https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjeevw/queen-of-shitty-robots-life-after-brain-cancer-every-day-calendar

Most of the robots Simone Giertz builds fail. The lipstick bot smears makeup all over her face. The breakfast machine knocks over a cereal box and spills milk on the kitchen table. The baby-carrying drone should never be allowed near a real baby. That’s all what Giertz, having gained internet popularity as the Queen of Shitty Robots, intended. As far she is concerned, a robot that makes you laugh is the definition of success. The concept has earned Giertz a loyal online audience of over 1.4 million YouTube subscribers, who tune in to her videos of bots intentionally malfunctioning in hilarious ways. The robo-fails aren’t the only draw either, considering how Giertz’s audience appreciates her specific brand of candor, self-deprecation, and unbound curiosity.

But on April 30, 2018, Giertz posted a different kind of video to her YouTube page. Talking straight to the camera, the 27-year-old broke the news: A brain tumor the size of a golf ball had been found over her right eye. Happy spoiler: Nine months later, Giertz has recovered after having surgery that removed the entire tumor. It’s a journey that Giertz decided she’d live fully and transparently online. (Disclosure: Giertz has previously written about do-it-yourself robotmaking for Motherboard.) If anything, the experience reinforced her innate humor and fueled her creativity, though post-tumor, her inventive focus has shifted. For years, Simone Giertz’s shitty robots have made us laugh. Now she wants to build something that will actually help people. She’s come up with a mechanical calendar that enforces good habits—“a personal gold star system,” if you will—which only took going through the most traumatic health experience of her life to realize.