The Kabs: We quit our jobs to run a family YouTube channel

While many of us recall dreaming of becoming a famous pop star or footballer when we grew up, today many children dream of becoming an influencer on TikTok or a YouTube star.

Nowadays, these platforms offer an incredible opportunity for people to become fully-fledged stars with millions of followers, without having to leave the house.

To get an insight into what’s it like, we spoke to famous YouTube family The Kabs.

Chan and Tay Kabs, both 30, have three kids and 812,000 subscribers who love to follow the family's antics on YouTube.

It’s been three years since the North London couple started sharing their lives on YouTube - along with their children Teija, 11, Maliya, four and one-year-old-old TJ

Millions of people have watched Maliya dancing in the car and singing along - with one video racking up 19 million views alone.

Now the couple says the best bit of becoming a YouTube family is the opportunity to include their children in their work.

The family are working with vitamin brand Haliborange, on its #ItsAllNormal campaign, encouraging family units of different types to share their ‘normal’.

Both parents have left their former jobs - Tay previously worked as a Sky engineer while Chan worked as a cardiac technician - to work on their channel full time.

Chan said: “The best bits for us is to spending time together and working as a family. “I think because we all do enjoy it so much, it’s great to do something you love and spend time with your family.

“We're able to get really more involved in their life, whereas when you're working, nine to five, you can miss so much.”

The channel initially started off with just dad Tay and daughter Teija - after mum Chan suggested the pair share a video they had recorded on Facebook.

It quickly racked up more than 100,000 views and the duo kept on recording themselves and eventually involved the entire family.

Tay said: “It started with me and Teija in the car fooling around the car making videos to send to Chan to make her happy in the mornings.

“She said to us, ‘why don’t you post it on Facebook?’

“I didn't really want to do it. Who would want to see me and my daughter just sing in the car?

“It got 100,000 views and we realised this might be a thing.

"We started doing it every day and got to a stage where we just started changing it up a bit.

“When Snapchat came around, we’d film behind-the-scenes videos and it turned into all of us [doing it] together.”

Fans love their family-friendly content - and the couple says they love including their children, who enjoy taking part.

Many YouTubers opt for a picture-perfect channel, with a pristine house and carefully curated content.

But mum Chan says fans appreciate the family keeping it real and showing when their house is a mess and the kids are fed up.

She said: “There is no blueprint for parenting. There's no specific way it should look.

“I think what we do in our day to day shows that because we show when the kids have drained us.

“We show when the house is a state and when there are toys everywhere.

“I think it’s lockdown, there's not much you can do.

“The more you show it, the more people feel comfortable to know that okay, I'm not the only one going through this.”

It can be a tough job running a YouTube channel - plenty of anonymous commenters aren't afraid to hold back.

But, in a rare show of unity, many of the comments on the Kabs channel are cheerful - with many praising the children.

Tay said: “The toughest bit for me is being creative - you always have to think of something creative to put out.

“But we just show our real life - we don’t try to make it up."

Chan added: “With regards to the Haliborange campaign, I think this is our way of parenting.

“Everybody has their own way. So, I just feel that for those people who do have [negative] comments, this is just our way of doing it.

“It doesn't have to be okay, for you. There are so many different styles of parenting.

“If our kids don’t feel like filming, they don’t. Tay and I take over the camera.”

After the second lockdown was announced, influencers and celebrities who flocked abroad received huge criticism on social media.

Meanwhile, the Kabs family stayed firmly at home - with videos showing what they’ve been up into lockdown.

Chan said: “I think that is one of the main things about being an influencer.

“You can also you can influence positively and show that normal life is fine.

“The social media lifestyle sometimes can seem very far away from reality.”