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Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How Creators Smosh and Dhar Mann Are Building Hollywood-Level Brands
VidCon 2025 honored some of the creator industry's most celebrated voices in an inaugural Hall of ... More Fame ceremony (Photo by Zahin Hasan). The content creator industry continues to grow into an inescapable corner of popular media, especially as reports show how some viewers are spending more of their time with digital creators and less of it with traditional studios. And so, at this year's VidCon, the annual Anaheim convention serving as the center of the creator industry, attendees were abuzz over how traditional and digital will continue to cross paths, clash or learn to find space together. While many content creators seek to work alongside traditional media companies, others have begun building institutions with a sophistication and reach that can be reasonably seen as matching their more established peers. According to VidCon Vice President and Business Lead Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo, this comparison is only to be expected given the advancing levels of quality coming from some of the biggest and most successful content creators. 'They're building their own companies and their own studios that I think are starting, and will continue, to rival traditional Hollywood studios because of the kind of content that they're churning out and the level of content,' Colosimo said. So, this year at VidCon I spoke to the leaders of two of the digital world's biggest content brands to learn more about how they see themselves, and how they view their relationship to Hollywood. Ian Hecox, one of the famed founders of the digital-first comedy brand Smosh, tells me that when he and co-founder Anthony Padilla started things over twenty years ago, the ambition was not necessarily to build a large media company. But that was mostly because, he tells me, such a thing was hardly fathomable on early 2000s YouTube. 'There was no way to make money on YouTube when we started, so it was really just something we enjoyed doing. We did see that we were growing an audience, so we felt like there was something there,' Hecox said. Smosh's co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla celebrate being inducted into VidCon's Hall of ... More Fame (Photo by Zahin Hasan). But then, as the channel grew, and as formal business structures arose, those in charge crafted out a clearer ambition for what this could be. And now, while this idea is informal, Hecox and Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese tell me how they often bring up the idea that Smosh is the digital version of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Today, Smosh is one of the most well-known brands on the internet, with the main Smosh YouTube channel boasting nearly 27 million subscribers, and the brands' various spinoff channels bringing in millions more. This year, they were also inducted into VidCon's Hall of Fame in an inaugural ceremony. Smosh has also expanded far beyond its initial comedy duo, now regularly featuring a cast of rising digital comedians who star in videos, hone their craft and grow along with the brand much in the way that young comedians rise over on SNL. However, while Catanese brought up the SNL comparison herself, she also made it clear that they do not view this as a competition between themselves and any traditional media counterpart. Instead, she describes how the relationship is similar to how creators often cheer on the success of other creators. And that is, rather than competition, the point: to establish themselves as true peers. 'We don't think we're going to 'beat' SNL. Our goal isn't to be better than SNL. Our goal is to be respected and in the same rooms as those people,' Catanese said. Now, another force in digital media, and one regularly brought up in comparisons to traditional, is of course the force that is Dhar Mann Studios. When asked about his ambitions for his media company Dhar Mann, the brand's founder and central face, described to me how, years ago, he'd read an article about how visitors to Tyler Perry's studios had to use golf carts to move around due to the sheer size of the facility. And, while reading this, he recalled imagining how amazing it would be to build something like that too. And then, Mann tells me, after years of dedicated building, one day he found himself on a golf cart navigating through his own studio. And it hit him how he'd made that dream a reality. Today, Dhar Mann Studios operates out of a 125,000 square foot production facility in Burbank, where he and his team of nearly 200 people write, film and produce short, uplifting narrative videos to inspire viewers and impart positive lessons to his audience of nearly 26 million subscribers on YouTube. Dhar Mann also recently again earned the #2 spot on the Forbes Top Creators List. Dhar Mann with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan (Photo byfor YouTube). And, for Dhar Mann, the comparisons to traditional Hollywood are not only top of mind, but key to how he defines future goals. That is, he tells me while he is honored by creator-centric milestones and awards, he also has larger ambitions in mind. 'It doesn't escape me that in the time that we've sat here doing this interview, in the couple minutes we have, Disney has made more revenue than we did all of last year. So I don't compare myself to other creators on some lists. I compare myself to other massive media companies,' Mann said. Sean Atkins, CEO at Dhar Mann studios, leans into the Hollywood comparison as well, but emphasizes how differently they do things at their company. In particular, he points out how the speed and efficiency with which they operate outpaces the traditional Hollywood model. 'It's just a very different velocity because of the way that they're [Dhar Mann Studios] architected to be nimble, but also because they're direct to their audience the entire time,' Atkins said. Atkins describes a moment when that speed of output particularly astounded him. On one Monday in November, he pitched to Mann that they should make a Christmas film. Now, from Atkins' experience in traditional media, this kind of initial conversation would be the beginning of a two to three year process. But things happened differently at Dhar Mann studios. Because here, the very next day Dhar Mann and Atkins brainstormed ideas. Then on the day after they had a writer working, and after that they moved into production just 30 days later. For Atkins, that kind of ability to action on an idea and get the story to the audiences quickly makes what they're doing different and powerful. VidCon 2025 celebrated 20 years of YouTube (Photo by Zahin Hasan). These are only two examples. But with the likes of Smosh and Dhar Mann Studios building systems to make quality content rivaling Hollywood, we might ask, at a certain point, where is the distinction between established Hollywood and creator-centric content? The answer, from experts of the space, might be that we have to keep watching. 