YouTube is a forum for anyone to share their videos, whether they are humorous, serious, musical, or just strange. People post videos of their cats running around, themselves singing, or commenting on issues or popular videos they have found. But there are those few who have risen above the usual lip-syncing videos, and launched themselves into fame. They are the YouTube celebrities.

    Justin Bieber was discovered through YouTube, as well as new musical duo Karmin, who has started touring and recently performed on Saturday Night Live. Other notable names include Bo Burnham, a comedy singer and rapper, The Gregory Brothers, who produced the hit “The Bed Intruder Song”, and Jenna Marbles, a comedy blogger. Sophomore Isabel Martin said about  Jenna Marbles,“I think she’s really funny and it’s really entertaining to watch her videos.”

     On the subject of her favorite Youtube star, freshman Addison Silva said “Mree. She writes her own music and she does covers too. It’s really soulful and peaceful.”

    A channel to look up: Walk Off The Earth. After the huge success of their cover of “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye, this band has some really great covers and original works as well.

    The ranges of big YouTube celebrities can be serious, funny, blogging, or even showing off short movies and animation. But what some people don’t know is that some of the higher watched people are paid by the ad companies to put their advertisements at the beginning of their videos. According to TubeMogul, an advertising company, there were some stars that made over $100,000 from July 2009 to July 2010. The ads that they get paid for are the banner ads.

    According to TubeMogul, the highest grossing YouTube celebrity in July 2010 is Shane Dawson, whose videos at that time were over 400,000,000 views, and he gets paid about 315,000. Other people that make the top ten include The Annoying Orange, at $288,000, Ryan Higa at $151,000, and Fred (who is getting his own TV show on Nickelodeon), for $148,000.

    On the subject of the stars that get paid, senior Megan Rafferty said, “I did not know they get paid for those, but I think if the ads don’t hurt anyone then there’s nothing wrong with it.”

   YouTube has become ingrained in society, with the political messages such as Kony 2012 as well as humorous satire. Anyone can post videos, and who knows? Maybe you’ll become a YouTube star too.