Blog #7: Kid Influencer

Blog #7: Kid Influencer

       Brianna’s World, also known as “BZCUTECUPCAKES”, is a young YouTube star who is famous for her hauls, Play-Doh videos, vlogs, and many more. Scrolling through Brianna’s YouTube, it appears that she has grown up making videos. Her very first video was posted on August 11, 2013, while her most recent video was posted on April 8, 2020. Brianna has also acquired a following of 1.82 million subscribers on YouTube. With her large following and time span on the platform, I questioned if this was detrimental to Brianna’s childhood. Scheinbaum (2018) states that “consumers may be engaging too much with digital platforms- including but not limited to social media (pg. 5). Scheinbaum’s text is relevant to Brianna because of her substantial time on YouTube. With Brianna starting on YouTube at such a young age, this could have negatively affected her childhood. I attempted to look for a video of her address any concepts about her life, but all of her videos are joyful and upbeat. It is clear that her videos are intended to be for entertainment because of the surface level material that is shared about her life. 

             Brianna has a wide variety of content on her channel. Her content has gradually shifted over the years from her famous weekly Play-Doh videos, to recently having more of a “vlog style” or “daily routine” videos. One of her older videos, “Tuesday Play-Doh Kitchen Creations”, was an entire video on her using Play-Doh molds to make fruits and vegetables. This content would be appealing to children because of Brianna’s simplistic aspect of her videos. For example, most children have some sort of “Play-Doh” laying around their house and could follow along with Brianna as she forms numerous shapes. This particular video gained 58,041 views. Brianna’s older videos often reached up to 1 million views with similar content such as play with Play-Doh. Other children may be interested in her content just because of the numerous toys that are mentioned and shown throughout her videos. I often catch myself looking at videos of particular products (makeup, clothes, etc…) wanting to have a better look at it before purchasing it. This tactic could be similar to a child wanting a particular toy that Brianna shows on her channel.

            Another concept about Brianna’s channel that I found interesting is her comment section. Her recent videos are the only ones who have the comment section turned on. She interacts with other users and fans by liking comments and occasionally replying to them. Brianna’s older videos have comments turned off to other users. I believe that this was a strategy to avoid negative confrontation from other users. Although this strategy could be effective to avoid horrible comments, placing a young child on such a large platform is opening them up to negative feedback. Sheinbaum (2018) mentions that social media “provides a visible platform to expose some consumers’ questionable emotional intelligence via the nature of the comments and photos they choose to post” (pg. 8). In relation to a child having a large social media platform, this could essentially damage any sense of a “normal” childhood. Although, Brianna’s mother seemed very active on her daughters’ channel. In older videos, her mother appeared on many of her videos. 

            Brianna’s most recent content deals with more “teenager topics”. For example, she includes Q & A’s, GRWM, vlogs, and occasional hauls. In a video posted on March 30, 2020, called "A GRWM + IG Q&A", she is putting on makeup and answering questions her Instagram followers have asked her. Many of the comments event state something along the lines of “Wow, I’ve been watching you for so long. You’re so much older now”. This is another negative concept of “growing up” on such a large platform because some viewers associate specific content with creators. If a creator changes their “image” or specific content they produce, some followers may ultimately reject them. Something similar happened to another YouTuber, Jake Paul because he was producing different content. He mentioned how sometimes he felt as if he was letting his audience down because they weren’t receiving the “Jake they once knew”. Similar to Jake’s experience, Brianna is able to face with similar feedback because of her long amount of time on YouTube. 

            Overall, there are both positive and negative effects of children gaining a large following base on social media. Brianna has grown over the years and including a large variety of content for her viewers. Her shift in content can cause a positive or negative reaction to her new content. I have been watching YouTube for a long time and coming across a young creator is so refreshing to see. Brianna’s positive attitude and uplifting videos are what attract viewers to her content. Although starting on social media at a young change can have negative effects, it can also be an outlet for young individual to express their creativity in a different way.

References: 

Stroud, S. & Henson, J. (2018). The dark side of social media. In Angeline Close Scheinbaum (Ed.), The dark side of social media: A consumer psychology perspective (pg. 3-10). Routledge.