GRACE Mulgrew made a YouTube video when she was six years old.
“It was called ‘Barbie — Anneliese’s New House’, said Grace.
“It was just a video of me doing a tour of my Barbie doll house. I only did it for fun because I liked watching other people’s YouTube videos and thought it would be cool to make my own.”
It was so much fun, she kept making videos.
Four years later, her main YouTube channel, Grace’s World, has 659,711 subscribers* and 608,844,185 video views. Her other channel is called Grace’s Room, with a respectable* 60,209 subscribers.
It’s difficult to get detailed YouTube data, but Grace’s father Greg Mulgrew estimates* she’s one of the top two or three most popular YouTube child stars in Australia. Social media statistics* website Social Blade ranks Grace’s World as the 13th YouTube channel in the country based on current performance, including recent views and subscribers.
Big-time YouTube channels around the world starring children or made, at least in part, by children, include Ryan Toys Review, with 3 million subscribers, and EvanTubeHD, with more than 3.77 million subscribers. There’s no compulsory* categorising* of sites, so it’s almost impossible for anyone to make lists ranking channels of particular types. The majority of the most popular channels feature toddlers and younger primary-school-age children unboxing toys. The videos in these cases would be made by adults.
Video’s on Grace’s World star Grace’s toys, mostly Barbie and Amercian Girl dolls, going about day-to-day life. A bit like a weekly soap*. Grace writes the stories, moves the dolls into position in front of a green screen, records the voice-over and does some basic editing. Then it’s over to dad Greg.
Greg Mulgrew estimates each video takes 30-40 hours to make. He was juggling fulltime work as a computer programmer with his editing for Grace’s World but after “a lot of 3 o’clock in the mornings”, he gave up his job of 30 years two weeks ago to work on Grace’s videos full time.
Though Mr Mulgrew won’t disclose* how much the family makes from the YouTube channels, he will admit that it’s making money. “It replaces my salary,” he said.
“We don’t like to discuss money as we’re worried about what people would say.”
Whatever the income is now, the sky is the limit if Grace’s popularity continues.
“At the moment the income is from YouTube but now that she is getting popular she is being asked to do videos,” Mr Mulgrew said. She is now an ambassador for Shopkins, a toy line by Cheltenham-based toy company Moose Toys. The company previously had a hit with Trash Packs. Grace has also been approached about a promotional* role for the upcoming Trolls movie.
“All that’s starting to happen,” says Mr Mulgrew. “We are feeling our way.”
Grace spends about 20 hours a week on her YouTube work. Keeping Grace from feeling pressure is something her father takes seriously.
“She does gymnastics and she’s about to start dancing. We don’t want what she’s doing to interfere with (other activities). There’s a lot of pressure from fans to make sure we post every week.
“We’ve knocked back a few things. She has been asked to do a TV series but she’s not ready for that kind of pressure. If it is something cheesy we have knocked it back. We ask her: ‘Do you feel comfortable doing it?’ If she has any doubt we don’t do it.”
Grace has a straightforward reason for continuing.
“I love dolls, reading and writing stories, and YouTube. Making these videos lets me do all of these, so I’m actually having fun creating them.
“My favourite video is probably ‘Barbie — The Trouble with Toddlers’. I thought of the story after seeing some friend’s children misbehaving at the supermarket. I can still picture it and it makes me laugh every time I watch the video.
“I’ve realised recently how much my videos inspire and help other people around the world, and that makes me feel good.”
See Grace Mulgrew's chats to Today about her video series on Youtube below...
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