YouTube Star

When you spill juice on yourself, you probably hope no one notices. But when JoJo Siwa dumps a full bottle of juice over her head, she hopes millions will watch. Her YouTube Channel, Its JoJo Siwa, is full of videos starring the bow-wearing 14-year-old.

More than 4.3 million people subscribe to JoJo’s channel of music videos and videos about her life. All of her videos have hundreds of thousands of views. Her music videos often rack up more than 10 million. She’s one of many teens making a name for themselves on YouTube and becoming social media celebrities.

JoJo Siwa pours juice over her head every week. It’s part of her video series called JoJo’s Juice. She posts the videos to her YouTube Channel called Its JoJo Siwa. The channel is full of videos starring the bow-wearing 14-year-old.

More than 4.3 million people subscribe to JoJo’s channel. She posts both music videos and videos about her life. All of her videos have hundreds of thousands of views. Her music videos often get more than 10 million views! She’s one of many teens who are social media celebrities.

Jojo posts two videos per week, each 3 to 10 minutes long. Her Wednesday series is called JoJo’s Juice. During these videos, she might show viewers how she gets ready for the day, teach them how to make slime, or just talk about what’s on her mind. And at the end of each video, she pours a bottle of juice over her head just for fun.

It takes hard work and luck to stand out on YouTube, where more than 400 hours of videos are uploaded each minute. JoJo spends hours working on her two weekly videos. She doesn’t just star in her videos. JoJo also writes her Saturday Sketch video, and decides on the topic of the unscripted JoJo’s Juice video. After filming, Jojo edits them herself. “It’s a lot of hard work, but eventually it gets really fun,” she says.

Jojo posts two videos per week. Each video is 3 to 10 minutes long. JoJo’s Juice is her Wednesday series. These videos change from week to week. She might show viewers how she gets ready for the day or teach them how to make slime. Sometimes she just talks about what’s on her mind. And at the end of each video, she pours a bottle of juice over her head just for fun.

It takes hard work and luck to stand out on YouTube. More than 400 hours of videos are uploaded each minute. JoJo spends hours working on her two weekly videos. She doesn’t just star in her videos. JoJo also writes her Saturday Sketch video and decides on the topic of each JoJo’s Juice video. JoJo edits each video herself. “It’s a lot of hard work, but eventually it gets really fun,” she says.

Steve Zak Photography/FilmMagic

“Everyone else is already doing their own thing. I’d rather do what I want to do.”

In many kids’ eyes, JoJo is living the dream—34 percent of kids ages 6 to 17 want to be YouTube stars. The platform’s room for creativity and flexibility and the chance to make money are both part of the appeal. JoJo’s advice—whether you want to be a YouTube star or not—is to be genuine and to do your best. “My goal is to keep going up, keep working hard, and keep having fun and just being myself with it,” she says.

In many kids’ eyes, JoJo is living the dream. When asked about their career goals, 34 percent of kids ages 6 to 17 said they want to be YouTube stars. The platform lets kids be creative. There’s also the chance to make money. JoJo’s advice on how to be successful is to be genuine and to do your best. She thinks this is important whether you want to be a YouTube star or not. “My goal is to keep going up, keep working hard, and keep having fun and just being myself with it,” she says.

Use what you’ve learned about how to calculate ad revenue from YouTube videos to answer the following questions. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

Before a YouTube channel can be monetized (start earning ad revenue), it needs to have at least 10,000 views. How much ad revenue would 10,000 views earn at a rate of $7.60 per 1,000 views?

As of press time, the most popular video on YouTube had about 3,693,000,000 views. If it earns $8.30 per 1,000 views in ad revenue, how much has it earned?

Many YouTubers strive to get 1 million views per video. A channel has 3 videos with 1 million views each. If the channel earns $6.33 per 1,000 views, how much did these 3 videos earn?

A) You must earn more than $100 in ad revenue before YouTube pays you. At a rate of $5.50 per 1,000 views, how many views do you need to earn $100?

B) YouTube’s fee for hosting videos is 45% of the ad revenue. At your rate of $5.50 per 1,000 views, how much money would you earn for 525,000 views after YouTube takes its fee, rounded to the nearest cent?