Learning with Ms Rachel
Infants and toddlers are turning Ms Rachel into an influential internet sensation. With followers from all crawls and walks of life, Ms Rachel is leading the language development of little ones with song and specialized skills. Songs for Littles—Rachel’s YouTube channel—employs a combination of music, speech therapy, and early childhood teaching techniques to encourage speech development in toddlers and babies. She features a diverse cast and sings to a globally diverse audience, even including sign language in her videos. With an equally fawning fanbase on TikTok, Ms Rachel is making waves while teaching Littles how to wave, sign, and speak. For those who aren’t familiar with the channel, meet YouTube’s fastest growing education teacher Ms Rachel.
Say Hi to Ms Rachel
Rachel Griffin Accurso is known lovingly by fans aged four and under as Ms Rachel. With a master’s degree in music education from New York University, Rachel was a preschool teacher before becoming YouTube singing-teaching sensation Ms Rachel. An award-winning musician, Rachel is married to an equally prominent figure in music, Broadway composer Aron Accurso. The creative partners and parents write music and scripts for Rachel to perform to 3 million subscribers, building a video library with over 1.5 billion views.
At the time of writing this, Ms Rachel’s YouTube page is the 905th highest ranking YouTube channel in the world, growing an average of 22,000 subscribers per week and averaging over 7.5 million weekly views.
Born of Necessity
Rachel’s brand is authentic and arose out of a genuine need to aid her son, “As a parent, you want to do anything you can to help them and it’s not our fault when our child has a speech delay. A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son,” Rachel told the TODAY show. After failing to find a show that catered to language development in children, she developed Songs for Littles for her little boy Thomas, and the rest is YouTube history.
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Ms Rachel for Bigs and Littles
Many children across the internet and the globe have said their first words with the help of Ms Rachel. This has caused some parents to express gratitude and others to laugh at sounds gone awry. TikTok aside, her largest fanbase remains YouTube with some videos acquiring upwards of 251 million views. Rachel has also become an advocate for parents seeking emotional support. In a voice similar yet lower in pitch, she validates the struggle of moms and dads as parents and people alike, offering them tools to cope and songs to soothe their anxiety.
@msrachelforlittles Ms Rachel for grown-ups! #msrachel #anxiety #ocd #mentalhealth
Parenting with Parentese
Speech therapists seem to approve too, with a plethora reacting to her videos on TikTok, spouting their certified support. Ms Rachel employs a style known as parentese to spur the development of speech in preschoolers and babies. Colloquially referred to as “baby talk,” parentese (or infant-directed speech) relies on stretching words vocally and pronouncing them in a high-pitched, sonorous manner. It is a proven method for boosting a baby’s brain power. As one of the most influential creators, however, Rachel is not without her loyal band of trolls. Often, she is combating comments that mock her tone of voice. Rather than succumb to the hate, she uses them to educate adults on the science behind her creative techniques.
Low-Tech, High-Value
Filmed in her one-bedroom apartment in New York City, Songs for Littles has little in the realm of high production value. It is, however, high in educational value. Parents play Ms Rachel for their children’s language development and not for their visual stimulation. It’s unlikely that an infant would have the cognitive ability to judge the quality of an at-home video. Her YouTube videos make use of stock footage and photography in addition to using run-of-the-mill titles and graphics.
This style is explored further on TikTok where she leverages features like Duets to promote her content and its positive impact on children under 4. With 2.4 million followers on TikTok, it’s clear her strategy is effective and suited to the “low-tech, high social and educational value” videos the platform promotes. Like Ms Rachel, you don’t need a RED camera to get your message across—you just need a message worth sharing.
@msrachelforlittles This will help your baby talk! #babies #babyteacher #youtubekids #howto #milestones #momsoftiktok #toddlermom
Regulating Screen Time and Ads
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) does not recommend screen time for children under 18 months old nor does it condone screen times of an hour or more for children. While language development is crucial, it’s best acquired through human interaction and not through the screen. Although an episode of Songs for Littles runs for an hour on average, Ms Rachel does not recommend screen time for children either. She encourages caregivers to get hands-on with children and use her channel as an interactive learning experience for all. Parents are backing Ms Rachel too despite the AACAP’s recommendations.
While Ms Rachel may not be the type of YouTuber to run sponsored spots on her channel, her channel is still monetized. Albeit most streaming services and television networks for children eliminate ads, YouTube is larger than any one channel and does not adhere to those guidelines.
In spite of this, any ads shown on Songs for Littles appear in the beginning of each episode and are easily bypassed with the “Skip Ad” feature on YouTube.
Ms Rachel’s Rapid Growth
With 101 videos on her channel, Ms Rachel offers content between 30 minutes and 2 hours long. A large factor that continues to teach YouTube’s algorithm the value of videos is average watch time and re-watch rate. With her audience being engaged in long-form content, YouTube promotes the channel to millions of new viewers on a global scale. Ms Rachel’s channel has grown exponentially in the past months and continues to grow by the second (literally).
Meeting Needs Virtually
By providing parents with learning materials, Ms Rachel is fostering the growth of youth outside of the school system. Moreover, she is empowering them through free online resources. The success of Ms Rachel demonstrates that influencers and creators are not limited to one type of character and do not appeal to any one audience. There are limitless opportunities to reach every demographic through social media as opposed to traditional marketing. There are also unlimited influencers for every niche, brand, and industry. If your brand or agency is interested in gaining influential representation by working with Creators like Ms Rachel, Glewee is your platform for connections, collaboration, campaigns, and content.
