Bria & Chrissy v. Revenge Porn

Bria Kam and Chrissy Chambers aren't ones to stay quiet on the things that matter to them. While other YouTube personalities create content just to mollify advertisers, the couple behind the popular BriaAndChrissy and OurLesbianLove channels use their wide-reaching social influence for weightier topics.

"If you have a platform, then you have a responsibility to do some good," Chambers says. "Sure, some people are going to choose not to do that, but you have the power to make the world a better place, and to potentially save lives. I just can't fathom not doing that."

Their online platform -- which includes an audience of 500,000+ YouTube subscribers -- is the best place for them to advocate. Empowering the queer community and raising lesbian visibility have been a big part of their activism, but there's a different and somewhat surprising mission the women are also on: fighting for victims of revenge pornography.

After video surfaced on several adult websites of Chambers being sexually assaulted by her British ex-boyfriend two years ago, the then 22-year-old suddenly found herself in the midst of an ongoing, landmark legal case regarding revenge pornography (which England's Crown Prosecution Service defines as "a broad term usually involving an individual, often an adult ex-partner, uploading onto the internet intimate sexual images of the victim, to cause the victim humiliation or embarrassment"), one that spanned international jurisdictions since the video in question was uploaded in the U.K.

But instead of continuing to feel shame about the situation, Chambers -- with the help of Kam and their fan base -- is healing, and rising up against those who try to use pornographic videos and images to ruin someone's life and reputation.

"We're so open with our audience," Chambers says. "We make six videos a week, and five of those are very personal, daily vlogs, showing what a healthy relationship is like, and we happen to be lesbians. I happen to be a victim of revenge porn. We didn't want to have to hide anything or cover anything up."

Although 2015 has been an admittedly hard year for them, Kam and Chambers are ready to keep fighting, and looking forward to a new year in which they get to create some lighter content, and, of course, keep showing youth -- especially fellow gay, bi, and trans women -- that it's OK to defend yourself and what you believe in.

"It's important for queer women to stand up -- otherwise they'll continue to be silenced by the mainstream," Chambers says. "It feel like sometimes we're on an island, screaming, and there is no one else that can hear us. That's how I know some LGBTQ creators or a lot of women feel like, but if you are not part of that initial group ... you just have to accept the fact that you're going to be up really intense odds, but you are changing the future."

"We have to sort of shove, push, and scream in the nicest way possible to get to be heard, and that's what we do every day," Kam says. "We're not going to stop until people hear us."