Take 5: YouTube 24/7

If you spend any time with Tweens, you know that they are obsessed – OBSESSED – with YouTube. And Vine and Instagram. But seriously, YouTube. When The Tween’s friends come over their favorite thing to do is sit around and watch YouTube videos. YouTube – and social media in general – is so popular that the Teen Choice Awards recently added several categories giving out awards to a new type of star that has circumvented traditional pathways to superstardom. 

And although there are some legitimate concerns about tweens and teens using social media, particularly about things like online privacy, digital footprints and online bullying (cyberbullying), social media is also allowing teens to be creative, learn technology skills, think proactively, and take initiative. 

Here are a few YouTubers that are super popular, and you can find a full list of the Teen Choice Award social media nominees at SugarScape to get more information on who is popular right now.

Bunny

Bunny goes by the handle Grav3yardgirl. She is a woman in her 20s (almost 30s) who shoots a variety of YouTube videos including a segment called Follow Me Around and Does It Really Work. For the follow me around segments, she literally goes into a store and you follow her around. And for the does it really work segment she tests out various products to see – you guessed it – if it really works. Here she is testing out the Soda Stream product:

Bethany Mota


Bethany Mota is a teen and fashion blogger from California. She is so popular she has a line of clothing at Aeropostale and she recently guest judged on Project Runway. I know this because we watch PR every week and as they panned over the guest judges The Tween squealed, I think that’s Bethany Mota. She was instantly recognized. You can visit here channel here.

Ricky Dillon

The Tween and her best friend are in lurve with Ricky Dillon in the same way that many others are screaming over 5 Seconds of Summer and One Direction. He was one of the award winners at the Teen Choice Awards. You can see his YouTube channel here.

Jack and Jack

Jack and Jack are teenage comedians who were recently featured on the Teen Choice Awards. They have a draw bigger than many of the music and film stars that the media celebrates. You can see their YouTube channel here.

Challenges, challenges everywhere

I know the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has kind of taken the world by storm, but the truth is challenges of all sorts are kind of a big deal on YouTube. This is how The Tweens in my library spend their time, doing the challenges and watching them. There is a smoothie challenge, where you mix gross things together and have to drink it. The blindfold make-up challenge, which is all the rage in my household. You basically blindfold yourself and put make-up on someone. Yes, even I have been on the receiving end of an epically bad make-up. If you do a YouTube search for the word “challenge” a big list will come up. Abandon your fear and put some tarps on the library floor and you could have a challenge day at the library. But if the weather is nice, I recommend going outside. Seriously, some of them can get messy and a lot of them require being willing to trustingly allow others to put gross food in your mouth.

This is what happens when you do the Blindfold Make-Up Challenge on your 5-year-old sister

There is a new documentary out called Instafame: A Documentary About A Teen’s Relationship With Social Media Fame that highlights the way ordinary teens are rising to fame quickly and in nontraditional ways thanks to the reach of social media. There is a lot of attention in the press about the sudden rise of social media fame among teens, which is definitely something I am paying attention to both as a parent and a librarian. The Tween and her friend spent the night brainstorming recently about starting their own YouTube channel. I eventually told them they could do crafts from books to see if the instructions were easy to follow on this blog and that they had to use nicknames. They spent the rest of the night coming up with names, mascots, etc. It will be interesting to see if they will follow through or if they move on to the next trend quickly.

And although I spend a lot of time telling The Tween to put down her phone and go outside and play, I keep reminding myself that I used to spend an inordinate amount of time watching MTV to see which video would come on next. And yes, I am old enough to remember when MTV still played music videos. So I guess I’m not freaking out about watching YouTube too much, because everything I see these tweens doing I know we did it all before, just in slightly different ways. 

What are you tweens and teens obsessing over on YouTube? Share in the comments.

Filed under: Bethany Mota, Bunny, Challenges, Ice Bucket Challenge, Jack and Jack, Pop Culture, Ricky Dillon, Social Media, YouTube