In her first few humble, timid days as a video blogger, shy Brigitte Dale, 27, spent 15 hours editing her first video.

“It was horrible,” she said, “and I was obviously really sweaty. My cat kept trying to jump to me. It was just really awkward.

“But it was what it was.”

That was in the summer of ’06.

But through near daily repetition, Dale managed to find her groove. And then some.

The Lincolnite is now the front-runner for Best Internet Personality in the Yahoo! Video Awards. As of Wednesday afternoon, Dale had about 66 percent of the vote. Friday’s the final day for voting.

 “There’s a lot of gratitude involved when something like this happens,” Dale said of her fans.

Some days, Dale doesn’t quite understand where the devout following comes from.

“I mean, I like a lot of my videos, but, honestly, some days I watch my stuff and I just don’t get it," she said.

Before video blogging, Dale was doing the whole office job thing at a marketing firm.

But when an ad for a job as an entertainment blogger popped up on Craig’s List, she went for it.

It involved writing only at first, but then the chance to video blog came up — something she’d never done before. Seeing as though her laptop was so old it had seen three presidential administrations, her employers got her the appropriate equipment to do the job, she said.

Since then she’s blogged for two shows, the most recent being TV Squad. At one point, she was making a living as a full-time blogger, no other tedious part-time jobs necessary.

Now, she’s independent, updating her blog and a weekly video on her personal site. She and reporter Cara Pesek also do the Catty Girls Discuss podcast and blog and the Catty Girls Advise column for the Journal Star and JournalStar.com.

An L.A. talent agency found her on YouTube and has since signed her, she said. Now Dale waits for the next project. And awaits Friday’s results.

Not bad for a self-professed “super shy” person horrified about the prospect of being on video in the first place.

Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.=