YouTube Stars Young and Old

Posted on August 22, 2006

YouTube stars come in all ages. The Browser blogs about 79-year-old YouTube star Peter, also known as geriatric1927.

The YouTube community, seen by many as a strictly teen scene, has welcomed its new old member with open arms, the Guardian reports, with users leaving over 6,000 comments on his first clip. The subject matter seems wholly unremarkable -- Peter discusses his love for blues music and motorcycles and reminisces about raising his children -- but in the less than two weeks since he posted the clip on August 5, it's been viewed more than 850,000 times, according to Vnunet.com. "This YouTube experience has been one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience," Peter told Vnunet.

Meanwhile, the New York Times Screen blog discusses young lonelygirl15 (she's not 103 as her profile suggests) and her sidekick Danielbeast. Lonelygirl15 (Bree) also has a MySpace profile. Screen says she already has huge online fame.

In her videos, she perfects the emo girl-in-her-room pose, balancing playful and moody as she muses about her life and times. She has huge online fame; repressive, religious parents who probably know nothing about YouTube; and a sibling-ish love affair with her video editor. What could be more 2006? Obviously the implication from the stills that promote her videos is that she's going to strip, but she never does, and she controls that shell game by being sweetly deaf to innuendo.

Lonelygirl15 has 1,294,923 views and over 15,000 subscribers. Geriatric1927 has 674,169 views and 22,414 subscribers. It's good to see that people of all ages are welcomed at YouTube.