This article is part of our series “GRITS: Girls Raised in the South,” in which we profile some of our favorite Dixie ladies and the things that make them awesome. Got an idea for a fabulous femme we should feature? Shoot us an email at zeldaandscout@gmail.com! (Alliteration optional.)

Name: Mamrie Hart

Hometown: Booneville, North Carolina

Profession: Comedian, Internet Personality, Lush, and Goddess Among Women.

Reasons she’s awesome: Who do we think most deserves a drink this week? It’s everyone’s favorite ginger who is bursting with zingers, that boozy vlogger who prefers gin over lager, Mamrie Hart! Now we’re pretty unabashed in our love for this red-headed funny lady. One third of YouTube’s Holy Trinity, her videos are a weekly staple of ours. This week is especially big for our favorite virtual bartender (she wrote a book!), so we wanted to toast her the way we know best: in writing.

Though she was born in New Jersey, Mamrie spent the bulk of her childhood in a tiny town in North Carolina, the daughter an English teacher and a TV actor. Her father, David Hart, had already moved down South to shoot the cop drama “In the Heat of the Night” in Georgia, so her mom decided to venture down to Dixie too, to be closer to her sister and to put the kids within driving distance of their dad. It took Mames some time to adjust to the the Southern cadence and the one-stoplight town, where everyone knew her as her famous daddy’s daughter. But she grew to be proud of (and joke about) her middle-of-nowhere Southern upbringing, using ain’t’s and y’all’s like they were goin’ out of style. She threw herself into extracurriculars to pass the time: cheerleading, dance, sports, etc — plus she got to spend the summers she wasn’t being a camp counselor on the set of her dad’s TV show eating craft services.

She went to college at UNC, Chapel Hill, and studied drama and communications, embraced the stereotypical collegiate experience (beer pong! keg parties! etc!). She even founded a Topless Tuesday Club with her friends, dedicated to ladies hanging out topless, crafting, drinking bourbon, smoking cigars, and becoming comfortable with their bodies (to which we say a resounding “Fuck yeah!”).

But despite her love for the big hair and big drinks of the South, Mamrie was ready for the big city. After college, she moved the New York, with $400 and an air mattress to her name. She worked a day job and performed sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade and the People’s Improv Theater, where she met sketch teammate and future BFF Grace Helbig. It was also through Grace that she was first introduced to the wild, wacky world of online video and the rapidly growing YouTube community. After many a boozy midweekend brunch (mimosas at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday? Right there with you, Mametown), Mamrie came up with the idea for her own series, “You Deserve a Drink.”

Every week on YDAD, Mamrie uses her decade-plus of bartending experience to create a drink for the honoree of the week — from fellow YouTubers to celebrities and fictional characters — all mixed in with a healthy dose of terrible puns and jokes about queefing (the best part? the built-in drinking game, of course). And her expertise expands beyond boozy banter and ridiculous terms for lady parts. She vlogs over on her second channel, Mametown, which combines her trademark wit and honesty with $10 hauls and a character named Tiny Mouth. She wrote and starred in the film Camp Takota (available on Netflix, y’all). She performs live with Grace in  the touring show “This Might Get Weird, Y’all,” and with Grace and Hannah Hart in “#NoFilter.” She and Grace star in the online travel show “Hey USA,” getting up to antics all over America. And you may have seen her on Comedy Central’s “@Midnight,” where she is a frequent and hilarious guest. Basically, Mamrie is a jack-of-all-entertainment-trades (just don’t let her cut your hair…). We’d watch her eat breakfast (probably in a crazy wig and definitely with her beloved dog, Beanz Hart, at her side). Mostly though, we’re excited about her new book: You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery! We’ve both already pre-ordered our copies. Why haven’t you?

Favorite Videos: