Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
Rachel Fong‘s sweet treats may be the cutest confections YouTube has to offer. Fong is the woman behind Kawaii Sweet World, a channel that features colorful cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. Fong often adorns her creations with adorable smiling faces, allowing them to spread joy with their appearance as well as their taste. She also takes time to tell her fans about issues that are important to her. Among other initiatives, she recently joined the #BakeAChange campaign alongside She’s The First, an organization that helps girls in underprivileged regions attend school.
Thanks in large part to Fong’s charm and passion, Kawaii Sweet World has now attracted more than one million YouTube subscribers. Here’s our chat with her:
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Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers on your channel? What do you have to say to your fans?
Rachel Fong: It’s surreal! When I first started my channel, I never would have thought I would reach one million subscribers and connect with so many people who loved kawaii treats as much as I did. I would say a huge thank you to my fans and give each one a big hug if I could! I owe so much of my happiness in life to my subscribers, and I think about how grateful I am for them every day.
TF: What first sparked your interest in baking?
RF: Growing up, I was always baking with my mom because she loved to whip up sweet treats. Once she taught me everything she knew, I started looking for new recipes online to test out, and soon after, I was baking and trying out new desserts every week. Since I have a massive sweet tooth, baking has just been something I’ve naturally gravitated towards!
TF: Where do you find ideas for new treats to make on your channel?
RF: I keep a close eye on social media food trends so that as soon as an new one comes up, I can recreate it with a kawaii twist on my channel.
TF: Do you have a favorite recipe out of all the goodies you’ve baked on your channel so far?
RF: My favorite recipe I’ve ever made on my channel is my mini viral cakes! I re-created a bunch of trendy cake designs in miniature form, which was a really fun challenge. They were only about 1.5″ in diameter!
TF: On the other hand, which recipe turned out to be the biggest disaster?
RF: My trials of mirror glaze cakes! Mirror glaze is a type of icing that dries so shiny that you can see your reflection in it. It’s a really beautiful effect, but it took many test runs to get it just right!
TF: Do you see yourself as a role model for your younger viewers, or do you think that is putting too much weight on your channel?
RF: I do my best to live by my core values of hard work, integrity, and kindness, and as a result, I do hope that I can be a role model for my younger viewers while remaining authentic to myself. My goal would be to inspire them by showing them how much you can accomplish through passion and persistence. So even though my channel is about fun topics like baking and crafting, I hope they see how much work goes into the videos and how much effort I put into my own personal life as a student.
TF: What message do you hope your viewers took away from your role as #BakeAChange’s brand ambassador?
RF: I hope they learned how valuable education is, especially to girls in low-income countries. In the US, we often take education for granted and even complain about our mandatory schooling, but in other countries, education is a gift. With this in mind, I hope it shifted their outlook on school — we should be grateful for it!
TF: Do you anticipate your busy college schedule affecting your ability to actively update and maintain your channel? How do you plan to cope with that shift?
RF: Luckily for me, Stanford isn’t too far from home so I can still head back to the studio to film on weekends! I do know that my schedule will be packed in college, but education is extremely important to me. And the fact that I genuinely love creating videos and I love learning helps reduce the stress!
TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?
RF: Yes! Just last month, I closed a cookbook deal with Penguin Random House! SO excited about having a Kawaii Sweet World cookbook in the works. It won’t be out for awhile, but I am thrilled to be in the process of making it happen!
