Do you personally know anyone who does YouTube for a living? As you know today, more adolescent people are seeing YouTube as a future career they wish to pursue. Seeing famous YouTubers own billion dollar houses with many sports cars, luxury designer bags, and going on exotic vacations has been catching the attention of YouTube users and inspiring them to start their very own channel.

Seeing the richness YouTube can offer to people of all ages has influenced younger kids to make money by filming their live videos and publicly posting them on the internet for the world to see. Which is why you may see people walking into stores and restaurants filming their thoughts and reviews about their own experiences. Although food reviews aren’t the only videos one may make, the categories can vary from each and every passion that the YouTuber may have. Some students are most passionate about posting makeup tutorials, gaming videos, vlogs, mukbangs, ect. Having your own YouTube channel allows the student to express any interests, memories, and accomplishments they wish to share.

To this day, YouTube gives the freedom to create a sense of community with a highly diverse fan base. This is how some high school students are creating their own fan base from a wide audience. This reporter, Karina Gonzalez, interviewed a senior at Birmingham Charter High School named Kimberly Sandoval, who does YouTube as a high school student.

Kimberly started in October 2018, with the hobby of liking to make short video clips on family trips. She fell in love with the idea of editing and capturing memories. At first, Kimberly was scared to post her “Get to know me” video on YouTube for the first time, but after talking to her close friends, she gained the confidence to post it no matter what people thought of her.

Kimberly looked up to older and more famous YouTubers like David Dobrik, who made short five-minute videos containing the funniest content he had to share. Which is why Sandoval had the motivation t0 make people laugh all around the world–just like how David does today. Although editing is the hardest part about being a YouTuber, knowing the viewers have had a laugh brought much joy to Kimberly after long hours of editing. To add on to this, Kimberly also claims the time management and pressure to post are other obstacles she faces as a high school student.  This is all due to balancing school work with extracurricular work.

After a year of doing YouTube, Kimberly hopes to pursue the joy and laughter she brings to her viewers and make connections to be friends with famous Hollywood stars. Kimberly wishes to walk down the street and be recognized as someone who is well-known for being the amazing person she is–whether that is on or off camera. Just like her YouTube role models are famous such as: Bretmen Rock, David Dobrik, and Bethany Mota. Along with the recognition, Kimberly hopes to build a career from what she loves doing most in order to become a movie director or editor.

As the interview came to an end, Kimberly stated, “If you wish to start a YouTube channel, just go for it! Who cares what people think! People may dislike your videos, but there will be more who like them. Forget the haters and take chances. It’s better to give it a shot, than not try at all”.

If you would like to visit and/or subscribe to Kimberly’s channel, click the link here: Kim Sandoval’s YouTube Channel Link