When a child’s life becomes the family business

Evan Lee, better known as EvanTube, still had his baby teeth when he became an influencer. Now 19, he’s ready to reflect on what that kind of exposure meant.

Evan Lee, better known as EvanTube, in his childhood bedroom in El Dorado Hills, California. At 19, it is difficult for him to remember precisely how he achieved his childhood fame. “My brain was still developing when I was that young,” he says. The New York Times

Lisa Miller

May 30, 2025 – 5.00am

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Evan Lee was in primary school when he became the linchpin of his family’s business. With his neatly combed hair and dimpled smile, he was a charm bomb, conveying on camera both the cheerful sincerity of a boy scout and the precocious charisma of a whiz kid. Evan, eventually known to 7 million YouTube subscribers as EvanTube, was one of the earliest kid influencers, internet famous for playing with toys.

EvanTube blew up by accident in October 2011, when a freelance videographer named Jared Lee sculpted the entire cast of the Angry Birds video game out of modelling clay for his five-year-old son. Delighted by this handiwork, Evan and Jared decided to make a home video, like a show and tell. Situated at the family’s dining table with the figurines arrayed before him, Evan earnestly explained each character’s special powers, according to the video game.