“Charlie is internet royalty–but the good kind of royalty that excels in all pursuits, does nice things for charity, and looks good on a stamp … Charlie is the Internet’s second-most important development. The first, of course, is the LOLcat.” Maureen Johnson said about the infamous Charlie McDonnell (Charlie McDonnell - Quote Sheet). Charlie had a fairly ordinary childhood. He was the first born child to a lower class family living on the borders of England. He was always very shy and his mother was always worried for his anti-social tendencies. She signed him up for weekly speech and drama classes when he was around seven. The speech and drama classes didn’t really help Charlie break out of his introverted ways, but rather gave him a passion for performing. He remained anti-social throughout his high school years, though his interest in acting rapidly increased. He procrastinated on studying for a college exam by recording himself, editing, and finally uploading the finished video to YouTube. Though he’s still not quite the popular, outgoing type of guy, Charlie McDonnell is a YouTube sensation and is loved by many people.
Charlie thought YouTube was just a website where people go to watch clips of TV shows and videos of dogs riding skateboards; Charlie didn’t have much of any idea that there was anything resembling a community on YouTube. He had no idea that YouTube would make a huge impact in his life. At first he would just listen to music, watch videos, and that typical thing. The first ‘vlog’ (video diary) Charlie had ever watched was back in April of 2007, which was called the ‘Liker Chain Resurrected’. It was a video that went through a list of vloggers who were making great content on YouTube at the time. “I actually made the YouTube account because I was going to make a short film with my friend, but we never got around to making it. I had the YouTube account, so, I thought minus well do something with it. I saw people making video blogs, so I just sort of gave it a go,” Charlie once said during an interview on BBC Breakfast (McDonnell, charlieissocoollike interview - BBC Breakfast - BBC One ). YouTube is what really launched Charlie’s career as a musician, comedian, and just genuine person. Stumbling across Charlie’s awesomeness on YouTube is a life changing event.
Charlie is in a band that categorizes themselves into the genre ‘Time Lord Rock’. It’s generally a band based on a popular television program in the United Kingdom called Doctor Who. Doctor Who is a television series that’s been around for about fifty or so years. It’s about an alien man who travels through time and space in a little blue police box. Charlie and his friends began this band obsessing over the television show. It began when Charlie wrote the song, “Blink” about one particular episode. When he first uploaded the video of himself performing the song with his ukulele and guitar, he didn’t realize how huge this was all going to be for him in the long run. He didn’t realize that he’d end up in one of the biggest Doctor Who bands that were ever formed. “If I’m proud of something then my priority is to share it with the world, not simply to profit from it in whatever way I can find (McDonnell, Charlie McDonnell - College Survey).” His musical career helped him become a more successful and famous person all around. People can learn that Charlie doesn’t think of himself as a musical genius but he does it for fun.
Charlie doesn’t try to impress people by being someone he isn’t. What Charlie attempts to do is to make videos for himself; not for a general audience. He makes videos that please him; even when dealing with criticism from his internet stardom, Charlie takes the genuine “constructive” criticism he calls it, and does his best to process it and figure out whether or not he thinks it’s a swell idea. “I just try to be myself and make stuff that I’m happy with (McDonnell, Charlie McDonnell - College Survey).” Charlie is probably one of the most influential people on the internet today. He’s fundraised for charity events such as UNICEF and the RNLI Shout. This shows who Charlie is as a person and that he really isn’t at all interested in becoming famous. The fame had just stumbled upon him in some well off way and he’s mostly around to make himself happy and make his time on earth somewhat a bit more interesting than everyone else’s life.
Though he’s not quite the people-person type of guy, Charlie McDonnell is a YouTube sensation and is loved by many people. The overall significance of his life is that he tries to teach people to be happy with themselves. He’s a wonderful person, musician, and video blogger. He’s satisfied with how things have turned out in his life and rather proud that he’s able to do something he loves and make money for it.