'There has been and will continue to be blurred lines between traditional entertainment and the creator ecosystem, and I think it goes two ways,' VidCon's Sarah Tortoreti Colosimo said. That is, both sides of this are interested in learning from what the other is doing. And that is also, Colosimo tells me, a big part of why representatives from both parties come to VidCon. And that's something she hopes will continue. Smosh CEO Alessandra Catanese told me how, while their brand is focused primarily on expanding current efforts and serving their audience, they are also interested in working with traditional studios, and collaborating with their traditional talent teams to expand Smosh's IP into things like animation, shows and more. Atkins, as well, made it clear to me that this is not a case of traditional media needing to lose in order for them to win. In fact, he described how new mediums have always been erroneously pitted against each other: Theater against film, film against TV, TV against cable and others. But, he notes, in the long term all those mediums survived, they just perhaps had to adapt. And that work is what we're seeing now. Dhar Mann offered an analogy to describe how he sees things working. He told me he sees Hollywood, with its legacy and established infrastructure, as a river. And then, he described the content creator world, with its skills in disruption and young talent, as another river. And, for him, the mission is about combining both. 'When those two rivers come together and converge into one, the current becomes ten times stronger. And so that's ultimately what we're doing, is trying to become the bridge between new and old Hollywood. Because each one has so many incredible things to offer,' Mann said. For more on the creator economy, movies and TV, follow my page on Forbes. You can also find me on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Threads.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The internet's most famous people converged in 1 place and it all was captured on video: Inside my trip to VidCon
I spent a frenetic weekend at a convention center in Anaheim, California, in June, immersed among content creators and their rabid fans. VidCon, 15 years after its inception, is still a hotbed for influencers — and discussions about how they impact pop culture and turn social media into prosperous careers. I kept a diary of my time mingling with online celebrities and the people who keep the creator economy afloat. It was sometimes glamorous, oftentimes scrappy and always fascinating, just like the internet itself. Let's talk about it. Much of the vibe of VidCon is set by the palm tree-lined street outside the Anaheim Convention Center, where vendors line up to sell you food from a truck or guide you through the line for a photo opp. This year, there were Minecraft topiaries in honor of the game's mainstream success through its movie adaptation, a box sponsored by horror production company Blumhouse which participants could enter to scream at the top of their lungs and a huge rainbow banner celebrating YouTube's 20th anniversary that was positioned over a small house at the intersection of 'Subscribe Street' and 'Like Lane.' It rivaled Disneyland, which was also visible from the window of my nearby hotel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by VidCon (@vidcon) Everyone was filming all the time — including me and Yahoo video producer Sam Matthews. As we walked through the convention center, we saw a girl dressed as Wednesday Adams do an elaborately choreographed dance in the middle of the floor, declaring, 'I was just kidding' to the crowd that had formed by the time she finished. We saw another huge gathering of people formed around dozens of influencers holding their phones to their faces, lip-syncing to a song we couldn't hear with perfect synchronicity. There was also a huge line of kids forming to take photos with a man dressed as The Lorax, who was giving instructions on how to pose and interact with him. None of this was sanctioned, but it wasn't forbidden, either. The sprawling expo hall in the convention center's grandest ballroom was extremely popular for attendees. There, amid lines of people waiting for meet and greets with their favorite creators or big events hosted on a mainstage, was a smorgasbord of all the finest collectibles. The little stuffed monsters known as Labubus were clipped to the purses and belt loops of every tenth person I saw. I formed a bond with a person in a Furby costume. Another ultra-popular toy was the Easy Sqweezy Stretchy Banana which is literally just a big squishy banana toy that a dad told me kids like hitting each other with. There was a huge stand for mystery merch boxes, where fans could spend a few dozen dollars to get a random assortment of items related to titles like Stranger Things, Spider-Man and Star Trek. The cashier told me the most popular box is for The Goonies, but he didn't really understand why. I was part of the first generation to grow up with access to YouTube, so many of the creators honored in VidCon's Hall of Fame felt like the cool seniors who graduated when I was a freshman, though they're technically titans of media. Still, I was starstruck — more so interviewing Hank Green and Grace Helbig at the event than I was interviewing Josh Hartnett or Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the past. I was also charmed by how kind and down-to-earth the Hall-of-Famers were. Ian Hecox of Smosh talked to me for more than half an hour, and I didn't even let it slip that I used to have a crush on him. Rosanna Pansino somehow got me cake at a hotel bar when she heard it was my birthday. I've heard all these stories about how internet fame warps your sense of self and reality, but everyone I met was incredibly humble and sweet. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yahoo Entertainment (@yahooentertainment) I expected a crowd of more people my own age at the Hall of Fame ceremony, given that the honored creators had been around since the 2000s, but I was wrong. I consider myself pretty well-versed in the online world, but I felt like an explorer in the depths of an uncharted jungle. Sam and I were surrounded by children as young as 7, screaming at the top of their lungs to meme-inspired songs performed by YouTuber CG5. We were then subjected to a magic battle between two viral illusionists, Justin Flom and SeanDoesMagic. The kids behind me were screaming jokes laced with internet slang, accusing people of 'hacking' and directing questions like, 'Yo, who are these people?' to an imaginary 'chat.' They were rude to the Hall of Fame inductees, talking over their acceptance speeches, but loudly admitted that Rhett & Link are funny. Tons of people have asked me who the most popular creator at VidCon was. It wasn't the one with the longest legacy or the biggest following. It was Jmancurly, a YouTuber who almost exclusively shares videos of himself playing the virtual reality game Gorilla Tag, in which people play as legless primates. I missed his onstage appearance at the Hall of Fame ceremony, but I felt his presence everywhere. He had a giant — and I mean bigger than a house — statue of a buff torso set up in the expo hall. Kids everywhere wore his merch and lined up to play Gorilla Tag. To VidCon attendees, Jmancurly was like all four of the Beatles combined. Another popular creator duo was AJ and Big Justice, the father-son pair who went viral for the loud New Jersey accents with which they assign things ratings on a 'boom or doom' scale. They had to enter the press room for our interview through a secret door because, as their manager explained, they kept getting 'swarmed.' People begged them for photos and lined up to make videos with them, in which they would both scream and assess how many 'booms' a selfie-taker deserved. I was overjoyed when Yahoo received five big booms. