Thomas Sanders is a popular American YouTuber with well over two million subscribers. His content is mainly skits, most of which revolve around The Sanders Sides: himself, Logan, Patton, Roman, and Virgil. These sides are all played by Thomas, albeit in different costumes because each is a facet of himself rather than distinct personalities.

Logan represents Thomas’s rationality as well as his intelligence. He’s the one who tries to reason through conflicts, maintain orderly plans on how to get things done, and uses big words that the others wouldn’t. Roman, alternatively, is Thomas’s creativity and imagination. He loves Disney (hence the prince costume and title of Princey before his name was revealed) and singing, making him the one who goes with Thomas onstage for theater auditions and the like. Patton is Thomas’s morality. He’s prone to emotion and wants to take care of everyone else; he was originally known as “the Dad character” before his name was revealed, and tends to refer to everyone else as “kiddo.” Finally, and certainly not least, there is Virgil, Thomas’s anxiety. He’s cranky, constantly worried, and dark, but he makes sure that everyone else stays safe.

When seeing the characters interact with one another or seeing their traits laid out, it becomes clear that there is a connection between them, that they can’t exist without one another: the four of them come together to make up Thomas, a well-rounded, complex human like the rest of us.

Through exploring these facets of himself in such a public way, Thomas encourages his viewers to explore and embrace the sides that make up who they are. The idea of embracing what makes you who you are is exceptionally evident once watching Thomas’s two-part video series “Accepting Anxiety,” in which Thomas, Patton, Roman, and Logan learn how unproductive and dangerously careless Thomas would be if Virgil erased himself from the equation.

Rather than pegging Virgil as the bad guy throughout all of the videos, especially these two, Thomas works at developing his anxiety as a character (as a matter of fact, part two of “Accepting Anxiety” is the video in which Anxiety reveals that his name is Virgil), and uses the other characters to help prove that anxiety, in a healthy dose, is needed to motivate and get the job done.

Acknowledging that there are upsides to anxiety in such a public way can give so much hope to so many who live with any variation of anxiety.

Catching up with a member of Thomas’s fandom, Bella, on Tumblr, about her opinions on the fandom itself, she was quick to say that “everyone is so accepting and wonderful,” and the fandom is far reaching because “he worries about so many people,” including but not limited to members of the LGBTQA+ community, people with disabilities, and members of ethnic minorities. Regardless of background, she says, “we all find a safe place in his videos and in his community.”

Thomas Sanders, overall, uses his celebrity status on social media platforms from YouTube and beyond to be a positive influence. He not only gives us a safe place to interact with people with similar interests, but he encourages his fans on these platforms. Even outside of this, his videos encourage us to step outside of ourselves, learn what makes us up, and accept those pieces individually as well as a whole so we can better love ourselves.

Thomas, thank you for all that you have done for us in your thriving career. I know that all of us are beyond grateful for all you have done and continue to do. We love you just as much as you love us, if not more.

And for the rest of you, as Thomas would say, “Until next time, take it easy, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!”