Interview by Carol Wright| Photographer: Cecile Boko

During the pandemic, while all of us were baking banana bread and watching Tiger King on Netflix, Graceyn Hollingsworth, and her family decided to launch the YouTube channel Gracie’s Corner. To help bring much-needed representation to the kid’s education space. Now, the channel has over two million subscribers and counting, and there is no sign of things slowing down any time soon.

What led your family to create Gracie’s Corner?

During the pandemic, me and my brother and sister were at home watching a lot of stuff on TV. My parents saw that there was not a lot of diversity in the videos that we were watching and wanted to do something about it. At the time, I also wanted my own YouTube channel. My dad came up with the idea of an animated learning channel with music. I love to sing so my mom thought I should sing the songs. So we gave it a shot. The rest is history.

There is not a lot of kid’s content featuring Black girls as a central character. Has it been exciting to give kids the representation they’re looking for?

It has been very exciting. My mom and dad sometimes let me read the comments from viewers thanking me for the videos that I help make. They say that it really helps their kids learn. They are happy to see the representation, because representation matters, and they like it a lot. It feels good to create something that is making a difference.

When it comes to creating the episodes are a lot of the topics and songs based on things that you’ve had to learn growing up?

Yes! Growing up I loved singing nursery rhymes with my parents. We have recreated a lot of my favorite ones like Skidamirink. When we are thinking about new videos, I like to share what songs I would like to make next based on nursery rhymes I like and things I think can help kids learn.

This year you all partnered with Snoop Dogg to do a series of videos. How did that opportunity come about?

My mom and dad one day told me that Snoop Dogg wanted to make a song with me. I thought it was cool, because it’s Snoop Dogg. Like Snoop Dogg really wants to work with me! They sent us the song and my dad and I recorded our part a couple of times. It was a really awesome opportunity.

Do you have a favorite episode or Gracie’s Corner song that you all have done?

My favorite video so far is the Countdown video. I really like the astronaut suits and the characters floating in outer space.

The YouTube channel has grown exponentially this past year. Do you all see yourselves expanding beyond YouTube?

We would love to expand to be everywhere, maybe on Netflix or a TV channel. That would be neat.