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yahoo Entertainment (@yahooentertainment) AJ and Big Justice often create content with The Rizzler, an 8-year-old child influencer best known for striking comically macho poses in viral interactions with celebrities. He sadly wasn't able to attend VidCon because he opted to go to Fanatics Fest in New York City instead, to the disappointment of at least a dozen people who asked about his whereabouts. I did see someone carrying around a seemingly life-size cardboard cutout of him, though. VidCon also felt more exclusive than ever, because, much to the chagrin of fans online, it didn't livestream its panels. You just had to be there. When I went to VidCon in 2022, everyone wanted to meet an influencer. People lined up around blocks and sat in full costume for hours for the chance to see a YouTuber they adored. In 2025, everyone wanted to be an influencer. Even when lining up at panels for a chance to ask a creator a question, most wanted to know the secret to success or ask for advice on their careers. I'll never forget how many children I saw wearing T-shirts with their budding YouTube channel names printed on them. At first, I thought the designated area that linking website Pop Store had set up that offered a hospital-themed 'monetization clinic' for fresh creators hoping to make money off their content was dystopian. 'Your vibe is billable' a neon sign beckoned. After wandering through, I realized that for so many people, turning sharing what you love into a financially beneficial endeavour is an absolute dream. Who am I to judge, even if someone in a lab coat is prodding me to try my hand at a giant game of 'Operation' so they could lower my guard far down enough that I'd willingly open a website on my phone? View this post on Instagram A post shared by - Audience Ownership & Monetization Platform (@getpopstore) Luckily, content creators and other members of the creator economy were extremely eager to give advice. I gathered words of wisdom from a dozen of them. I was particularly moved by the advice from video game streamer and true crime podcast host Ericka Bozeman, who could have tossed vague platitudes at the young YouTuber who approacher her, but instead gave him an on-the-spot overhaul by helping him identify what's distinct enough to embrace about his style and come up with a new channel introduction. It feels like we only hear horror stories about children who grew up famous online, but the ones I talked to at VidCon love their lives. Big Justice, for instance, is living his dream. Avia Colette, the now-adult child of some of the first family vloggers, wouldn't have it any other way. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yahoo Entertainment (@yahooentertainment) After the success of A Minecraft Movie forced the mainstream entertainment industry to pay attention to the power of a sandbox video game, I became obsessed with untangling how it has managed to stick around for so many years. I spoke to Minecraft YouTubers with millions of subscribers about how they sustain a whole massive ecosystem of fans and content, though you've probably never heard of them. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yahoo Entertainment (@yahooentertainment) The comedy duo I was obsessed with in 2005 is still thriving, but not without their challenges. I profiled the people behind Smosh, a YouTube channel that has survived virality and brushes with career death over and over again for two decades. They told me the secret to thriving as online creators from the early internet to modern times, which hasn't been easy or normal, but it has been an incredibly fun ride. Anthony Po is the king of going viral. He thinks it's easy. You probably don't know him by name, but chances are you've seen the Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition, or videos of him eating a jar of cheese balls in front of 3,000 people in a mask. At 23, he's been a creator for about 10 years, and he said on a panel called 'From Viral Moments to Sustainable Business Models' that 'going viral is kind of easy … it's a science, almost.' He worked for YouTube's most popular creator MrBeast in 2023, where he said their goal was to have every video reach at least 300 people. 'There's a way to engineer that … you look at what exists and study culture,' he said. Po isn't into that anymore — he wants to find the authentic human element in everything he does. But it still makes him go viral. It was fascinating because I think a lot of brands might have been foaming at the mouth just to get a dash of his ability to get their products seen by so many people. Maybe he's onto something, or maybe he's just got the magic touch. I asked a lot of creators the same question: What do people get wrong about your job that you wish you could correct them on? I got a lot of the same answer: Basically, it's harder than anyone thinks. I loved VidCon cocreator Hank Green's answer, because he took things in a different direction. He never said content creation was easy, but called attention to the fact that lots of people are creators in the same way that lots of people are musicians. Not everyone's Beyoncé, but that's OK, there can only be one. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yahoo Entertainment (@yahooentertainment) Given the success of creator MrBeast's Prime Video reality series Beast Games, I thought the possibility of breaking out into the mainstream might be the talk of the town at VidCon. I was wrong. It's notoriously difficult for even the most famous online celebrities to become traditional ones, and after many years, people seem to understand that. At a panel called 'Blurred Lines: Rethinking the Relationship Between Traditional & Digitally Native Entertainment,' I was struck by something that Paul Telner, Viral Nation's head of programming, said. A former YouTuber himself, he now works with creators to develop their own original IP. 'We have an incredible roaster of talent that I really think — they are their own networks. They are their own Nickelodeon. They are their own CNN, they are their own MTV,' he said. 'I love to pair them with traditional [entertainment], because traditional, for the first time in my career, is starting to wake up to creators.' In other words, old school media like TV and movies need internet celebrities. As Telner explained, there was a time when creators would prefer to produce their own shows, maintain creative control and do so without network feedback. Now, they have more power than ever in the business. Hollywood needs access to the massive audiences of creators, and creators benefit from the budgets and production of traditional entertainment. I'm always struck by how many fans are willing to pay and line up for long periods of time for a chance to briefly meet and take a photo with their favorite creators. It solidifies, to me, that YouTubers and TikTokers are truly the next class of A-list celebrities for younger generations. Dream, the most popular Minecraft YouTuber in an already extremely popular online subculture, told me he doesn't like doing meet and greets because it's not enough time to truly make a connection with someone. On the other hand, SoupTimmy, a YouTuber who also has millions of subscribers but a more niche specialty, doesn't mind them. He posts videos of himself solving Rubik's cubes. 