JAMIEvstheVOID, formerly known as JAMIErightmeow and before that WowRightMeow (real name Jamie Hensley-Davies, born December 20, 1992) is a Welsh animator, artist and former Storytime Animator, being active in that community from 2016-2022 before switching to vlogging.
At the time he set up his channel on August 13, 2016, he was working as a visual development artist in London. His first video, "Why I was a Weird Kid"
, was uploaded on December 31, 2016. Soon he became a rising name in the storytime animation community, collaborating with the likes of TheOdd1sOut, illymation and GetMadz and appearing at VidCon London 2019. Although his usual output is not too dissimilar from other storytime animators, Jamie is known for not shying away from darker topics than most storytime animators cover, such as Abusive Parents, eating disorders and being mistreated by others. Before starting this channel, Jamie ran a fairly popular art channel on YouTube called Cinnamon Studios (formerly Cinnamon Mew Mew) from 2008-2016, where he hosted a series made with model horses called Conquering Tide. He was also the creator of Daily Horse Drawings on Instagram.
If you know what aphantasia note is, chances are it's because of this video they made. It's one of their most popular videos and easily the one that put them on the map and eventually netted them an interview with Anthony Padilla on the subject note . You might also know them for the "There was a cat" video, which was reuploaded by multiple channels.
Near the end of 2020, Jamie began the process of transitioning from female to non-binary, first updating his pronouns to they/she around December 2020 before quickly settling on they/them and later he/they as he came out as transmasculine in 2022. In June 2021, Jamie officially came out as non-binary and announced his new name that November, later revealing he is transmasculine in a vlog about bodily autonomy in relation to trans people made in response to the US Supreme Court repealing Roe vs Wade. Jamie further elaborated on his identity in February 2024.
On September 1, 2022, Jamie publicly announced their retirement from the storytime animation community, citing difficulty in producing new videos regularly due to the animated format, as well as a desire to keep their channel fresh as they felt storytime animation was no longer as popular as it was when the channel was started. From this point on, they switched to a live-action vlog format. The first video to be uploaded in this format was "turning my awkward Teen Art Into Wall Deco" on November 10, 2022. In 2023, Jamie changed their handle to JAMIEvstheVOID, putting an end to the "RightMeow" name after six-and-a-half years.
Check out the channel here.
Important Note: In some older videos you might see Jamie presenting as female and using the name "Amy", describing himself as female, or referring to his channel as "AmyRightMeow". As he is transgender, we kindly ask you to respect his identity and refrain from deadnaming or misgendering him, as well as using his channel's original name as it contains his deadname.
Jamie's work provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Jamie unfortunately grew up with an emotionally abusive mother, whom he is thankfully now distanced from. This is often touched upon in videos about Jamie's childhood.
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Encouraged by Jamie when revealing their then-new channel name, WowRightMeow, in "Why I changed my Name.":Jamie: And yes, you have my permission to go full Owen Wilson on me. Alright, all together now...
[a clip of Owen Wilson saying "Wow!" is spliced into Jamie saying their channel name out loud] - Animated Music Video: This short is basically one for the first verse of "Shit" by Bo Burnham.
- Art Evolution: Over the years Jamie's art style has become more cartoony, having started off looking somewhat realistic. The colour schemes have changed too, starting out with greyscale with a hint of pink, going to the well-known turquoise/pink combo (with purple eventually being added to the mix), to red, orange and beige more recently.
- Author Appeal:
- Cats, if their numerous appearances in Jamie's animations are anything to go by.
- Horses during the Cinnamon Mew Mew era. Jamie elaborates on this in "turning my awkward Teen Art Into Wall Deco".
- Censor Box: In "Halloween in the UK was lame...", the eyes of Jamie's estranged mother are covered with a black bar.
- Darker and Edgier: In comparison to most storytime animation channels. At one point the channel had a Content Warning about how despite being animated and colourful, it's not intended for kids.
- Dye Hard: Jamie's hair has been ginger, pink, blonde, a pink/yellow vertical split and red so far.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The earliest videos were almost entirely black and white, with the only colour being the pink hair on Jamie's avatar, a far cry from the pink/purple/turquoise shades that would come to be associated with the channel.
- Important Haircut: Jamie cut their hair short around the end of 2020, signalling the start of their transition.
