The website YouTube has been around for almost 10 years, and while it might be a go-to for music and videos of kittens, a whole wide world is teeming beneath the surface, with a unique culture and online celebrities who are so popular, we might as well just call them celebrities.
And many of these famous folks are kids.
Teens and tweens, increasingly outfitted with smartphones, tablets and laptops, are finding a following on YouTube by producing and starring in their own instructional or entertainment videos. Social-media savvy and more comfortable with cameras than their parents, they don’t need Hollywood to do their thing—or find an audience.
Hannah Thomas of Phoenix is only 9 years old, but when she isn’t busy being a carefree child, she loves to film videos for her YouTube channel. With long blonde hair, round glasses and a surprisingly large vocabulary, Hannah likes to craft tutorials on hairstyles and makeup application with her grandmother as a guest.
She describes a nail polish as “Cinderella blue” and is patient and thoughtful with her audience behind the camera when demonstrating a fishtail braid. And while her channel has only been active about a month, Hannah already has 10 videos up, with everything from DIY craft projects to shopping “hauls” with her cousin.
How does a child make her way onto YouTube? Hannah’s mom Chrissy says it was all her daughter’s idea.
Chrissy describes Hannah as outgoing and friendly, and it’s clear from watching her videos that she is a natural. Hannah is talkative and engaging, with plenty of eye contact and a confidence most adults can’t muster.
While Chrissy Thomas blogs about everything beauty related, her daughter, 9-year-old Hannah, is taking after her mother, digitally speaking, by populating her YouTube channel with videos of everything from makeup application advice to craft projects. Photo by Chrissy Thomas
“I don’t even have to prompt her or help guide her through what she’s going to say. She is really great in front of the camera, and I basically sit behind the camera and prompt her when to start. Once she’s done, she signs off,” Chrissy says.
Chrissy is a stay-at-home mom with a passion for beauty and cosmetics. A fan of beauty gurus on YouTube herself, Chrissy helps Hannah by recording her videos, editing them and uploading them to the site.
She says they usually record on Saturday or Sunday mornings to catch the best lighting. Hannah even has her own filming area set up in her baby brother’s bedroom. Her mini set is adorned with candles and makeup brushes and other girly accessories. Aside from the initial help, Chrissy says Hannah creates the content all on her own.
“Whatever she is interested in, she does,” Chrissy says. “The first video we did, I just sat there kind of in awe at how well she comes across and carries herself. (She was) having fun with it and not getting flustered or trying to come up with something to say. It came naturally.”
Hannah comes up with her own video ideas, which include a tutorial on how to make lipstick from crayons.
Hannah and her mother both watch popular beauty experts such as Ingrid Nilsen (better known as missglamorazzi), Jaclyn Hill and Nicole Guerriero. Hannah also likes to watch Cute Girls Hairstyles for hair inspiration. These girls have millions of subscribers, and their influence is astounding.
But while all of these YouTube stars are older than Hannah, Chrissy doesn’t worry about her daughter being too young to have her own online channel.
“I knew that she was ready, and she’s always been mature for her age. It was never really a question to me about if she could handle it or if she was ready for it, because she’s got a good head on her shoulders,” says Chrissy. “She gets really good grades. She doesn’t hang out with trouble kids.”
Beyond school and her channel, Hannah is also a cheerleader through Young Champions of America and has won both regional and state championships. Hannah knows that her makeup looks have to be age appropriate with “light colors and light application.” She is now planning her next videos that have nothing to do with makeup and everything to do with back-to-school shopping and “My Little Pony.”
Chrissy herself has been a blogger for about eight years, so watching Hannah take on vlogging (video blogging) seems natural. So far the feedback has been positive, and Hannah’s best friend is actually “pretty jealous” of her for having her own YouTube channel, but her mom says that it is not for everyone.
“It is really based on your personality,” Chrissy says. “If you have the type of personality where you like teaching people or sharing your experiences or helping other people, it would be a fantastic thing to have a blog or a YouTube channel. For people who don’t want every aspect of their lives shared online, then a YouTube channel is probably not the way to go,” Chrissy says.
The beauty community on YouTube is only one subsection of the website’s user-generated content. The top vloggers easily make enough to live off of their YouTube channels, and those with enough followers also get brand deals with companies that want to place themselves in front of their loyal viewers.
Hannah is still growing her subscription base, and while she is only heading into the fourth grade, her mom hopes she keeps up her channel.
“It is something that can change and evolve as her interests change,” she says.
Just Go for It
No other website has been able to monopolize on the phenomenon of online connectivity as well as YouTube, where more than 6 billion hours of video are watched each month. That is almost an hour for every person on Earth.
