FIFE, Wash. — She may be only 10 years old but Emily Gapon already has her own YouTube channel, "Emily's English" with thousands of subscribers tuning in to learn a new language.
"Hello my friends!," she says at the start of every clip. "Privet, moi druzʹya!" she adds in Russian.
"I teach people English by speaking Russian," Gapon said.
Her parents are from Ukraine, so she grew up speaking Russian at home.
"Before I went to kindergarten they taught me how to speak Russian correctly and then they sent me off to school," Gapon said.
"Emily's English" began at the start of the pandemic in March of 2020 when she was 7 years old and stuck at home.
"Emily had lots of free time so we wanted her to be busy and the way to keep her busy was to start this YouTube channel," her mother Anna Gapon said.
More than a million people have seen the first video.
"She did great and we thought we would continue with that idea," Emily's mother said.
At first, Emily Gapon's videos were all done at home. Then she began taking the show on the road. First Seattle. Then as far away as Dubai. The videos have become more extravagant too.
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"Emily's English" is a family affair.
"Emily is our actress," Anne Gapon said. "I am the scriptwriter and Evelyn's in charge of subtitles and her dad, my husband, is the cameraman, producer, and editor.
They're paid in complements. Most are sent from the other side of the world. Sometimes it's even closer.
"I asked my teacher if she could show my "Emily's English" video and then all my classmates were just like, 'Wow!' They were in shock. They loved it!" Emily said.
With "Emily's English," one little girl is making a very big world a friendlier place for us all.
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