'I just treat them like people,' SoupTimmy told me, his fingers clutching a tiny Rubik's cube he wore on a chain around his neck. He didn't expand on that, and honestly, he didn't have to. I admit I spent most of VidCon avoiding the panels and sessions about AI like the plague, hoping to prioritize talking to creators about what actually aids their careers on a daily basis instead. I underestimated how much AI was a practical answer and not just something that big creators like MrBeast are trying to harness and share as another way to diversify their revenue. Stephanie Segev, head of creative and content at the link sharing website Hopp by Wix, tells me after VidCon that she highly recommends that creators 'embrace AI beyond ChatGPT prompts.' 'The creators who want to get a head start in 2025 are the ones truly embracing AI at a more technical level,' she says. 'A side-hustler who leans into AI can operate like a full-timer; a full-timer can run like a small agency.' If this career is really all about consistency, which I keep hearing, maybe leaning into the efficiency of AI isn't such a bad idea. Just don't get into producing AI slop — YouTube just announced it's cracking down on monetizing that. After I got back from VidCon, I joined Slate's internet culture podcast ICYMI to talk about my experience. Cohosts Candice Lim, Kate Lindsay and I declared YouTube king of the social media sites and daydreamed about how we'd change the convention. Listen here.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'A Minecraft Movie' made a beloved video game mainstream. YouTubers had already turned it into an empire.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — A Minecraft Movie is the biggest film of 2025 in the U.S. so far, topping the box office and making headlines for the popcorn-throwing anarchy unleashed upon theaters. But long before it was a cinematic phenomenon, Minecraft was a game beloved by its players — and the bedrock of a whole ecosystem of content creators. 'It's a sandbox game. It's kind of like Lego, so … you can build anything you want [and] you can do anything you want,' Dream, a 25-year-old from Florida who shares videos of himself playing Minecraft on YouTube for his 32 million subscribers, told Yahoo at the creator convention VidCon. 'I've gotten bored of different aspects of Minecraft since I've played for a long time, but there's so many different things you can do.' Now, like Dream, you can get famous on YouTube for creating content based within the video game. You can also get famous for creating content about the content that has been created in Minecraft. You can also get famous for creating content about the creators who make content in Minecraft. If you create a movie based on Minecraft and then reference the content that has been made inside Minecraft and the creators who produced it, you just might have a blockbuster on your hands. To say Minecraft wasn't mainstream before the movie is a stretch — just look at Dream or any of his friends who have millions of subscribers of their own. It's the bestselling video game of all time, and as of 2025, it has nearly 170 million monthly active players. The crux of the game is pretty easy to understand. As Dream explained, it's basically virtual Legos. Players must 'mine' for materials known as 'blocks' to build tools and structures. Depending on what mode you choose, you might have to defend those structures from villainous creatures like 'creepers' or 'skeletons' or other players. To 'win,' you have to kill the 'Ender Dragon.' Players can add 'mods' to tweak how the game is played in every possible way. You can make yourself more powerful, add more weird creatures to the game or introduce entirely new worlds. Because there are so many possible ways to play, tons of creators are able to coexist, entertaining the masses without seeming stale. Speedrunning, or trying to win the game as quickly as possible, is popular. Some of Dream's most recent videos include 'Minecraft Speedrunner VS $100,000 Bounty Hunter' and 'I Coded My Friend Into Minecraft ... (to speedrun).' He easily surpasses 1 million views with every upload onto YouTube. Creators like Dream go viral, collaborate with other players, create complex role-playing storylines in the game and form inside jokes that are then adopted by the community. A prime example is the 'chicken jockey,' which is a glitch in the game that causes a zombie to appear on top of a chicken. The mere mention of the concept in A Minecraft Movie inspired so much enthusiasm in theaters, people would scream and throw popcorn, wreaking havoc in public. Fans were really excited to feel seen, especially in mainstream entertainment, which often overlooks the nuances of internet culture. The joke song 'Steve's Lava Chicken,' which is inspired by concepts introduced in the game and performed by Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie, is the shortest song ever to hit the Billboard Hot 100 at just 34 seconds. Two months later, it's still No. 1 on the Top Movie Songs chart. YouTuber CG5 performed a cover of the song onstage at VidCon's Hall of Fame event to raucous applause. The myriad ways to engage with Minecraft have long been confined to the internet. With the success of the movie and its breakout song, it has officially infiltrated traditional entertainment. Given how well movies with familiar intellectual property like video games and comic books tend to do at the box office, it's kind of shocking that a Minecraft movie didn't hit theaters until 2025. But it has been in development since 2014, shifting directors, producers and story drafts multiple times. It's possible that Hollywood — or at least the suits at Warner Bros. — knew that the movie would have to strike the perfect chord between fan service and a coherent package that could be understood by curious moviegoers and parents alike. They landed on director Jared Hess, best known for absurd comedies like Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. To Dream, that was the ideal choice. 'I think they did a great job. It seemed like they sought out to be a cringey-funny movie, and … it was cringey and it was funny. I enjoyed myself when I was at the theater,' Dream said. 'A lot of people watched it, so I think as many eyes on Minecraft as possible is always good. I love seeing Minecraft have a resurgence or have more people revisiting it.' As the game's most popular creator, Dream knows a thing or two about its fan army. For much of his career, he was a 'faceless' YouTuber. He played the game while commentating on what was going on via voice-over and wore a smiley face mask to obscure his identity. He amassed millions of followers who have written fan fiction about him and sent police to his house, developing a parasocial relationship with him before he ever revealed his face. 'It seems like I was paranoid, but … when I did leave my house, I did literally go in my car under a blanket. I knew people had doxxed me and found out my address,' Dream said. 