fame, fortune, fight clubs, and foreclosures: the not so family friendly affairs of the ace family
how do you fumble the bag so hard...repeatedly?? / day 2 of blogmas
i have been diagnosed with being chronically online since the times you used to have to tie up the phone line to play neopets. the reason i am able to bring you up to speed on the most irrelevant news is one of the few benefits of my disease. there is a podcast a friend recommended to me called you’re wrong about that i love listening to because i have yet to miss! certain basic things (how to pronounce alias, long division, folding clean laundry) are bounced out of my brain for absolutely useless trivia about everything from the wizard of oz to papa john’s personal life to listing every state in alphabetical order.
i am a visual learner so youtube videos are burned into my brain forever. i can still recall, verbatim, videos from 2006 that no longer even exist on the platform. since it first launched in 2005, youtube has had different waves of popular trends from storytimes to the british invasion to asmr to challenge videos to boyfriend tags to mukbangs! popular youtubers would be forced to adapt to the latest trend if they wanted to stay relevant. a lot of people got burnt out trying. but years before adpocalypse would strike, family channels began to rise in the ranks. what began as sweet look into the lives of normal people quickly shifted into invasive cash factories that showcased children unable to fully consent to being filmed once the views and money started rolling in.
in the worst cases, there has been documented physical abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, and their have been channels that have had cps involved. i think family channels, despite the even the best/purest intent, are not healthy and should be banned. i used to love winding down the day by watching several1 family channels so i have seen the good/the bad/the devastating. but all good things must come to an end. even if there is nothing sinister going on behind the scenes, there are no protections set in place the way child actors are protected from being overworked and having trusts for their hard earned cash. there is also no way to know the psychological effects of growing up and having your parents blast every detail of your life to the world. as well as having to be camera ready constantly! i barely cannot get through a few hours of being on my best behaviour at family holidays so i cannot imagine if i am crying about having a bad day and here comes my mother with the selfy stick.
the ace family is someone who has broken the ranks of family channel fame and made it to the mainstream, but usually not for great reasons. austin, catherine, and elle started their channel in 2016. i did not realise until i was researching for this but i had started watching their channel almost immediately after they started. their ability to market is truly unprecedented. elle was genuinely the cutest baby ever. she looked like she was plucked from a disney channel cartoon!
the first video i watched of theirs was austin and catherine doing an outfit swap in public. it is, unfortunately, exactly what you think it is. why i watched this/my algorithm suggested it to me is between me and god! i realised catherine looked familiar because of her legendary totally not staged vacation photoshoot with michael bartholomew jordan. mbj went on to shoot incredible films like that awkward moment, while catherine went on to meet austin mcbroom.
austin was in college playing basketball when he met catherine. his temper was present even then, causing him to leave two schools due to arguments with coaches. catherine was a gorgeous girl publicly hanging around los angeles with very famous men. their chance meeting at a dinner party and surprise pregnancy would ultimately lead to them being the 289th most subscribed channel on youtube. that may not seem like a big deal but youtube currently has 2 billion users in 104 countries with over 37 million channels. their lighthearted pranks, daily vlogs showcasing their adorable babies, and collaborations with other popular youtubers helped earn them over 20 million subscribers. you would think that having that many eyes on them (and publicly parenting three young children) would cause them to be on their best behaviour. you would think.
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