][19][5] In this series, she introduced the concept of a "YOLO Meal" (YOLO is an acronym for "You Only Live Once").[39][9] A YOLO meal consists of what is considered traditionally unhealthy food such as pizza, french fries, and ice cream.[39] In her view, a healthy diet should include YOLO meals because a healthy diet is a lifestyle that a person can stick with.[39] YOLO meals are meals a person typically has with friends and they are planned, in her approach, to occur once a week and are surrounded the rest of the week by healthy meals.[39] Kit Steinkellner reported in the Huffington Post that when she followed this approach she found that it increased her desire for both YOLO meals and healthy food.[39] Georgie Silvarole, writing for Fiterazzi Magazine, extends Ho's concept of a YOLO meal to a YOLO day and explains that sometimes one needs a whole day off of a healthy diet.[40]

Body image

When she first began to upload videos to YouTube and answering questions about fitness on her blog, she thought of herself only as only an instructor.[3] It was at this time that she created a printable poster "How to Get a Thigh Gap".[3][41] At that time, she had not thought much about the social-health implications of trying to achieve a thigh gap and she didn't think about her poster again until it appeared two years later in news segments about the latest unhealthy obsession of trying to achieve a thigh gap.[3] After that incident, she realized that she is not just a fitness instructor but a role model in the fitness industry.[3] She now views her role as extending beyond a fitness instructor to include helping people get healthier and feeling better about their bodies.[3]

In 2014, after she had realized that she had become a role model in the fitness industry, she was looking for a bikini on Target's website when she noticed an image of a model with a photoshopped thigh gap.[3][42] She took some screen shots of the photoshopped model and blogged about them.[3] The next morning she discovered that the Target model controversy was under discussion at a number of news media outlets such as ABC News, HLN, and Good Morning America.[3] After her post drew widespread media attention,[3][14] Target apologized for manipulating the photo.[3][43] Ho has also warned that the "bikini bridge" may be the new "thigh gap" and that neither define beauty.[44]

On her view, working out can become a problem when the only goal is "physical vanity" and thereby attempting to develop a sense of self-worth by working out. Instead, she advocates finding joy in the act of working out and letting it become part of one's lifestyle.[3]

She believes that social media, and in particular social fitness media, has an important role to play in helping people achieve their fitness and healthy lifestyle potential.[3] This is especially true for people who lack the family and friends to provide that support.[3]

She believes that YouTube has an important role to play in issues concerning body image.[3] On her view, body image is shaped by the "perfect" images of women in magazines and movies and that when women and girls pursue these "perfect" body images, the result can sometimes be eating and body image disorders.[3] She believes that YouTube provides content creators with a platform to present girls and women as they really are, which she believes will encourage them to be more confident in who they are.[3][9]

In January 2016, Ho came out to say that she struggled with an eating disorder following the extreme training and calorie restriction she did in preparation for a bikini competition in 2012.[45] She said she was working out up to four hours a day while maintaining a 1,000 calorie diet in the lead up to the fitness and figure competition, and that her mind felt cloudy during this period. In a vlog posted on YouTube,[46] she said she would not recommend this or any fitness routine that wasn't sustainable over the long-term.

Body-shaming response

In April 2015, Ho responded to an increasing number negative comments about her body by creating a video that quickly went viral.[47] In her YouTube video The "Perfect" Body, Ho receives negative social media messages about her body. She is then presented with tools that allow her to "photoshop" her body into a socially perceived ideal body image. However, when she looks into a mirror, she is dismayed by what she sees.[48][49][50] Ho's stated intent in creating this video was to respond to cyber-bullying with the goal "...to show that cyber-bullying and mean comments really affect people, and to think before you say something. I hope that people do the exact opposite after seeing this video, which is enlighten everyone around them with positivity."[50]

Personal life

On August 22, 2017, Ho announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Sam Livits on her official Instagram page. They married on October 6, 2018.[51]