YouTube reaches more U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 34 than any cable network, according to Nielsen.
The secret to YouTube’s success is its “social” aspect, says Kelly Day, chief digital officer for AwesomenessTV, a youth-oriented multiplatform media company with 86,000 channels, 50 million subscribers and 1 billion views per month.
“It’s about building a relationship between the channel and the audience,” Day says. “I think the reason why teenagers in particular spend a lot of time on YouTube is they feel a very personal connection to the people who are on camera, to the people who are creating the channel themselves. So whether it be through YouTube or commenting, you can build a relationship with the on-air personality.”
The beauty of YouTube, she says, is that anyone can get into it without spending much money or having an arsenal of professional skills. The best way to learn is to just go for it.
“You don’t have to buy a lot off stuff. It’s about expressing yourself and your creativity and doing what feels natural to you and really connecting with the audience,” Day says.
Sketch Comedy
Some YouTubers have grown up in front of a camera, and their viewers have grown up with them. Such is the case of Lia Marie Johnson, a 17-year-old California actress, singer and online personality with over a million subscribers and more than 56 million views. A cheerful girl with plenty of jokes and crazy faces, she doesn’t mind putting on wigs and beards to get a laugh.
Seventeen-year-old Lia Marie Johnson was cast in the YouTube series “Kids React” after her mom uploaded some videos of her singing and being goofy. Photo courtesy AwesomenessTV
Johnson sings, chats and performs sketches on her self-titled channel, where she impersonates Miley Cyrus and her own character, Terry the Tomboy. Johnson says it was actually her mother who started uploading videos of her singing on YouTube. These are still online in her archives, even though, Johnson says, she can’t watch them herself.
It was soon after mom’s posts that Johnson was cast in a YouTube series called Kids React, by Benny and Rafi Fine, a.k.a. The Fine Bros, which has more than 9 million subscribers and nearly 2 billion views. Johnson’s popularity and success have even catapulted her into television, where earlier this summer her movie, “Terry the Tomboy: The Movie,” debuted on Nickelodeon. And she still uploads a new video every Saturday.
“It’s hard. I’m very, very busy for being so young,” Johnson says. “I actually graduated high school early so I didn’t have to go to school this year, and I’m going to start college soon. I work almost every single day and it’s a lot. It was a lot with school, but you make time for you, and you really cherish those moments you have with your friends and stuff.”
Channel Building
Johnson is a part of AwesomenessTV, which was recently acquired by DreamWorks Animation for $33 million. Day says the YouTubers with the most influence and following put a lot of work into building their channel.
“They spend a lot of time planning their videos and really thinking about what the videos are going to be, and writing them and story-boarding them out,” Day says. “They spend time on their graphics, like their end cards, and making those look really good. A lot of them create a lot of videos. Some will only do one a week, but a lot of them are creating multiple a week. There’s really a lot of work that goes into it. If you get that right connection with the audience it can take off pretty quickly.”
Day says these content creators have meaningful influence over large audiences, and potentially make a lot of money though through AdSense revenue. And the trend of teens with their own vlogs will only grow with personal media consumption on phones and tablets.
“If you look at the way teens and tweens consume media, they all sit in a room together, and they all have their own device in front of them,” Day says.
“TV is social, it’s a social experience, and they like the social aspect of it, but they like it on their own personal device. That is a massive trend across media and across the board, and we see that reflected in what’s happening on YouTube and even platforms like Vine.”
Mobile viewing actually makes up almost 40 percent of YouTube’s global watch time, and what Day calls “shorter, snackable content” is ideal for a mobile experience. At AwesomenessTV, staffers seek out young talent with the potential to grow, providing resources to help them along the way.
“We try to be as inclusive as possible,” Day says. “We work with talent that are very much up and coming who have relatively small channels…You can only have a couple hundred or thousand subscribers, and you are more than welcome to join our network.”
Day applauds parents who nurture their children’s interest in the medium.
“If your child is really into creating videos, really creative or really funny or is a really amazing singer or something like that, we love to see parents encourage that in their kids. Especially if it’s something that your child or teenager enjoys, and it seems like they’re having a lot of fun,” she says.
When it comes to advice for up-and-coming vloggers, Johnson’s main tip is to be genuine. “Try your best and put out really good videos, and if you don’t think it’s your best, don’t put it out there. YouTube is all about being yourself, so make jokes you would make because other people are going to relate to those jokes.”
Johnson is working on her music career and plans to release an EP soon, but no matter where she goes in her career, she plans on bringing her channel along with her.
“I don’t think I’m going to ever stop making YouTube videos,” she says. “It’s just a part of my life, and it’s where I started, so I wouldn’t want to leave it.”