Blog #7

The Positives and Negatives of Kid Influencers 

When I think about influencers, kids are definitely not the first people I think of. I think of the fashion, fitness, and foodies you see all over Instagram that are at least 18 years old. However, kids being influencers makes a lot of sense, especially with how popular YouTube is for that age group. Kid influencers are mainly known for toy reviews, hauls, DIYS, game reviews, and vlogs. Brianna’s World, also known as BZCUTECUPCAKES is a prime example of kid influencer. Currently, Brianna has 1.82 Million subscribers and has been making videos for 6 years now. 

Brianna Buchannan is now 14 years old and is still creating Youtube videos however, what she’s making has changed. When BZCUTECUPCAKES or Brianna’s World began on August 9^th, 2013, Brianna made videos of her doing crafts, reviewing toys, and eventually started weekly series like” Tuesday Play-Doh”, “Monday Bling Bag Bin” and “Giant Balloon Surprise”. These videos are pretty similar to what other kids are doing with their YouTube channels and its clear through engagement with the videos that kids also love watching these. As Brianna has gotten older, her videos have changed and matured. I’m sure that her viewers are the same age or similar to her so, to keep being successful, she had to change the of videos she made. Now when you look at her channel videos like “What’s on my iPhone” and vlogs are much more common. She discusses her morning routines, life hacks, school related topics, makeup, and makes engaging vlogs. 

 

I noticed that Brianna does not interact with her followers that much on her Channel however, she produces pretty frequent content to keep her fans engaged. I noticed from scrolling through her channel and watching a little bit of a few videos that she definitely makes money from her channel now because there are sponsored videos and ads throughout her longer vlogs. So, even though she doesn’t not reply in comments much, she is still keeping fans engaged and been able to make this into a business. Because of this, Brianna is not only an influencer, she has also become an affluencer. Smith (2012) described an affluencer as someone who influences others of consumer products and she clearly does this in her more recent videos, especially her sponsored makeup ones. Even though she has sponsored content, Brianna’s videos still resonate with children and it most likely is from the authenticity she showed right away. Her initial videos she introduced stuffed animals, showed popular toys, and did crafts other kids her age wanted to do. This authenticity has stayed as she grew up and grew with her audience. This authenticity that she shows has even translated to her showing that there are dark sides of creating content like this at such a young age and that she has been a victim of some online bullying. 

No matter what age, it is clear that internet trolls will find you and put you and your content down. It is evident on every platform that there is a dark side of the internet and a lot of negativity can come from the anonymity in the comments sections. Child influencers can be very susceptive to cyberbullying or digital drama, as discussed by Scheeinbaum (2017) because they have not been socialized to properly handle these conflicts yet. Hate comments coming from other children or teens can have great effects on the mental health of a child and because these children are so seen in the public, they have a greater potential of receiving these comments. I think there can also be danger from sharing so much information about yourself online at such a young age. We spoke about in class that in many cases we learn how to behave and act properly in social situations like school, and even learn online safety in school but, when kids start becoming online influencers at such young ages they may not already have those skills. However, if parents are watching the child’s content and monitoring their comment sections and messages when they are young I think it can still be beneficial. 

 

Overall, I think Brianna has been able to successfully grow-up online while sharing the fun parts of her life with people her age. I know that if I was her age I definitely would watch her videos and probably find her very entertaining because she has such a bubbly and positive attitude. I think her attitude has led her to success online and is why she has kept such a large fanbase at such a young age. It is honestly refreshing seeing younger creators and seeing them grow up online, hopefully kids with her attitude continue to emerge as the kid influencer market continues to grow. Since social media can have negative effects on a child’s mental health and self confidence, I think it is still very important that parents are involved in their child’s viewing and creating of content. The internet does have a dark side but being taught about it or trying to prevent it is something that can be done and is very important to be done. I think kids watching kids their own age act as influencers is not dangerous in any way, I personally just would have wanted a lot more toys I didn’t know about. 

References 

Scheeinbaum, A. C. (2017). From digital drama to over engagement: In the dark side of social media: A consumer psychology perspective. (Edited by Angeline Close Scheeinbaum). Routledge. 

Smith, E. C. (2012) “Affluencers” by bravo: Defining an audience through cross-promotion, popular communication, Popular Communication10:4, 286-301. doi:10.1080/15405702.2012.715327