Kids want to be influencers when they grow up, because they ‘gets lots of money’ and ‘they want to be famous’

A second grader in Norway drew a You Tube logo when my colleagues and I asked what they wanted to be when they grow up. When we asked why, the child explained that You Tubers are famous and make lots of money. When we asked second graders in Wisconsin this same question, we were surprised to often receive similar answers: Kids there also wanted to be You Tube influencers when they grow up. I am a scholar of career and technical education. Since 2021, colleagues and I have spoken with a range of elementary, middle and high school students as young as 7 years old in the U.S. and Norway in 2024 to understand how children imagine their careers. Our forthcoming research shows that social media has emerged as one of the biggest influences for young people’s career choice, second only to family, friends or teachers. Over 60% of middle and high school students we surveyed from 2021-2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or picked their future careers based on what they saw online. Other popular choices were professional soccer player, musician and actor. Most young people will not go on to become successful social media influencers. Artur Debat/iStock Photos Our process In a separate January 2018 international study by the organization Education and Employers, 20,000 children, ages 7 to 11, were asked about their possible future careers and then explained how they learned about that job. We decided to use a similar approach to understand children’s career dreams and influences. In Wisconsin, we surveyed more than 80 different children, ages 7 to 11. We also conducted focus groups with more than 140 middle and high school students about their academic and career plans and what influenced their ideas. We then conducted interviews in Norway with over 60 children in the same age range. In both places, we gave kids simple prompts that included “When I grow up I would like to be … .” We also asked them, “How do you know about this job?” We found that there is a disconn