Jeanine Amapola is a YouTuber, podcast host, speaker, and author of “Becoming Happy and Healthy.”

PEER: Tell us a bit about yourself and who you are.

JEANINE: My name is Jeanine Amapola, now Jeanine Amapola Ward. I’m newly married. I’m from Dallas, I’m 29 and I am a speaker, an author, an online influencer, a podcast host and a coffee lover. I’ve been doing social media for about 12 years now.

My heart, my bread, and my butter are young adult women. I want women to thrive inside and out God’s way, so I love to help them with beauty and fashion but also remind them of who they are in Christ, their identity in Christ and how that is the foundation of everything.

P: When did you start YouTube and what made you want to start?

J: I started YouTube when I was about 17 years old in my bedroom at my parents’ house. It was in high school, and it was literally a joke that just formed into an actual job. I was home-schooled, I didn’t have very many friends, and so I was like, “You know what? What could be an outlet?” And I started making these YouTube videos online and honestly fell in love with it. My page began to grow and people were resonating with me. They wanted more content.

I was like, “Great, give the people what they want.” And so I started making more videos, and honestly, I thought I was going to quit. I attended college at the University of Texas, and when I was at college, I was this close to quitting. (If you can’t see the video, I’m holding up like a little tiny little pinch.) I had a friend encourage me, “No, keep going,” and so I decided to keep going.

We did a video together. My channel basically blew up overnight, and in my junior year of college, I would always joke and say, “I’m like the Hannah Montana in my college. I was a student by day, YouTuber by night.” I would be awake until 3 A.M. editing my videos, and I fell in love with it. I always loved connecting with people and creating videos. I’ve always been a fan of editing and graphic design. I loved it; as it grew, my platform migrated and my faith changed as well, and so as my faith grew, I said, “Okay, I’m going to start sharing this as well, because I found it just to be so true and real in my life.”

In 2020, during the pandemic, I was bored, and I thought this is the time to start my podcast. I always had a dream to do it, but I just didn’t know when, and I went back and forth for hours with my team, for months of what should the name be. What should we do? How should we do this? And we decided to launch it and it has been my favorite thing I do. It’s a way for me to share my heart and my passion and connect with my audience. It’s been a journey, and now I’m writing a book off of that podcast.

P: How do you remain rooted in your relationship with God while balancing a career in social media, while you also share your faith online?

J: It’s something that I wrestle with daily. I think as a Christian influencer, you wrestle with it a lot when there’s so many opportunities and people watching you. You need to check your own motives. And so what I would say is what matters the most is who I am in the private over the public. I believe that anybody could be anybody who they want to be online or in public or where all these eyes are watching, but I think who you are in the private is what matters most.

To me, every single morning has my time with the Lord. I read the Bible and I really sit with God. I really prioritize that because those moments are what are going to affect the public moments. That really matters a lot to me—checking my integrity and having people ask me questions. Like my husband and my best friends will ask me, “Okay, where’s your heart at? Do you feel like that was right?” Or they would check my motives, because I would never want to be one way online versus offline.

That would be my least favorite thing. But I would also say I ask God in anything I do. I ask, God, is this right? Do you want me to do this? Or show me if it’s right or wrong, and He always guides me, and whether that’s through other people speaking into it or a check in my spirit or a conviction, He leads me. And so again, I would like to reiterate those private moments are very, very important.

P: What was the heart behind your podcast and now with your book with a similar title?

J: Yes, so honestly, as I was getting older and I was getting more involved with working out and learning more about mental health, I realized that there are four aspects of our lives that need to be in check. Our mental, physical, spiritual and emotional sides of our lives, and I find that when one of those are off, one of the other ones get off. There are these little gauges and if one’s telling you, hey, something’s wrong, it’s going to start affecting all the other ones, and so as I was maturing and starting to fall in love with working out and health, and also growing in my faith, and then getting into counseling and started learning more about the emotional side in my childhood, I really believe that we are selling ourselves short as human beings.

I think a lot of people especially in the Christian world think that as a Christian, you just have to suffer all the time, and the Bible does say, you won’t be devoid of suffering. It doesn’t say that your life is going to be peaches and daisies and roses, but He says you will suffer, you will see tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world, and so I believe that we sell ourselves short. We think that life has to be hard.

