Dragged By My Heels

Without knowing how or why, my granddaughters have pulled me into a part of their world. Listening to them talk to each other is like listening to a foreign language. I have never heard names they mention, songs they know, or You Tube icons. Today, I know a little bit more than I knew because my Colorado granddaughter and I returned from California and a three day convention that two of my granddaughters attended. VidCon is a gathering of teen-agers who follow YouTube presenters. There are musical, comedy, dancing, game and informative YouTube presentations. Workshops on how to become a video celebrity were also given. I was told that the "Grumpy Cat" was present at the convention. Most of the YouTubers are famous in their own right with each having hundreds of screaming fans.

Some of the names they mentioned were: A Russian by the name of Olga Kay; a musician Jimmy Wong; Michael Buckley with a show called What's the Buck; Lizzie with pink hair; Hannah Hart writing a book called My Drunk Kitchen; Bethany Mota has makeup, hair and clothing line; Shane Dawson comedy videos; plus many, many more "stars." Aside from the "stars" there were booths with robots, peanut butter, arcades, silent music dance (everyone wears earphones and I am not sure if everyone dances to the same music or if everyone dances to what they are hearing,) t-shirts, a hotel where "famous people" hang out and extremely crowded bathrooms!


We would drive the girls to the Anaheim Convention Center, drop them off, and watched as they joined the throngs of other young girls and boys with their red and white badges. We would return home to do our own thing until 7:30 p.m. when we would go pick them up. The girls would be tired, but excited at all the pictures
they had taken with their favorite "stars," and with their VidCon bag filled with goodies from the convention. A Frisbee, a story book, sunglasses, pins, bracelets, a deck of cards and buttons were some of the things they found in their VidCon bag. When they mentioned they stood in line for three hours to get a photograph taken with a favorite YouTube person, I thought it was a bit much!

Some of the stars they met on the first day were Shana Malcom (funny/games), Steph, Miles Jai, Stacy, Lahwf (does pranks and stares at people) Kat, Max, and Andre (Black nerd comedy) and Mitchell Davis. When the girls arrived home they put the information on the lap top and relived their fun day. Some of their comments were "had so much fun," "waiting can sometimes be worth it," and "it was a great time!"

The Los Angeles Times featured two articles on the convention. It mentioned that those attending were "mostly teens and young adults armed with smart phones and video cameras." On the last day, one granddaughter who loves peanut butter, came home with three jars!

I titled this blog "Dragged By My Heels" because I feel that my not knowing anything about Vloging, the convention, or some of the YouTube stars, I was dragged into a world I probably would never have known if it weren't for my granddaughters!