not push Makenna to answer in a favourable way, 090
nor is she pushing her daughter into stardom in
pursuit of fame or riches. “She makes significantly
more money than I do and works significantly less
than I do,” laughs Lacy, sitting with her legs tucked
underneath her in the middle of the family’s modest
apartment. “She doesn’t have to babysit or dog-sit
or anything, so it works out good.” Her daughter
smiles shyly, showing off pink braces: “I do want
to babysit though! I like kids.”
“She has definitely set herself up for a good
future. I don’t want to give exact figures,” says
Lacy – who Kelly calls her “momager”. Lacy gives
her daughter $300 pocket money every month.
“The rest of the money is in a savings account. When
she gets older, she’ll have the opportunity to buy a
home, a car, within reason. She swears she’s gonna
get a Lamborghini, and we said absolutely not.”
“Hey!” Kelly retorts. “When I have the money I’m
gonna get it!” She is an animated child, fashion-
conscious in an off-the-shoulder dress, her brand
new bob haircut swinging as she speaks. Her
iridescent rainbow false nails flash in the November
sunlight that her two cats – the hairless Gwenie and
the hairy Aggie – are soaking up.
Kelly knows that she inspires other kids to take up
ASMR – children at school ask for advice on videos.
At one football game, kids swamped her for photos.
“It was like... crazy,” Kelly whispers dramatically.
“I walked past this group of cheerleaders and they
all got quiet. They came up one after another and
were like, ‘Let’s take a picture.’”
Emotionally, Kelly and Daniel seem equipped to
deal with this backlash. (Aoki Hunnicutt remains
blissfully unaware of negativity, and much else to do
with fame – at one point in our interview, she asks
with concern: “Mummy, I thought we were going
to do an interview?”) Yet while they are fine with
their fame, it may trouble the young stars to lose it.
“We talked to her about how it’s good today
but might be gone tomorrow,” Lacy says. With
YouTube’s stricter regulations, child ASMRtists
may be replaced by an as yet unknown breed of
internet celebrity. Desiree Hunnicutt is hoping
that Aoki’s early debut on YouTube will allow her
to start a business. “I believe in Aoki figuring out
what it is that she wants to do in life even early on
and I hope it actually helps her,” she says.
With the summer over and homework to focus
on, Kelly isn’t making any more custom videos. She
continues to upload her regular videos two or three
times a week, but doesn’t want to do it for ever.
“I don’t know, I might continue doing YouTube
for a few more years but I definitely don’t want it
to be my job when I’m older, because I like going
out of the house for a job,” she says, now restless at
the end of our interview, telling her mum she’d like
to grab some chicken nuggets. (I wonder, will she
film herself eating them?) Kelly would like to be an
actor, or a dermatologist, or a teacher – she’s young
enough to neither know nor really care.
Whatever career path she chooses, however, one
thing is almost guaranteed. Makenna Kelly will most
likely be the first person to buy a Lamborghini with
money earned from eating cookies and milk. Amelia Tait wrote about Bumble in 10.17to tell you the truth, I didn’t know what it was and
he kept explaining it to me until I figured it out.”
Daniel and Prunkl might have it figured out but,
like Makenna Kelly, they still experience troubling
comments. An older man sends Daniel letters and
once drove past him on the street and shouted at
him. Prunkl describes the man as “fixated”.
“In one letter he made a stylised JacobJacob15
ASMR logo, and I looked and found out he took my
channel name and basically put it on a swastika,”
Daniel says. “And he said he was sending me a
motivational armband. I know a lot about history,
and I know who had motivational armbands.”
Daniel and Prunkl keep a folder full of this
man’s transgressions and have notified the local
police. “Sometimes it scares me,” Daniel confesses,
quieter now. “It does scare me that this guy could
be anywhere.” Similarly, Kelly fears her address
could leak online, and takes steps to counter this.
For these families, such concerns are just another
part of YouTube fame. “He’s putting himself out
there. You’re gonna expect some people to do things
if you’re putting yourself out there,” says Prunkl,
“no different from a singer or a movie star.”
The left side of Makenna Kelly’s bedroom is just like
any other child’s. Her silver and white bedspread
matches a feature wall, she has a dresser with her
own TV, and her nickname – “Kenna” – is spelled
out in wooden letters above the window. On the
right side of her room, however, things are less
ordinary. There are three professional studio lights
and a tripod, a silver plaque congratulating her on
100,000 YouTube subscribers and a framed letter
from Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO. Sellotaped
on the closet door is the fan mail.
“I love you so much!” writes 11-year-old Keeley.
“You inspire me to keep filming videos.” Some kids
have drawn Kelly, others her cats. One child sent
ten dollars and asked to be mentioned in a video.
Audrey (who signs off as “your biggest fan”)
writes that Kelly inspires her, but she’s scared to
start making ASMR videos because “I don’t want
to be made fun of at school or something”.
Mockery is a problem for any child in the
limelight – one of Jacob Daniel’s fellow ASMRtist
United founders quit YouTube after being picked
on at school. Kelly says there are rumours that one
girl at school said she was “annoying”, but most
people think her channel is “cool”.
Yet Kelly isn’t just a famous ASMRtist – she is also
a meme. People edit her videos into short clips and
share them with relatable captions. “She did not
get at it first, she just kind of thought, well, memes
can be mean,” says Lacy, who had to explain to her
daughter what a meme was. “Now she thinks they’re
hilarious, she’s seen a million of herself.”
Lacy is no cliché pageant mum. Lounging on the
sofa with wet hair and a grey T-shirt emblazoned
with a peace sign, she sits back, scrolling on her
phone, to let her child speak candidly. She does
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AGE: 44
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AGE: 36
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is huge in ASMR videos.
Canadian Sas specialises
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five-year-old ASMR
star Aoki HunnicuttPROP^ STYLIST(PREVIOUS^ SPREAD):^DANE^JOHNSON