Dhar Mann is all about fostering an online circle of support.
As the YouTube star—known to his over 17 million subscribers for his inspirational videos of stories with positive messages—recently shared, he was motivated to build his own community based on his own childhood experience.
"Growing up, I just wanted to have friends and like a lot of young people, I struggled with that throughout middle school, throughout high school," he exclusively told E! News at the Dec. 18 screening for his film, An Unforgettable Christmas. "And because I never really felt comfortable building friendships in the real world, I kind of turned to social media as a way to build a community."
And as Dhar noted, though people may think content creators "are really outgoing and have these big personalities," a lot of those leading way are in, fact, introverts—which he sees as more than encouraging.
"I think it's really inspiring to say, 'Hey, even if you don't have an over-the-top personality, and even if you are that quiet, shy kid," the 38-year-old added. "'You can still build a community of millions of people through social media.'"
And though his work today consists of films such as his latest, An Unforgettable Christmas—a few years ago, a project of this length would be seen as almost impossible to the entrepreneur.
"What's especially exciting about this is that our first video ever that we put out, less than four years ago, was three minutes and ten seconds long," he noted. "And at that time, that felt long for us. So, for now, a few years later, to be able to put out an hour and forty-five minute length feature film that I really think is just gonna blow everyone away—it just goes to show as to what's possible and how far you've come if you dream big."
As for the "core essence" of the holiday film itself? Well, ‘tis the season for such a message.
"It's a really special film, it's four different videos combined into one," Dhar explained. "Holidays have become so much about gift-giving and materialistic things, this film is such a great reminder that the things that matter most are the people that are next to us and that we love."