- Kids Are Cruel: Young Jamie was mistreated by a girl he tried to bond with over their mutual love of Neopets, as recounted in "How I Failed to Make a Best Friend".
- Literal Music Video: Jamie's most popular upload, "the dangers of dunking" has him watch a biscuit that broke off into his tea slowly dissolve to the line "I just wanted you to watch me dissolve slowly" from the song "Dissolve" by Absofacto.
- Multi-Animator Project: Participated in one (now deleted) made by TheOdd1sOut. You can see the making of Jamie's scene here.
- Real Men Wear Pink: For a while after coming out as transmasc, pink was still Jamie's favourite colour. (He's since moved onto other colours like red and orange.)Jamie in an Instagram post on December 21, 2020: Fun fact, I used to hate the colour pink as a kid (to the point where I pretended to have an allergy to it, no joke) because I didn't want to be grouped in with society's idea of a girl. Now I just see it as another cool colour I can play with, without having any gender stereotypes attached. It's just a colour yo. (sic)
- Red Hot Masculinity: Downplayed. While red may be the predominant colour of the "vstheVOID" era, Jamie's still as cool and composed as ever.
- Renamed the Same: Discussed in "Why I changed my Name." - it's merely a coincidence that Jamie's chosen name and deadname sound similar - they actually picked it because they happened to like it.Jamie: Jamie isn't too far off my old name but I didn't choose it to make it easier to get used to, I've just always loved the name Jamie.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: The laid-back and compassionate Jamie's avatar has almost always had pink hair (something Jamie himself has had in real life a few times), and as of his transition counts as a Rare Male Example.
- Averted more recently as Jamie has updated his avatar's hair to match his after dying it red.
- Self-Deprecation: Jamie often makes fun of his slow upload schedule, which he admitted in his second coming-out video is due to organisational difficulties related to ADHD.Jamie: Consistently inconsistent? Why yes, I am. [begins singing] Shout-out to my ADHD!
- Shout-Out:
- "Working at GAME and sexism issues" features a checklist with the items "Yes", "No", "Maybe", "I don't know" and "Can you repeat the question?", the first lines of the Malcolm in the Middle theme song. To top it off, Jamie follows up with "But you're not that great" (which he later admitted was a mistake on his part note ).
- The same video has other storytime animators of the time such as JaidenAnimations, TheOdd1sOut and Ginger Pale in the queue at GAME.
- "Working at GAME and sexism issues"
- Splash of Color: Jamie's earliest videos were coloured this way (see Early-Installment Weirdness above).
- Take That!:
- This TikTok calls out J. K. Rowling for failing to deliver on a promise she made on Twitter of marching alongside trans people if they were discriminated against.
- Another TikTok pokes fun at UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for prioritising his transphobia over much more pressing political topics such as the cost-of-living crisis.
- This TikTok
- Trans Nature: In "I BELIEVED I was a Unicorn...", Jamie recalls that after seeing The Last Unicorn on TV at age five, he was convinced that he really was - and should be - a unicorn.
- Trans Tribulations: Discussed in "Why I changed my Name." as Jamie gives background on their gender identity and again, this time in more depth, in the Roe v. Wade video.
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: As a kid the highly creative and socially awkward Jamie kept Sea-Monkeys and Triassic Triops as pets, as described in "Unusual Pets I had as a Kid". Downplayed in the present as he now owns a pomskynote .
- Unusual Pop Culture Name: Jamie's pet pomsky is named Kepler as a homage to their favourite video game series, Mass Effect.
- Weight Woe: In "What I learned from my first Relationship...", Jamie discusses how comparing himself to other girls at school may have led to the eating disorder he had for most of his twenties. He mentions it again in his video on Roe v. Wade, stating that it could have been tied to his gender dysphoria and discomfort over having a "female" body and that realising he was trans may have helped him recover from it.
- Wham Line: In "Why I changed my Name.", after spending the first three minutes of the video getting the viewer up to speed on why they changed their name, Jamie reveals what said name is at the four-minute mark. It counts as this trope as during the summer of 2021 they'd removed their name from all social media and their channel name to maintain an air of secrecy/drum up hype.Jamie: I think it's time for a new introduction. So hey, my name is Jamie.
- Vocal Evolution: Jamie's voice has gradually gotten deeper and less feminine over time, especially after he started testosterone therapy in late 2022.