'There were drones outside my house … the windows in my house had curtains all over.' When he finally revealed his face, it was because he wanted to connect with people and hang out with his friends. It didn't go over great, and people teased him for his appearance, having built up a different mental picture of him on their own. He went from being anonymous with tens of millions of subscribers to being recognized everywhere he went. At VidCon, fans lined up down the hallway and around the corner to hear Dream's fireside chat, where he demonstrated a project he's been working on that allows people to upload 3D versions of themselves into Minecraft and physically play it. Dream isn't the only Minecraft YouTuber with a massive fanbase. There are tons of creators shaping the game's future with its players more than any Hollywood blockbuster. Aidan Weiss, a 23-year-old YouTuber from Nevada whose channel is called Skip the Tutorial, has been making Minecraft content since he was 15. '[Minecraft] is a giant sandbox, so our videos are meant to help you get used to doing anything that you want to be doing there. I particularly love getting to showcase what you can do with your friends, whether that's different ways to prank them … or different ways to have build hacks that you can go show off,' he told Yahoo Entertainment while at VidCon meeting fans. Weiss knew he wanted to be a YouTuber since he was about 5 years old and as he got older dabbled in video editing, offering to help other creators edit their content for free. He first went viral after making a video about a mod he created that turned every Minecraft block into the same white texture, making it difficult to play the game. He was in high school then, so he didn't think much about monetizing and turning the game into his career until another YouTuber told him he should. Since then he's gone viral countless times with videos like '25 Ways to Destroy Your Friendships in Minecraft' and '179 Incredible Minecraft Build Hacks.' Like Dream's, Aidan's career is inextricably linked to Minecraft, yet the blockbuster movie about it didn't really change his life at all. 'Everyone who's a fan already kind of knew about it … I mean, I hear people say 'chicken jockey' a lot more,' he laughed. It's nice that more people recognize the name and gist of the game now, but it's their world. We've just entered the portal.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The internet's most famous people converged in 1 place and it all was captured on video: Inside my trip to VidCon
I spent a frenetic weekend at a convention center in Anaheim, California, in June, immersed among content creators and their rabid fans. VidCon, 15 years after its inception, is still a hotbed for influencers — and discussions about how they impact pop culture and turn social media into prosperous careers. I kept a diary of my time mingling with online celebrities and the people who keep the creator economy afloat. It was sometimes glamorous, oftentimes scrappy and always fascinating, just like the internet itself. Let's talk about it. A frenetic vibe from the start Much of the vibe of VidCon is set by the palm tree-lined street outside the Anaheim Convention Center, where vendors line up to sell you food from a truck or guide you through the line for a photo opp. Advertisement This year, there were Minecraft topiaries in honor of the game's mainstream success through its movie adaptation, a box sponsored by horror production company Blumhouse which participants could enter to scream at the top of their lungs and a huge rainbow banner celebrating YouTube's 20th anniversary that was positioned over a small house at the intersection of 'Subscribe Street' and 'Like Lane.' It rivaled Disneyland, which was also visible from the window of my nearby hotel. The cameras are always rolling Everyone was filming all the time — including me and Yahoo video producer Sam Matthews. A giant coloring page was set up in the expo hall, and Snapchat hosted a bodega-themed event at a nearby hotel. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; illustrations: Jiaqi Wang for Yahoo News; photos: Kelsey Weekman/Yahoo News) As we walked through the convention center, we saw a girl dressed as Wednesday Adams do an elaborately choreographed dance in the middle of the floor, declaring, 'I was just kidding' to the crowd that had formed by the time she finished. We saw another huge gathering of people formed around dozens of influencers holding their phones to their faces, lip-syncing to a song we couldn't hear with perfect synchronicity. There was also a huge line of kids forming to take photos with a man dressed as The Lorax, who was giving instructions on how to pose and interact with him. Advertisement None of this was sanctioned, but it wasn't forbidden, either. Toys 'R' Us Vendors sold merchandise at VidCon's expo hall, and the brand Pop Store set up a "clinic" on another floor to help creators monetize. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; illustrations: Jiaqi Wang for Yahoo News; photos: Kelsey Weekman/Yahoo News) The sprawling expo hall in the convention center's grandest ballroom was extremely popular for attendees. There, amid lines of people waiting for meet and greets with their favorite creators or big events hosted on a mainstage, was a smorgasbord of all the finest collectibles. The little stuffed monsters known as Labubus were clipped to the purses and belt loops of every tenth person I saw. I formed a bond with a person in a Furby costume. Another ultra-popular toy was the Easy Sqweezy Stretchy Banana which is literally just a big squishy banana toy that a dad told me kids like hitting each other with. There was a huge stand for mystery merch boxes, where fans could spend a few dozen dollars to get a random assortment of items related to titles like Stranger Things, Spider-Man and Star Trek. The cashier told me the most popular box is for The Goonies, but he didn't really understand why. I met my actual heroes I was part of the first generation to grow up with access to YouTube, so many of the creators honored in VidCon's Hall of Fame felt like the cool seniors who graduated when I was a freshman, though they're technically titans of media. Still, I was starstruck — more so interviewing Hank Green and Grace Helbig at the event than I was interviewing Josh Hartnett or Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the past. Advertisement I was also charmed by how kind and down-to-earth the Hall-of-Famers were. Ian Hecox of Smosh talked to me for more than half an hour, and I didn't even let it slip that I used to have a crush on him. Rosanna Pansino somehow got me cake at a hotel bar when she heard it was my birthday. I've heard all these stories about how internet fame warps your sense of self and reality, but everyone I met was incredibly humble and sweet. An immersive anthropological excursion I expected a crowd of more people my own age at the Hall of Fame ceremony, given that the honored creators had been around since the 2000s, but I was wrong. I consider myself pretty well-versed in the online world, but I felt like an explorer in the depths of an uncharted jungle. Sam and I were surrounded by children as young as 7, screaming at the top of their lungs to meme-inspired songs performed by YouTuber CG5. We were then subjected to a magic battle between two viral illusionists, Justin Flom and SeanDoesMagic. The kids behind me were screaming jokes laced with internet slang, accusing people of 'hacking' and directing questions like, 'Yo, who are these people?' to an imaginary 'chat.' They were rude to the Hall of Fame inductees, talking over their acceptance speeches, but loudly admitted that Rhett & Link are funny. Who all the kids wanted to see Tons of people have asked me who the most popular creator at VidCon was. It wasn't the one with the longest legacy or the biggest following. It was Jmancurly, a YouTuber who almost exclusively shares videos of himself playing the virtual reality game Gorilla