The Danger of Seeking YouTube Celebrity

Elle Mills is a twenty-four year old who became a YouTube celebrity when she was only twelve-years-old. Over time, she had one-point-seven-million subscribers, one-point-eight-million total followers, and one-hundred-and-fifty-five million views. But after twelve years of being validated through the addicting high of gaining the numbers, she shut it all down because of the hard-hitting reality of the lows. In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, Mills sends out a warning to parents and young youtube celebrity wannabes about the addicting nature of seeking and getting attention. She writes, “The peak of my YouTube career didn’t always match my childhood fantasy of what this sort of fame might look like. Instead, I was constantly terrified of losing my audience and the validation that came with it. My self-worth had become so intertwined with my career that maintaining it genuinely felt life-or-death.” Parents, point your kids to glorifying God rather than themselves.