Meet Ryan: The 7-Year-Old Making Millions on YouTube
Dec 12 | 2017
Ryan ToysReview—or simply Ryan—is a 7-year-old who reviews toys on his YouTube channel. In 2016, he made $11 million doing so, according to Forbes, making him number eight on Forbes’ “2017 Highest-Paid YouTube Stars” list, tying with Smosh.
Ryan began his career of YouTube stardom by reviewing a giant toy containing more than 100 cars about two years ago. The video currently has more than 800 million views. Now, his channel has more than 10 million subscribers, averaging 1 to 4 million views per video. In each one, Ryan sits in front of the camera and reviews new toys or food products that were sent to him.
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According to a profile by The Verge in 2016, Ryan’s advertising revenue makes about one million per month due to his 10 million subscribers.
However, fame comes with the haters—his first video also has more than 400,000 dislikes along with its 700,000 likes. And people are rushing to parent this child, accusing the parents of exploitation and forcing Ryan to shoot videos. Internet trolls also comment on the sheer number of toys that Ryan receives, claiming that he’ll become spoiled.
One of the most subscribed Youtubers, PewdiePie, also accused the family of faking their billions of views by using bots—a 2017 video by Philip Defranco interviewed the family and seemed to dispel all the rumors. PewdiePie has also come under fire for racist remarks that caused his drop from being the richest YouTuber.
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According to the video, the family donates most of the toys to charity and if Ryan doesn’t want to film a particular day, they respect his wishes. Sometimes, the stiffness in Ryan’s demeanor is due to off-stage direction from his parents.
From watching his videos, it just seems like a kid having fun talking about something he loves — the camera and setting don’t seem to be professional, although not bad quality either. His parents are also very present in the video — so much so that it almost seems like a vlog.
Comments are also disabled on most videos, which is sensible since people are harsh and this is the Internet.
Ryan’s family has also started another channel called Ryan’s Family Review which features more footage of the entire family and their day-to-day life along with playing games and testing out new goodies. In my opinion, it’s just a way to document the growing up process with her kids and sharing it with the world — what mom doesn’t love to brag about her children?
Ryan’s channels might be interesting to you if you’re looking to buy a new toy or if your child is looking for something to watch — I know my baby brother used to love watching Ryan review and play with different toys.
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