Tag, in which people play as legless primates. I missed his onstage appearance at the Hall of Fame ceremony, but I felt his presence everywhere. He had a giant — and I mean bigger than a house — statue of a buff torso set up in the expo hall. Kids everywhere wore his merch and lined up to play Gorilla Tag. To VidCon attendees, Jmancurly was like all four of the Beatles combined. Advertisement Another popular creator duo was AJ and Big Justice, the father-son pair who went viral for the loud New Jersey accents with which they assign things ratings on a 'boom or doom' scale. They had to enter the press room for our interview through a secret door because, as their manager explained, they kept getting 'swarmed.' People begged them for photos and lined up to make videos with them, in which they would both scream and assess how many 'booms' a selfie-taker deserved. I was overjoyed when Yahoo received five big booms. Someone who everyone missed AJ and Big Justice often create content with The Rizzler, an 8-year-old child influencer best known for striking comically macho poses in viral interactions with celebrities. He sadly wasn't able to attend VidCon because he opted to go to Fanatics Fest in New York City instead, to the disappointment of at least a dozen people who asked about his whereabouts. I did see someone carrying around a seemingly life-size cardboard cutout of him, though. The Rizzler poses in Times Square. (Michelle Farsi/FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) VidCon also felt more exclusive than ever, because, much to the chagrin of fans online, it didn't livestream its panels. You just had to be there. Everyone wants to be an influencer When I went to VidCon in 2022, everyone wanted to meet an influencer. People lined up around blocks and sat in full costume for hours for the chance to see a YouTuber they adored. Advertisement In 2025, everyone wanted to be an influencer. Even when lining up at panels for a chance to ask a creator a question, most wanted to know the secret to success or ask for advice on their careers. I'll never forget how many children I saw wearing T-shirts with their budding YouTube channel names printed on them. At first, I thought the designated area that linking website Pop Store had set up that offered a hospital-themed 'monetization clinic' for fresh creators hoping to make money off their content was dystopian. 'Your vibe is billable' a neon sign beckoned. After wandering through, I realized that for so many people, turning sharing what you love into a financially beneficial endeavour is an absolute dream. Who am I to judge, even if someone in a lab coat is prodding me to try my hand at a giant game of 'Operation' so they could lower my guard far down enough that I'd willingly open a website on my phone? Luckily, content creators and other members of the creator economy were extremely eager to give advice. I gathered words of wisdom from a dozen of them. Advertisement I was particularly moved by the advice from video game streamer and true crime podcast host Ericka Bozeman, who could have tossed vague platitudes at the young YouTuber who approacher her, but instead gave him an on-the-spot overhaul by helping him identify what's distinct enough to embrace about his style and come up with a new channel introduction. A new class of child stars emerges — and it's not all bad LikeNastya, Avia Colette and Big Justice have massive followings and millions of people watching their every video. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Instagram) It feels like we only hear horror stories about children who grew up famous online, but the ones I talked to at VidCon love their lives. Big Justice, for instance, is living his dream. Avia Colette, the now-adult child of some of the first family vloggers, wouldn't have it any other way. 'Minecraft' still reigns supreme After the success of A Minecraft Movie forced the mainstream entertainment industry to pay attention to the power of a sandbox video game, I became obsessed with untangling how it has managed to stick around for so many years. I spoke to Minecraft YouTubers with millions of subscribers about how they sustain a whole massive ecosystem of fans and content, though you've probably never heard of them. The longest-running YouTube creators are still killing it The comedy duo I was obsessed with in 2005 is still thriving, but not without their challenges. I profiled the people behind Smosh, a YouTube channel that has survived virality and brushes with career death over and over again for two decades. Smosh's full cast, including Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox in the middle. (Courtesy of Smosh) Advertisement They told me the secret to thriving as online creators from the early internet to modern times, which hasn't been easy or normal, but it has been an incredibly fun ride. Going viral doesn't matter anymore, according to the guy who's the best at it Anthony Po is the king of going viral. He thinks it's easy. You probably don't know him by name, but chances are you've seen the Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition, or videos of him eating a jar of cheese balls in front of 3,000 people in a mask. At 23, he's been a creator for about 10 years, and he said on a panel called 'From Viral Moments to Sustainable Business Models' that 'going viral is kind of easy … it's a science, almost.' He worked for YouTube's most popular creator MrBeast in 2023, where he said their goal was to have every video reach at least 300 people. Advertisement 'There's a way to engineer that … you look at what exists and study culture,' he said. Po isn't into that anymore — he wants to find the authentic human element in everything he does. But it still makes him go viral. It was fascinating because I think a lot of brands might have been foaming at the mouth just to get a dash of his ability to get their products seen by so many people. Maybe he's onto something, or maybe he's just got the magic touch. What it means to be a creator I asked a lot of creators the same question: What do people get wrong about your job that you wish you could correct them on? I got a lot of the same answer: Basically, it's harder than anyone thinks. Advertisement I loved VidCon cocreator Hank Green's answer, because he took things in a different direction. He never said content creation was easy, but called attention to the fact that lots of people are creators in the same way that lots of people are musicians. Not everyone's Beyoncé, but that's OK, there can only be one. Mainstream entertainment isn't the goal anymore Given the success of creator MrBeast's Prime Video reality series Beast Games, I thought the possibility of breaking out into the mainstream might be the talk of the town at VidCon. I was wrong. It's notoriously difficult for even the most famous online celebrities to become traditional ones, and after many years, people seem to understand that. At a panel called 'Blurred Lines: Rethinking the Relationship Between Traditional & Digitally Native Entertainment,' I was struck by something that Paul Telner, Viral Nation's head of programming, said. A former YouTuber himself, he now works with creators to develop their own original IP. 'We have an incredible roaster of talent that I really think — they are their own networks. They are their own Nickelodeon. They are their own CNN, they are their own MTV,' he said. 