Let’s talk numbers, shall we?
Anastasia Radzinskaya is 7 years old. Her parents launched her first YouTube channel in 2016, featuring fun and cute videos of a little girl doing unboxings, delivering lightly positive encouragement and some gentle eductional lessons (like, say, how to read a clock).
Five years later, this plucky little girl has 77 million subscribers on her main channel, and another 163 million on 10 other related channels (some of which dub her videos into other languages). On her main channel alone, Like Nastya, fans have watched a staggering 62 billion videos.
If you’re wondering, that makes her the most popular children’s YouTuber in the world (according to Wikipedia). So what’s the big deal, anyway?
Nastya, who is Russian (and whose parents have since moved with her to the United States) excels at being the subject of cute and innocent videos. Some feature songs. Others involve light melodramas. A recent one (which racked up more than a million views in its first 10 hours) features a playfully “naughty” scarecrow who takes her cats and puts them in little houses. To get them out, Nastaya must do some simple math problems to unlock the doors.
Other videos might feature her learning how to create a do list, her morning routine (brushing her teeth, etc.), sharing a slime recipe or learning the alphabet. Smiles, silliness, fun and a bit of education along the way is the name of the game here.
In some videos, Nastya clearly has makeup on, similar to what we might see in child beauty pageants. That’s an element some families may not want young fans of Nastya imitating.
If you’ve never noticed, every YouTube channel has a section where you can learn more about it, appropriately called “About.” There, you’ll find some basic statistics as well as the channel providers description of the content.
The Like Nastya channel description reads, “Welcome to Nastya’s universe—where Nastya and her parents play, learn, sing, explore and share their life experiences. Millions of kids and families from all over the world join Nastya every day to explore the world and learn about songs, numbers, nature, colors, shapes, animals, and the importance of eating healthy food, washing hands, being a good friend, and much more.”
That’s an accurate description of what you’ll find here. Other than concerns some parents might have about Nastya’s makeup usage, there aren’t any content landmines to worry about.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
