Saffron Barker with her Primark Range
By Kate Whitaker
A MEDIA expert has warned that the success of YouTubers like 17-year-old Saffron Barker could be short lived.
The teenager, who launched her own lifestyle range with Primark last Monday, has over one million subscribers and 750,000 Instagram followers.
She has been estimated to earn a salary of up to £66,000 per year, according to socialblade.com.
The success of her channel over the past two years has made it possible for her to release her own lifestyle range with Primark ‘Saffy B x Primark’, which was released on October 23.
A spokesperson for Primark said: “Saffron’s effervescent and energetic personality, as well as her honest and positive approach are present throughout all of her content, and is fast establishing her as a role model to her viewers.”
Her book Saffron vs Real Life was released last month and went straight to number one in The Times best-selling list.
Although she has had many successes from her YouTube channel, it is not promised to be a long-term career choice.
A-level Media Studies teacher, Lindsay Taylor, 41 said: “My head says that it’s only likely to promise short term success rather than long term vocation.
“But who knows? Ultimately it is up to the young generation to decide if they want YouTubers to exist and for what purpose.”
YouTube launched in 2005 has said to have 400 hours of content uploaded each minute.
It has become more popular than ever and is an easy platform for young people to engage with.
Like Saffron Barker, stars such as Zoella, Alfie Deyes are just a few of the people with over one million YouTube subscribers who have released their own merchandise such as books, clothes and beauty and lifestyle products.
Mrs Taylor added: “YouTubers are younger generation’s reality stars. They’re the face of the young generation.”
Molly Thompson, also known as Beauty Spectrum on YouTube, is an 18-year-old student and has built up a successful YouTube channel with 77,000 subscribers whilst still studying at college.
She said: “There are so many crazy things I’d never have got to do if it wasn’t for YouTube. My ultimate favourite, and still the most surreal thing, is meeting my viewers and putting a face to a username!”
Molly said she hopes to influence her audience in whatever positive way she can and as long as she is doing that and people are enjoying her videos, she said she will carry on.