Your mother's reaction is mine. I heard of her only in the past few weeks, after endless threads on her were created here. I ran over to her youtube to see what the hype was about only to find a woman with thin ends, sparse edges, and hair that looked as rough as mine did back when my hair was at its worst because I was abusing it with heat. I do understand that many women here have never had long hair, so any long hair will appeal to them. The fact is, however, that Kimmaytub needs to progress to the next step of her hair journey. Longhairdontcare2011 is someone who gets this next step and we see the difference in the two's hair. That step involves doing more than just holding on for dear life (and publicity) to every single inch and requires actually paying attention to more complex milestones such as thick ends, full edges, ridding oneself of layers that came about due to breakage and not deliberate layering etc. Yes, I said breakage. Regardless of what she might say and her hair length, Kimmaytube's sparse ends speak of breakage. Not all breakage prevents one from reaching hair length goals; medium amounts of breakage just create stringy ends.
My hair looked like Kimmaytube's a little over two years after I went natural. Rather than thinking I had something amazing, I saw that I still had work to do. I held my hair at the same length for about a year, trimming 1/2" every month until my hair was thick from root to tip and every single layer hit midback length.
Then I grew it out more. Right now, the very back of Kimmaytube's hair might be midback (she's not waist regardless of what she says), but I wouldn't be surprised if her crown is only armpit length, thus contributing to the thin ends that we see now. All of this might be blasphemy to those who care about length and length only, but Kimmaytube is going to need a lot more work to impress those who know the difference between hair like hers and hair like Longhairdontcare2011's, for instance.
I hope people understand now why some of us are just not impressed. Even if she was sweet and bubbly, I still would say the same thing.