Suzelle has become something of a South African internet sensation through her DIY videos on Youtube. She has covered a range of topics, but her most popular video to date is showing people how to make a braai pie. She’s even been joined by Tim Noakes and together they showed the audience how to make a pizza out of cauliflower.
Suzelle has given DIY videos her own quirky sense of humour, which has made them hugely popular. (Image: Supplied)
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Priya Pitamber
Wearing either bright or pastel coloured dresses, cardigans, and styling her hair in what’s become her signature up-do, South African vlogger Suzelle DIY is enlightening the country, one DIY video at a time.
Her outfits may not be what people would normally wear while doing their DIY round the home, but she says: “I always look my best even when I’m doing housework.”
With a unique sense of humour and usually hilarious endings, Suzelle’s quirky and eccentric persona is endearing. Her website informs her fans that she always dreamed of having her own DIY show. “I wanted to use my creativity to help people and make new friends.”
She gets her inspiration from magazines and doing research on the internet. And naturally her DIY hero is MacGyver, from the 1980s TV show of the same name.
Her popular videos
Suzelle’s most popular video to date is How to Make a Braai Pie, which has notched up more than 660 000 views to date. It’s no wonder; South Africans generally love to have a braai (barbeque).
Another popular video, viewed more than 420 000 times, was released close to Valentine’s Day. It shows viewers how to win someone over.
Her next most popular video featured Timothy Noakes, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town and a supporter of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, as set out in his book The Real Meal Revolution.
“Smile for the video, professor,” Suzelle instructs Noakes, before the camera zooms in on his face. They make a pizza out of cauliflower. Meeting him was a highlight of her DIY series, she says.
Her other videos include teaching people how to drill a hole without making a mess, how to iron clothes without an iron and a tutorial on creating her signature up-style hairdo.
The one person she would like to invite on to her channel is comedian Trever Noah. And the one video she has not done yet, but would love to do, is on camping.
Suzelle says she loves to help people get inspired to fix things. (Image: Supplied)
Working with her hands
Her best DIY achievement, though, was turning a cupboard into what she describes as an “amazing craft station”. And her greatest tool is not something you would find in a tool box because it is her creativity. “Sometimes when you don’t have the tool, you need to get creative,” she explains.
She will continue making videos because “I just love helping people get inspired to make and fix things,” she says. “It is so easy.”
Audience reception
Generally the reaction to her videos is positive, Suzelle says. They are also watched by South African expats abroad. “I love it when people from overseas comment that my videos make them homesick for South Africa,” she says.
“You are my hero! Love all your videos… Well done,” Maxine Trollip wrote on Suzelle’s Facebook page.
”You make me laugh like no other,” wrote Gina Orman. “If I ever am in need of a good laugh I go and watch one of your videos.”
Roxanne Lisa Booysen also smiles when she watches Suzelle’s videos. “They educate me at the same time. The best one was the braai pie,” she wrote.
Suzelle’s DIY videos cover a range of topics that can help her audience dabble in their creativity. (Image: Supplied)
What Suzelle loves
“I work at a guest house called Somerset Guest,” says Suzelle of her other job, and in her downtime she likes to have coffee with her onscreen colleague, Marianne. She naturally loves to watch the TV show Braai Master, or anything on the Home Channel. Her favourite movies are both as quirky as she is: Legally Blonde and Notting Hill.
And she is ever-ready for a DIY project because she keeps duct tape, lipstick and a small screwdriver in the shape of a star in her handbag.
Besides having Noah on her show, if she could meet anyone famous, Suzelle says she would love to have Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron over for coffee or a braai.
And her favourite food is– you guessed it – a braai pie filled with spinach and feta.
“If at first you don’t succeed, just do it,” is her favourite quote. And she seems to live by it because she gets so much done, and she manages it all with panache, without a breaking a sweat and looking stylish, every step of the way.