'I love to pair them with traditional [entertainment], because traditional, for the first time in my career, is starting to wake up to creators.' In other words, old school media like TV and movies need internet celebrities. As Telner explained, there was a time when creators would prefer to produce their own shows, maintain creative control and do so without network feedback. Now, they have more power than ever in the business. Hollywood needs access to the massive audiences of creators, and creators benefit from the budgets and production of traditional entertainment. Meet and greet philosophy I'm always struck by how many fans are willing to pay and line up for long periods of time for a chance to briefly meet and take a photo with their favorite creators. It solidifies, to me, that YouTubers and TikTokers are truly the next class of A-list celebrities for younger generations. Dream, the most popular Minecraft YouTuber in an already extremely popular online subculture, told me he doesn't like doing meet and greets because it's not enough time to truly make a connection with someone. On the other hand, SoupTimmy, a YouTuber who also has millions of subscribers but a more niche specialty, doesn't mind them. He posts videos of himself solving Rubik's cubes. 'I just treat them like people,' SoupTimmy told me, his fingers clutching a tiny Rubik's cube he wore on a chain around his neck. He didn't expand on that, and honestly, he didn't have to. Get friendly with AI I admit I spent most of VidCon avoiding the panels and sessions about AI like the plague, hoping to prioritize talking to creators about what actually aids their careers on a daily basis instead. I underestimated how much AI was a practical answer and not just something that big creators like MrBeast are trying to harness and share as another way to diversify their revenue. Stephanie Segev, head of creative and content at the link sharing website Hopp by Wix, tells me after VidCon that she highly recommends that creators 'embrace AI beyond ChatGPT prompts.' 'The creators who want to get a head start in 2025 are the ones truly embracing AI at a more technical level,' she says. 'A side-hustler who leans into AI can operate like a full-timer; a full-timer can run like a small agency.' If this career is really all about consistency, which I keep hearing, maybe leaning into the efficiency of AI isn't such a bad idea. Just don't get into producing AI slop — YouTube just announced it's cracking down on monetizing that. YouTube is still king After I got back from VidCon, I joined Slate's internet culture podcast ICYMI to talk about my experience. Cohosts Candice Lim, Kate Lindsay and I declared YouTube king of the social media sites and daydreamed about how we'd change the convention. Listen here.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
So you want to become an influencer?
ANAHEIM, Calif. — A child took the microphone in front of one of his favorite YouTubers, stumbling over his words but maintaining an upbeat tone. He wanted to know how to unlock a certain tool in Gorilla Tag, a virtual reality game in which players embody a legless primate. He probably was not old enough to play and definitely wasn't old enough to have a YouTube channel, which would have been necessary for him to unlock that special tool. VMT, a 19-year-old YouTuber with 1 million subscribers, smiles softly as he listens onstage. The child was one of dozens of young people lined up to ask him a question at VidCon, a convention for members of the creator economy and their fans. He was speaking on a panel titled 'Building an Audience as a Niche Creator,' and there his audience was, gathering in the aisles for the chance to speak to him in real time. 'So, first step is getting a channel,' VMT laughs. 'The second step is posting and then staying consistent. Just killing it. I feel like you can do it, bro.' For at least 15 minutes, young people introduced themselves to VMT and his fellow panelists, sharing their channel niches and how many subscribers they have. 'I'm stuck at 334 subscribers — which, I'm thankful for all these people, but it's a very small channel,' says a young person who introduces himself as Adam. He makes YouTube videos about the computer game Roblox, and wants to one day be famous enough to be a full-time creator. He's not alone. A 2023 Morning Consult survey of 1,000 Gen Z respondents found that 57% polled want to be influencers. In a separate Morning Consult Survey of 2,204 U.S. adults who use social media, 41% said they wanted to be influencers as well. Within the convention center walls of VidCon, pretty much everyone does, and it's no surprise — influencers are these kids' heroes to the point they'll drag their parents to Anaheim, and instead of going to Disneyland, wait in line to ask a Gorilla Tag YouTuber a question. Zach Katz, the cofounder and CEO of creator management company Fixated, tells Yahoo at VidCon that the 'digital creator industry' has been 'democratized from the beginning.' It's easy for random people who work really hard to break into — more so than traditional entertainment like TV or film, he explains. 'If you stop two kids on the street today, one will tell you that they want to be a YouTuber. The other one will tell you they want to be a Twitch streamer,' Katz says. 'The content space, [or] the digital entertainment space, has now become the leader in grabbing the hearts and minds [and] the dollars and attention of everybody from audiences to brands.' Whether they're emulating their personal idols, serious about their influencer careers or both, many of the kids in VMT's audience wore shirts with their YouTube handles printed on them to make it easy for the new friends they met to follow them. Parents brokered deals with others, saying things like, 'Your kid should follow my kid's channel, and we'll follow back.' Becoming an influencer is like skinning a cat: There are a lot of ways to do it. I spoke to people with tried-and-true success stories about what it takes to make it big online. Here's what they told me. Many of the content creators at VidCon have a niche, whether it's cooking meals from ingredients bought only from Dollar Tree (like Dollar Tree Dinners) or sharing videos of themselves solving Rubik's Cubes (like SoupTimmy). Iesha Vincent, a content creator who also coaches other creators to online success, tells me after VidCon that the industry is now 'highly saturated, and it's not as easy [to break out] as it was 10 years ago.' 'Viral moments don't make lasting influencers — it's having a super high unique voice and filling a space that isn't already crowded, while deeply understanding your audience,' she explains. It's not just a strategy, it's a necessity. Viveca Chow, an Instagram influencer, recommends that aspiring creators write down three things: 1. What they love, 2. What friends text them to ask about the most and 3. What they're curious to learn more about. 'From there, you already have your three content pillars cut out for you,' she explains. SoupTimmy posts videos of himself solving Rubik's Cubes for his 5.6 million YouTube subscribers. Though pretty much everyone's familiar with the game, some of the terms and techniques are a little specialized. He had to find a balance. 'If you can figure out a way to have your niche translate to a wider audience, do it,' he tells me. 'I don't use that much terminology because I want to hit the broadest appeal possible and inspire people to hopefully get deeper into the niche.' Ericka Bozeman, a video game streamer who now also has a true crime podcast, said on a VidCon panel that doubling down on her creator career made all the difference. 