If we implement God’s word into these four verticals, I really think we’ll see transformation. We read the Bible, we work out, we practice these habits, we take care of our mental health, we go on walks, we talk to people, we see a counselor if we need to, we speak to a friend, whatever. I believe all of these will level out, and that’s my heart and my passion is to show people that there is a better way to live. Especially when you filter it through God’s word, and even the Bible in 1 Timothy 4:8 says that it’s a good thing to take care of the physical side of you.

It is a good thing to take care of the physical side of your body, but godliness is most important, but Timothy is saying like, hey, take care of your body. Our body is a temple, and so my goal is to round that out and give advice and tools to help people thrive in all aspects of life through God’s way.

P: What advice do you have for the young Christians who are feeling maybe stuck and purposeless, especially in this transition to adulthood?

J: I understand y’all. I’ve been there, done that. I remember after graduating from college—for me it was like, “Okay, whoa, you’re all of a sudden on your own and you have to deal with your own finances, and definitely, it’s a lot.” But I think if I could go back and tell my post-college self when I had just gotten out of college, like, “Hey, if you just follow what God says, your life will be blessed.” The Bible tells us, don’t just be a hear of the word, be a doer of the word, and so all I did was hear and I never did, and I saw that discrepancy in my life where I would intake it, but I would never output it, and it really caused me a lot of problems in my life, a lot of guilt and shame and poor choices.

My message to young adult people is Proverbs 16:3 (NIV) that says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” So whatever that is, if it’s a new job, it’s a relationship, you’re moving, you are trying to figure out, do I do this thing or do I not? Do I stay in this friend group? You commit your life to the Lord, you say, “God, what do you want? What do you say? What does your word say?” God is looking out for you. He cares for you.

He’s not here to make you look like a fool or to put you to shame. He wants to guide you because He is a good God and He cares about your life so, so much more than you do, and so if you commit your path and you commit all your plans to Him, it says that He will establish your plans. But the downside of that is sometimes that requires you waiting on Him, sometimes that requires you laying down the things that you think are good for you and saying, “I might want this, but God, what do you want?”

Because I promise you to those listening or reading that whatever He has for you will always be anytime 10 times better than what you have for you. So if you commit your ways to Him, He will establish your plans and make your path straight.

P: What advice do you have for the person who’s single and desiring marriage?

J: Again, understand that, I’ve been there and I’ve been through a lot of heartbreak in my life. I’ve been in so many seasons where I was single and very lonely and I just couldn’t understand why, but again, it’s in those moments of loneliness or singleness, that you realize that God is doing something even if you don’t see it, and so He’s preparing you and preparing your spouse in this moment, and you don’t prepare for marriage when you’re already in marriage.

You prepare for marriage in singleness, you prepare for marriage in dating, and so my encouragement always to young adults is that this is your time, don’t forsake it, don’t waste it, and use it well. The analogy that kind of came to me was that it’s like you’re waiting for a game day. When you’re going on your game day, you’re not going to sit on your bench waiting for someone to pick you. I want to play in the game.

You are getting in the game. You’re not waiting around for him to pick you. You’re not waiting around. You’re going to get in the game. Even if maybe life looks a little messy or you’re not doing it perfectly. You’re going to put yourself out there, you’re going to thrive, you’re going to enjoy your single years, you’re going to meet people, you’re going to travel, you’re going to move. You’re not waiting around. You’re using this time and you’re investing into yourself, because when someone meets you, you don’t want them to look at you and say, “Well, what have you been doing?”

You would say, “Waiting on the bench for you, of course.” And he would say, “Okay, that’s not exactly what I was looking for.” I really think it’s important to use this time to first and foremost fall in love with Jesus, with the Creator, and let Him tell you who you are. You don’t want to wait around for someone to validate you, affirm you and tell you who you are. You want to first and foremost know that, so that even if this person leaves, even if they walk away, you’re good because you’re confident and you know yourself.

You know who God’s made you to be, and that those who hope in the Lord, as Psalm 25 says, will not be put to shame. God’s not going to put you to shame as you hope in Him, so use this time well and invest in yourself, and I really believe that God will come through when the timing is right, and his timing is always perfect.

P: What are some ways in which young people in relationships can keep Christ at the center of the relationship?

J: Totally. What I’m going to say is probably a two-part answer. The first part is going to be, don’t make the relationship your center. You have to make God your center. God has to be the Lord of your life first and foremost, before this person can even come in, because I know with relationships they can distract, they can really break your heart or you can think the world is ending if the relationship ends, but if God is your personal foundation, you’ll be okay.