References

  1. 1 2 "About blogilates". YouTube.
  2. 1 2 "The best on social media - Shorty Awards winners". Fox News. April 11, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Humphrey, Michael (April 17, 2014). "A Chat With Cassey Ho: On Target, Thigh Gaps And Health-Body Balance". Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ TIME Staff (June 26, 2017). "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet". Time. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pipkin, Whitney (November 29, 2013). "Are Asian Americans Taking Over the Internet?". Asian Fortune. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Carrasco, Ed (January 3, 2013). "Cassey Ho: Blogilates YouTube Fitness Guru". NewMediaRockstars. Archived from the original on July 10, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Cassey Ho". Chinese Sirens. March 17, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  8. ↑ Pfeffer, Stephanie Emma (May 22, 2014). "Cassey Ho: Meet YouTube's Fitness Star". People. Archived from the original on May 22, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 Hauser, Annie (November 29, 2013). "How I Got This Body: Cassey Ho, 26, 'Blogilates'". The Weather Channel. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Dress Designed by Cassey Ho '09 Featured at San Francisco Fashion". Whittier College. September 14, 2007. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  11. ↑ "2003-2004 Miss Teen ChinatownCourt". Chinatown San Francisco. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  12. ↑ Davis, Al (August 11, 2014). "Cassey Ho's Dreams Come True With Bodypop [Interview]". NewMediaRockstars. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  13. 1 2 "Fitness Guru Cassey Ho Wins Social Media Award". Whittier College. April 11, 2013. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bennett, Colette (May 4, 2014). "How to win at YouTube: Fitness guru speaks". HLN. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Humphrey, Michael (October 9, 2012). "Cassey Ho: 5 Questions For YouTube's Rising Women Of Power". Forbes. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  16. 1 2 Belilovskaya, Liz. "Fitness Entrepreneur and Pilates Beast, Cassey Ho". Raine Magazine. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Cassey Ho". IDEA Health and Fitness Association. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  18. 1 2 Cramer, Theresa (February 15, 2013). "An Interview with Cassey Ho: Blogilates and Unexpected Digital Publishing Success". EContent Magazine. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Thatcher, Autumn (January 21, 2014). "YouTube sensation Cassey Ho helps stretch Sundance stresses away". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  20. 1 2 Hwang, Sora (2014). "Blogilates' Cassey Ho has a Surprisingly New Happiest Place on Earth: Target". Mochi. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  21. 1 2 Shelton, Samantha (July 3, 2012). "cassey ho". Fitness Magazine. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  22. ↑ Alpert, Jessica (December 19, 2014). "Armpit Fat? There's A YouTube Video For That". WBUR-FM. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  23. ↑ Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens (October 16, 2016). "YouTube Star Cassey Ho Talks Business, Body Shaming and How She Built A Global Brand". Forbes. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  24. ↑ Travers, Colleen (November 30, 2011). "Your Post-Thanksgiving Tune Up". Fitness Magazine. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  25. ↑ Fulmer, Melinda (April 13, 2013). "Cassey Ho's triangle lift sculpts the lower body". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  26. ↑ Fulmer, Melinda (June 1, 2013). "Hip twists create a more defined waist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  27. ↑ Petronis, Lexi (June 25, 2013). "The Easy, Do-It-Now Move That Defines Your Waist". Glamour. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  28. ↑ Zimmerman, Jan and Deborah Ng (2012). Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 124–127. ISBN 978-1118215524.
  29. ↑ Jess Loren, and Edward Swiderski (2012). Pinterest for Business: How to Pin Your Company to the Top of the Hottest Social Media Network (Que Biz-Tech). Indianapolis, Indiana: Pearson Education, Que Publishing. p. 224. ISBN 978-0789749925.
  30. ↑ Jarvey, Natalie (May 13, 2014). "The fitness channel boasts yoga, Pilates and other videos led by experts and trainers". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  31. ↑ "Top 10 Online Influencers Making a Difference in the World of Fitness". Sharecare. 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  32. ↑ "Sharecare Names Top 10 Fittest Cities in America". MarketWatch. January 15, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  33. ↑ "Social HealthMakers: Fitness". Sharecare. January 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014.
  34. ↑ Shields, Mike (August 12, 2014). "YouTube's Top Fitness Channel Blogilates is Part of StyleHaul's Network". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on August 15, 2014. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  35. ↑ Gutelle, Same (September 9, 2014). "Seventeen Magazine Creates "YouTube Issue" With Bethany Mota On Cover". Tubefilter. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  36. 1 2 3 Kalonaros, Ro (August 20, 2014). "Cassey Ho Launches Bodypop Activewear with Inspiring Music Video". Shape. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  37. ↑ Lazar, Shira (September 3, 2014). "Epic Workout Videos From the '80s That Won't Get You Ripped". Huffington Post. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  38. ↑ Chan, Mary. "Blogilates fitness guru Cassey Ho releases activewear collection". Fashion Week. Bigfoot Ventures, LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  39. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Steinfellner, Kit (February 7, 2014). "The Power of the YOLO Meal". Huffington Post. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  40. ↑ Silvarole, Georgie (May 1, 2014). "10 Things That Cross My Mind When I'm Having a YOLO Day". Fiterazzi Magazine. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  41. ↑ Ho, Cassey. "New printable! How to get an inner thigh gap in 4 easy moves!". Blogilates. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  42. ↑ Ho, Cassey. "Umm, excuse me? Is this Target model for real?". Blogilates. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  43. ↑ ABC News (March 12, 2014). "Target Apologizes for 'Thigh Gap' Photoshop Fail". ABC News. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  44. ↑ Miller, Tracy (January 8, 2014). "'Bikini bridge' started as an Internet prank but will likely do real damage". Daily News. Archived from the original on October 2, 2014. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  45. ↑ Ho, Cassey. "1 Month After the Bikini Competition – How Am I Doing?". Blogilates. Archived from the original on February 3, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  46. ↑ Ho, Cassey. "Why I will never diet again". YouTube. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  47. ↑ Turner, Laura Jane (June 18, 2015). "This YouTuber Hits Back At Body Shamers In The Best Way". Look. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  48. ↑ Lee, Esther (April 23, 2015). "Fitness Blogger Cassey Ho Responds to Body-Shaming Critics With Powerful Video". Us Weekly. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  49. ↑ "Fitness Guru Cassey Ho Fights Back Against Body Shamers". ABC News. April 28, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  50. 1 2 Olya, Gabrielle (April 20, 2015). "Watch Social Media Fitness Star Cassey Ho Photoshop Herself in New Body Image Video". People. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  51. ↑ Mazziotta, Julie (August 23, 2017). "Blogilates Creator Cassey Ho Is Engaged! 'It Feels Like a Dream'". people.com. People. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
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