Follow me: Barvina – 12-Year-Old YouTube Star

General review

Barvina (real name: Margarita) is a child of the coming future. Millions of kids and adults watch her life and travels on YouTube, waiting for new series, raising important issues of first love, friendship, and loyalty. For Barvina, video blogging is not just a hobby but also a paid profession. The price for advertising on her channel is from $500 to $3000, and the number of a single video views reaches up to 6 million.

"The most active and large YouTube audience are teenagers. Quality installation, charismatic girl, top video topics — that's what makes her so popular. Plus, I'm sure they make competent SEO-optimization for the channel.

It's a perfect example of getting into the target audience, using the basic rules of content and video promotion".

"I am happy to get acquainted with such a talented child as Barvina. Her awareness and purposefulness subdued me. She knows what she wants to achieve, and most importantly — she's working on it. Being a very young girl, she can be an example for many adults.

I want to say a few words of admiration to Barvin's parents. Their family has very kind and pleasant energy. And I believe that successful, happy and kind children grow in happy families".

"I started the channel in 2015 when I was ten years old. We went with my parents to the Dominican Republic for the whole summer. I had nothing to do, and I started watching YouTube.

At that time, I was far from computer technologies; it was all new to me. So at first, I was just watching and learning maths. Then I saw that there were video bloggers and wanted to know more about this profession. I watched, understood and decided to become a video blogger. And my parents helped me with this."

"I realized that I'm a popular video blogger when people began coming to me on streets asking for autographs, taking pictures. At first, I was lost and did not know what to say, but I was very pleased. This began to happen after 30,000 subscribers, after a year of the channel management. I did not promote it anyhow; people started to subscribe by themselves.

Now there are more than a million subscribers on my channel [already more than 3 millions — edit.] and about 50 million views a month. I am called a TV channel, a radio, a comedian. Whatever! The main thing is not to be called Rita or Margot. I hate this. My name is Margarita. Or Barvina."

"I don't have favorite video bloggers; I do not follow anyone. I prefer to walk outside with my friends. If I go to YouTube, I'm looking at the trends on the main page.

In addition to the school and YouTube, I'm engaged in cheerleading. It's dancing, gymnastics, and acrobatics. I tried many sports, but I stopped there. When I rest at home — I open Netflix and watch TV shows in English. The last ones that I liked were "Hannah Montana" and "Jesse."

"I read different books, but recently I was impressed by two — "Miracle" by Palacio and "The Secret of a Bubble" by Bodo Schaefer.

"Miracle" is about a boy who did not have a face. More precisely, it was, but ugly because of an illness. He suffered 25 operations. The book tells how he lived with this and how his classmates treated him. And in the "The Secret of a Bagel" a girl learns how to manage money. Very cool books!

For 12 years I visited 25 countries. I do not have a favorite one, as everywhere there is some zest. In Paris, I liked the Eiffel Tower and the attractions, in Albania — the roads and nature, in Thailand — lizards and palm trees. Everywhere there is something unusual."

"When I watch my first videos, I sometimes find them funny. But this does not mean that I do not like them. I understand what could be improved or done in a different way.

I do not have any unloved videos. This is my hobby, and I try very hard on it. I love my videos "Waiting vs. Reality" and soap operas.

I shoot the video myself when I go somewhere or do something. For example, I am going to a shopping mall or trying shoes — bam-s! — It is necessary to shoot it. It's fast. And the show takes about six hours a week; we shoot a series in one day. I do not get tired of it; on the contrary, I like watching it afterward.

Some children envy me. I see it. They think it's effortless. But there are those with whom I communicate and who support me, and I know that they will never betray me."

"I keep in touch with my fans. I try to respond to comments on Instagram and YouTube. But not always I can, because there are too many messages. There are more chances to communicate with me in the comments on Facebook. But personal messages on all social networks are closed.

When I moved to a new school, the children followed me and said: "Barvina, I do not believe that I met you." They even made me a poster! Many of them try to give me gifts: sweets, gum, bracelets. And one girl, meeting me, burst into tears. I was very confused because I did not know what the reason for her tears was. Then the girl said that she was crying with happiness. I was very pleased, and we hugged."

This article was originally made special for Buro 24/7 Ukraine and translated into English.