9 Documentaries About Women You Can Watch for Free on YouTube

YouTube isn't all dumb Logan Paul stunt videos and beauty haul videos from influencers—it's also home to some of the best documentaries made by or featuring women. Plus, many of them are free—so if you're looking to economize on your streaming subscriptions, it's a great place to start.

But not all YouTube videos are created equal, and few will ever up to the peerless excellence of Isabella Rossellini recreating a snail mating ritual through interpretative dance and some very imaginative costuming. (See below.) So if you’re looking for non-Netflix content that will soothe your anxiety-ridden soul, we’ve done the groundwork. From cult 1996 classic Dirty Girls, featuring the gnarliest 8th graders you’ll ever see, to the bleak living conditions and exploitation of Siberian models in mainland China, YouTube’s host to some of the best female-centred documentaries around.

Bonus: you can watch them for free without stealing a streaming password from your boyfriend, girlfriend, or roommate. Lucky you.

Given that rampant exploitation of minors in the fashion industry, it’s unsurprising that many young women fall victim to unscrupulous operators. This 2014 Marcel Theroux film follows young Siberian girls—some of them only 14 or 15—trying to break into the Chinese modeling industry while living on their own in a foreign country and avoiding predators. It makes for deeply discomfiting viewing, and reminds us of the need for greater protections for vulnerable young models.

In the 1990s, Lolo Ferrari was one of the most famous glamour models in the world, regularly gracing magazine covers with her 54G bosom before her untimely death in 2000. This film follows the women who want to follow in Ferrari's cosmetically-enhanced footsteps before a ban on super-sized breast implants comes into force.

In 1996 high school senior Michael Lucid filmed his classmates griping about the so-called Dirty Girls in his school. The resulting film became an underground cult classic, not least for its incredible insight into 90s youth culture and the nascent grunge movement. “You’re filthy, I mean god!” shrieks a WASP-y student as Lucid films the Dirty Girls throwing water over each other in a high school car park. “A real dirty girl is someone who doesn’t care what the in-style is for people and stuff,” one explains. Dirty Girls rule.

In 2007, American Erika LaBrie married the Eiffel Tower in a commitment ceremony and changed her surname to Erika Eiffel. This sensitive documentary sensitively explores objectophia, a sexual preference in which people feel sexual or romantic feelings for inanimate objects, following LaBrie as she consummates her marriage with the Parisian landmark. It also features a woman in love with a “good-looking” crossbow called Lance, and Eija-Ritta Berliner-Mauer, who travels to Germany to be with her boyfriend, the Berlin Wall. “I tried to hate you,” she tells the wall. “You brought such pain and misery to so many people. But you brought such happiness to me.”

Whang-od Oggay is the last living Kalinga tattoo artist of the Butbut tribe in the Philippines. Born in 1917, Oggay has tattooed the Butbut people, victorious headhunters, and curious tourists alike her entire life. This film documents her remarkable life and situates it within the wider context of the history of her tribe.

In rural Turkey, the mostly female members of the Ulas family are unable to walk upright—instead, they move around on all fours. They are some of the only people in the world to suffer from Uner Tan Syndrome, a proposed medical condition in which those affected are only able to walk with a quadrupedal gait. The Family That Walks On All Fours sensitively touches on themes as broad as bias within the scientific community and the way we treat those with disabilities.

We couldn’t make a list of the best documentaries on YouTube without throwing in one of our own, could we? Watch host Milene Larsson unpick the complex and limiting gender norms that constrain young men and women in China today—and explain why the country's marriage rate is plummeting off a cliff.

If you only watch one documentary on this list, make it this one. In 2008, Italian actress and modeling legend Isabella Rossellini created a series of informational films about the mating routines of animals. I can’t begin to do it justice here, but suffice to say it’s a surrealist masterpiece, and perfect for savoring with a blunt. Spark up, lean back, and watch one of the most pioneering actresses of her generation dress up in a snail costume and simulate gastropod sex.

Part of British broadcaster BBC3's Love and Drugs On The Streets series, this affecting short film follows 18-year-old Kelly as she searches for warmth, food, and shelter in Brighton. At a time when an increasing number of people in the UK are becoming homeless, an articulate and determined Kelly provides a glimpse into the challenges faced by those on the streets.