'The first thing I did was I immediately got an assistant, which sounds crazy. But once you're making a little cash off of [your content], invest it in your business. I don't care if you're making $10,000,' she says. 'I was literally livestreaming out of my parents' basement making $17,000 per year … but the first thing I did was say, 'OK, I need help to be able to do what I'm going to do.'' As a creator, you can choose to invest in one platform over the other. TikTok, with its scarily accurate For You Feed algorithm, is one of the best social media sites to grow an audience. YouTube is pretty easy to monetize, and thanks to its ad revenue system, old videos can continue making you money long after they're posted. But the platform I've heard creators praise as the most profitable is Snapchat. Cheyenne Davis, who I first became familiar with as a star of MTV's Teen Mom, identifies more as a Snapchatter than a creator or a reality TV personality. She tells me at VidCon that she posts on the app from 200 to 400 times per day, sharing every facet of her life, from cooking to parenting. She has about 250,000 followers there. 'With doing TV, [my audience] only got to see five-minute clips of my life, right? They don't get to see the inside of things,' she says. 'Now, with Snapchat, it's opened up this door where I can post this much, and people don't get mad. They almost get mad if I don't post enough.' She's not just posting a ton. She's making bank, and she's not afraid to say it. For every few videos she shares to her story, Snapchat shows an ad. She then gets paid some of that ad revenue. 'I want everybody to know … You know how people get the idea that if [more people join in] the pie is going to get smaller? No, this one is going to grow,' Davis says. 'It's time for everybody to get on Snapchat.' To make content creation your full-time job, you have to find a way to earn money from it. Or do you? Dhar Mann, who has 25.5 million YouTube subscribers and is ranked No. 2 on Forbes's 2025 top creators list, makes inspirational scripted videos. He has his own content studio with 200 employees. 'For those who are aspiring to try to become a creator and make money, I would say don't let that be your goal. Let the goal be to find your mission, to find your purpose, to try to inspire the world in some way,' he tells me at VidCon. 'Then through that 'why,' ultimately, you will find your own place in this where you will be able to make a living through doing what you love.' He made at least 100 videos before going viral enough to make money, admitting that he would have been discouraged if that was his ultimate goal. Now, he has an empire. The Dhar Mann method might not be for everyone. In fact, most of the people I talked to for this story mentioned the importance of monetization and treating your content creation like a business. Kristin Marquet, founder and creative director of the publicity and branding company Marquet Media, helps boost the careers of creators without encouraging them to buy ads or hire production teams. She's also a parenting influencer with 1.3 million followers on Instagram. 'Think like a business owner, not just a content creator,' she tells me after VidCon. 'Whether you aim to secure book deals, establish brand partnerships or build your own company, creators who understand brand strategy, media positioning and audience psychology will progress further and faster.' Full-time content creation isn't just a pie-in-the-sky dream of children who are more familiar with YouTubers than TV stars. It's the future of business. The creator economy is massive, projected to have $500 billion flowing among platforms, influencers and audiences annually by 2027. Thanks to this new era of fine-tuned algorithms, it's easier to go viral than ever. Going viral is no longer enough to launch a career, though it's still not technically easy! Lauren Taylor, CEO of the influencer agency Le Fleur Society, tells me that 'if you don't have a foundation, clear pricing, a strong pitch, a way to turn interest into income, you'll either burn out or get taken advantage of.' 'Influencing is not just about being popular online,' she says. 'It's about being consistent, being strategic, and showing up like a professional. You have to know your value before anyone else will.' If you think this seems like a lot of work, you're right. Dozens of content creators told me that they could correct people's assumptions that influencing is easy. It's hard. Guy Golan, an associate professor in the department of strategic communication at Texas Christian University, teaches about social media. He tells me that it's all about 'delivering value to your followers day in and day out.' 'Content creation is like going to the gym, you need to do it several times a week for years if you want meaningful results,' he adds. Katz and his Fixated cofounder Jason Wilhelm tell me at VidCon that not even hacking the algorithm or finding a niche is enough. 'If you're not storytelling, if you're not creating arcs, if you don't have a high level of production, if you don't have full teams to help you execute everything from ideation to creation to post-production, you're going to be left behind,' Katz says. Booking brand deals alone will not sustain your career, he says. You'll need a manager, and a really good one, to help you truly thrive. But to get a manager — and to work with them — you'll have to be a certain kind of person. 'A lot of it comes down to, No. 1, 'Do they have personality? … that can transcend what they're doing? … That people really want to get behind?' Wilhelm says. 'Two, are they hard workers? Are these people just people that get up, press record and just go, or are they people who are like, 'No, I'm going to build a business. I want to be in this space for 25 years.'' One conversation stirring buzz at VidCon is the reality that 'influencer' is becoming a dirty word. Call them content creators. Part of that reason is because the title gets a bad rap — it's equated with annoying selfie-taking and self-absorption. Perhaps it's easiest to leave the term behind than try to rehabilitate it. After all, you don't have to wield influence over a huge audience to make a career out of posting online. Hank Green, the cofounder of VidCon and a longtime content creator with millions of subscribers across several social channels, is definitely influential. He was just inducted into VidCon's first Hall of Fame, which honors creators who have shaped the internet. After the ceremony, he tells me there's something he could correct the record on when it comes to his job: At its core, it's really more of a hobby. 'It's like being a musician. Just think of it like that. There's skill, there's techniques. Most people who do it, do it because they love it, not because they're going to be Beyoncé,' he said. 'Beyoncé is a musician, but so is Tom Catmull, the guy who plays at the bar near my house.' 'It's something that you develop a lot of skills [in] while you're doing it. And it's lovely and you build community. I just think that we think of [content creation] too much as just a bunch of startups when really, it's a bunch of creatives,' he said. You'll need tools and drive to be successful as a creative, though, just like a businessperson. Thankfully, many of the most successful creators working right now are willing to share their secrets.