A house built on the Lord will stand, and so you have to make Christ the center of your life first and find somebody that prioritizes that as well, and secondly, I would say if you’re dating, have people speak to your relationship—healthy people—so healthy relationships are formed with healthy people speaking into them. Having accountability, having mentors or prayer leaders or somebody that can look in your relationship kind of objectively and say, “Hey, I don’t think this is a good relationship. I don’t think this is the best thing for you.”

Or they could say, “Yeah, this is an amazing relationship. We see this person is for you. This is a great, godly relationship.” You want people objectively who aren’t a little afraid to hurt your feelings, to speak into this and bless your relationship, because when you get to that alter one day, it is the most rewarding thing when you can look around the room and you can say, “Man, these people were for me, they fought for this relationship, they prayed for us, they stood with us, and that was worth it.” And so, I’d say keep God the center and have people speak into your relationship, but wise people speaking to your relationship.

P: What general advice do you have for anyone who’s just on this journey to become happier and healthier?

J: I’m a very big habits girl. During the pandemic, I started reading this book by James Clear called “Atomic Habits.” It changed my life, and it really changed my mentality on health, because when the new year rolls around which we just had, everyone creates this long list—I’m going to do this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then you look back and what did you do? Probably none of them, and so what I’m saying is start small, always start small.

It’s not what you do sometimes, it’s what you do consistently, so don’t bite off more than you can chew. Look at those four verticals (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) and say, “Okay, what do I need the most right now?” And maybe you do need something from all aspects, I get that, but just reminding yourself that, okay, I’m on the path of progress, not perfection.

Maybe you’re like, “You know what? Journaling every day is something I want to do. I really need to do that.” Pick that one thing and master that and try to find a way to do that every single day. Lay it out, make it obvious, make it clear, write it down. Or maybe you’re like “I just need to drink more water.” So, get your favorite water bottle, put it in front of you, fill it up every single day. Get something that you will do often and find ways to what the book says is find the path of least resistance, so whatever is the easiest way for you to do that consistently do that, so find that.

For me, it’s putting my journal out by my bedside table. It’s getting a big bottle of water and having it constantly filled throughout the day so that I’m encouraged to want to drink it, but again, pick one thing, start small, don’t bite off more than you can chew and master that, and then move on to the next, and I really believe that habits will change your life.

P: What’s a go-to self-care tip when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

J: Probably a good walk and throwing on a podcast or putting on worship music. I think that’s where I find a lot of my sanity comes back to me. I sometimes need to go outside and be in the fresh air. Sometimes I don’t even listen to music, or I don’t even listen to podcasts. It’s just me and my thoughts and I’m just talking with God or I’m just asking God questions, and so I love to move my body, get outside, be in nature and either just have some music or podcasts, but I love a good walk.

P: What are you currently listening to?

J: I love my friend Dani Austin’s podcast. It’s called “De-Influenced.” I really love it. She’s one of my good friends, and so I find that one to be really, really fun. I also recently started listening to the Bible on an app called Blue Letter Bible, and they’ll explain the Scripture to you, which I’m really big on that. I love to learn the background and what is it that this verse means. What is this historical context to this, the biblical context? It’s an incredible app called the Blue Letter Bible App, and I love listening to that, and if I’m not listening to those, I’m listening either to just worship music or Quinn 92.

P: What’s a Bible verse that’s been on your heart recently?

J: I would say John 15 because I started a whole ministry around John 15, which is about abiding in Jesus, and I found myself actually struggling to do that lately, and so I was reminded of John 15:5, Jesus says, “… for apart from me, you can do nothing (ESV).” To bear the fruit of the Spirit, you must stay connected to the vine, which is Jesus, the true source of life. If I find myself distant or I’m not displaying the fruit of the spirit, if I’m being grumpy and angry and selfish and prideful and all these things that God tells us, like, “Hey, watch out for these.”

I have to go back and ask, okay, am I abiding? And recently I haven’t been. I’ve been busy with getting married and trying to be in this new transition of life and the book coming out. I was like, okay, I haven’t been abiding, and so anytime I struggle I go back to that again and remind myself, okay, if I want to flourish in life, if I want to have a fulfilled life, a life that is honoring to God, I’ve got to be abiding in Him, John 15. I love that whole chapter. It’s not just a verse, it’s a whole chapter because it all flows together.

It’s such a good reminder for me and honestly for anyone, especially when you’re in a ministry, you can get so big into works into doing, that you don’t actually just sit with Jesus and abide in Him and let Him fulfill you, and so it’s hard to pour out from an empty cup, so abiding in Jesus is the best thing you can do.