My 7-Year-Old Sister Wants to Be a Youtuber

When my sister, who is about to turn eight years old, asked me if I could make her a Youtube channel, I thought she was just joking. She had just taken my phone and found that I had posted a few Youtube videos from past travels. According to her, that was enough to make me a Youtuber. She wanted to become one too.

I did not think this could become something yet I sat down to help her set up her new account. The first thing we were asked to fill in was the name of the channel. As I was already trying to come up with ideas to suggest her, she said ‘Cupcake TheGamer’. She looked so confident that I could not contest her choice. From that moment I knew I had to take this new passion of hers seriously.

So we moved on to the next stage of making her Youtube channel - recording. To my ongoing surprise, she knew everything she wanted. I was attacked with requests - ‘Can you make it so my face is in the corner?’ ‘Can we create an intro with my Youtube name?’ For her, this was a medium of self-expression. She had watched many videos before, and just like I copied drawings from magazines when I was her age, she wanted to recreate those videos in her own way.

Now, she is officially a gamer on Youtube that plays Roblox. And I have learnt a lot. I believe that we need to teach and trust kids. I talked to my sister about how she should respond to comments and how she should not reveal her personal information. Yet when I suggested to put her name in the beginning of the video it was not me but her who said that her name should be revealed.

While I still worry that she spends too much time online, I now see it as a new platform for kids to explore their creativity. Maybe more kids should be encouraged to create their own videos instead of just consuming others’ content.