When you search for certain physical and mental health conditions on YouTube, you may see a personal stories shelf in your search results. The personal stories shelf lets you connect with content from creators who share their personal experience with certain medical issues. The shelf is meant to raise supportive health stories and help reduce stigma around mental and physical health topics.
The shelf may include content from other countries/regions that match your search language. The position of the shelf in search results may vary depending on how relevant the content in the shelf is to your search terms.
Who is eligible?
To be eligible for the shelf, videos must primarily focus on a personal, authentic lived experience that is relevant to a specific physical or mental health condition. Content that is promotional in nature is not eligible for this feature, and all videos that appear in this feature must comply with our policies that prevent the spread of health misinformation.
The personal stories shelves use multiple signals to determine which videos will surface for a given health issue. Therefore, videos that surface in the shelf are subject to change over time. Additionally, to start, content in the shelf may be limited and only a narrow set of physical and mental health conditions may be covered.
Right now, the shelf is only available in the US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and in English. We're working to expand this feature to more countries/regions to provide users with a broader range of lived experience content.
When to consult a healthcare professional
As each person's situation is unique, health-related info on YouTube doesn't apply to everyone and isn't medical advice. If you have a medical concern, make sure that you get in touch with a healthcare provider. If you think that you may have a medical emergency, get in touch with your doctor or call your local emergency number.
Info that YouTube stores about your searches
Health features only surface if your current search or the video that you're watching is related to a health topic. Your watch and search history does not trigger these features, but if you'd like to find and remove your searches, go to Your data in YouTube. You can also learn how to view and delete search history.
Share feedback
If there are issues with the health features on YouTube or if you have a suggestion, you can send us feedback using the menu from your profile picture.