Each month, Reuters talks to significant people about the first jobs they ever worked. This First Jobs series has been running since 2013, and its latest rendition focuses on the YouTube community. Reuters talked to four online video stars–Michelle Phan, Cassey Ho, Matthew Santoro, and Bunny Meyer–about the positions they held before they began achieving fame on the Internet.
First Jobs isn’t the most substantive journalism out there, but it is interesting to read the ways in which YouTube stars’ early life experiences have informed their current work. Phan, for example, discusses the time she made $600 in two months selling candy in school, a success that forecasted her current success in the business world. And Ho, who offers fitness routines on her Blogilates channel, jokes about how her own candy business may have subtly influenced her decision to help people stay in shape.
“It’s ironic that I now run a fitness blog,” she says. “My friends accuse me of having planned it this whole time, of making them fat and then getting them back into shape.”
The four YouTube stars profiled in Reuters First Jobs piece have more than 9.5 million subscribers between them. Read their stories here.
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