Not so long ago the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” usually produced a familiar list of answers: doctor, teacher, astronaut, firefighter. These professions represented stability, aspiration, and career goals but, today, a different answer is becoming increasingly common among children: a YouTuber, or a gamer, or simply, an “influencer”.
These jobs exist exclusively online, on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram where users upload videos of themselves for their audience, known online as “followers” or “subscribers”. From lifestyle content to video games, the internet has it all.
To children watching from their bedrooms, these roles can seem not only glamorous but attainable. Unlike traditional careers that require years of training or university degrees, the rewards of content creation appear immediate and achievable.
This shift says as much about visibility as it does about ambition. Children often model their aspirations on the figures they see most frequently and with social media being more dominant than ever, online figures seem to be the most visible role models to them.
Flexible, creative and fun?
The appeal is obvious. Influencers appear to live flexible, creative, fun lives. Their work often involves travel, fashion, gaming, or lifestyle content – activities that look more fun and exciting when compared to the traditional 9 to 5.
But the reality behind the screen is more complicated.
Content creation is a precarious industry driven by algorithms, advertising revenue, and shifting audience tastes. Permanent success tends to be rare and unpredictable. For every viral creator, there are thousands of people whose videos remain largely unseen. Yet the visibility of the successful few can obscure the instability and insecurity beneath the surface.
For parents and educators, this presents a new challenge: how to encourage creativity and digital literacy while also providing a realistic understanding of work. A primary school teacher I spoke to in Winchester explained how she is finding the cultural shift:
“When YouTube and other social medias started becoming spaces to build careers, it was only a matter of time until these careers became aspirational to the younger generation. As a teacher, I personally find it a hard balance between encouraging my students to chase their dreams but also to set them up for the real world. I want the best for every one of my students and I think reminding them of all the career options out there is important.”
The internet is now a legitimate economic space with social media management, digital marketing, and media production being thriving industries. However, the idea that anyone can simply upload videos and build a career overnight is a misleading illusion.
I want to be famous online
Jennifer in Southampton, a mother to two young children under the age of 10, told me about the shift in aspiration within her own household:
“When my children started to reach the age of having goals and dreams, me and my husband were not prepared for what they told us. We were expecting them to say firefighters, or teachers, or nurses, but they told us they wanted to be ‘YouTubers’ and to be ‘famous online’. It makes you question if you have done something wrong as a parent, but sadly I think that’s just the age we live in now.”
The rise of influencer culture reveals something deeper about how work itself is changing. Traditional professions are no longer the only paths to recognition or financial security. Digital platforms have opened entirely new industries that did not exist twenty years ago: witness the news this week that Argos is promoting a wooden ‘influencer kit’ aimed at toddlers. It comes with a tripod stand, a miniature camera with an adjustable aperture lens, a smartphone model, a tablet, and a microphone, all for just £15.
The question, then, is not whether wanting to be a famous online is inherently misguided. It is whether young people are being shown the full picture. Do they know about the other creative possibilities online: careers in marketing, social media management, and even video editing, but also the competition and the uncertainty?
After all, the next generation is not just watching the internet. They are growing up expecting to be part of it.
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