Moms of 'kidfluencers' defend sharing their lives online
The two moms behind the new docuseries "Born to Be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers" are defending their choice to share their families' lives online.
Ami McClure told "Good Morning America" on Wednesday morning that only a small portion of her kids' lives and their family life is made public, and she doesn't mind sharing a glimpse of it with others.
"For us, we got into it not with the intent of becoming 'influencers,'" McClure said.
McClure's twins, Ava and Alexis, first went viral when they were both 3 years old, and the family even appeared on "GMA" in 2016. McClure said the experience inspired her and her husband Justin McClure to consider turning their family vlogging into a family business.
"You're having fun. You're making family content and people start to follow," McClure said of their journey at the beginning. "And at that point, we realized it really can be a business. It's something we can do."
Years later, McClure said her daughters are outgoing and they still "continue to have fun" with making shared family content.
"Our kids love it. We're having a lot of fun all the time, and I don't mind sharing little bits of who we are," the mom of three said. "People think they see everything, but they really don't. [Just] a little, little portion of who we are."
For Madison Fisher, family vlogging has felt like an extension of her early life as a child actress and model and her husband Kyler Fisher's background as an actor and country singer, but she also said her kids get to be who they are, even if some moments are captured on camera.
"My kids have the best childhood … They're kids all day long, and they're so creative and fun, and they're always with their friends and enjoying their childhood," the mom of five said.
"It's become such a natural family vlog, in-the-moment type of content for our family, and it just comes so naturally, and we're just sharing happy moments that they're proud of -- that we're proud of," she continued.
When it comes to family vlogging, McClure said in reality, they record only for short periods instead of all day long.
"It's not like, 'Oh, we're following you around every moment. What are you doing?' … [It's] 'OK, we're going to shoot for 25 minutes.' Then, we're done. We move on," McClure said. "We go out to lunch together. They do gymnastics, jujitsu, they're doing all their activities."
Family vlogging and "kidfluencing" have turned out to be lucrative for the Fishers, McClures and other families.
In a clip from "Born to Be Viral," Justin McClure says their family made about $30,000 a month from advertisements through YouTube, and Kyler Fisher says, "There are some days where we could pay for an entire college career in one day."
But for families who want to follow in their footsteps, Ami McClure warned "it's not that easy."
"Obviously, you can make it. It can be lucrative, but it's hard," she told "GMA."
"It's a full-time job for us," she continued. "We have to [decide] what are we going to shoot? What's going on? What might do well? Let's edit after this. Our kids, once they're done, they just run off. They just go play … and we're back here trying to literally run the business -- so letting people know, like, it's not just pick up a camera and just do it. It's very hard."
Despite the work they put in, however, Madison Fisher said she still recommends family vlogging to other families who want to pursue it as well.
"Although it's hard, I do always tell people ... if you want to get into it, go for it," she said. "Because it has been so amazing for us, it can be amazing for someone else."
"Born to Be Viral: The Real Lives of Kidfluencers" follows the lives of the Fisher and McClure child influencers over the course of five years. Episodes of "Born to Be Viral" are streaming weekly on Freeform, and the full six-episode docuseries is available to stream on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News, Hulu and Freeform.
