I just wanted this to be a fun video. I really did. I was like, "Oh, let's talk about animations"
'cuz those are always fun. The worst thing that
I was planning on talking about was this story, that went viral,
of a prince that was pursuing a princess... ...and then at the very end of the story,
the princess turns ugly... ...but, the moral is that
the prince accepts her anyway... (Prince) You think I care how you look?! ...and you shouldn't
worry so much about your looks, Out there, young kids. Umm... Except for by "ugly" they mean "black". So that's upsetting. (pop) So then I was like, what else can I talk about? And I figured, Hey, why not check up on
our favorite animated story channels, like Actually Happened and My Story Animated. You know the ones...that...tell completely true stories (completely)... from kids that aren't made up whatsoever. But the problem, is that
these animated story channels have gotten too bad. They've gotten too bad! It's like almost not funny anymore. It's to the point where I think
YouTube has to do something about it! If you don't know what I'm talking about,
there are these animated story channels where they pretend to tell stories from kids
that are provably lies. And if you look at their videos,
it's like the most sensational stories imaginable. "My Stepmother Hated Me So I Had To Move Out", Umm... "I Was Switched At Birth With Another Baby"? "I Got Pregnant At 15 And My Boyfriend Is Shocked". Like, we'll get into this. So they got popular, I think they have like
3 million subscribers now, and that spurred a bunch of copycats,
the main one being My Story Animated, which is another fake channel by
a random Israeli app developer. I've talked about that before. Oh, one thing I left out about Actually Happened is that in my first video about them, I found that they were like,
stealing the stories from Reddit, and, uh... Also...um...found like, a job posting
by them where they talk about how you just make up the story
and it just needs to sound plausible. "You can use as references the stories of real people
that they've shared on various social media platforms." "The story needs to be
written in lively colloquial English." Oh my god. "The American viewers should feel that
your central characters are native English speakers." "We strongly recommend writing the text in English
and then translating it into Russian." And that's fine. That's just the way things are, but the other thing is if they treat these like, very... inappropriate and...serious subjects,
that should be treated with care, but they're just like...treating them like a soap opera. Hi. My name is Sophie. I'm 17 years old. I'm telling you this story in order to talk to somebody, Hoping that this way, I will feel better. Not that long ago-- And it got to the point where
I made my own parody animation channel, To...I guess, bring to light how easy it is
to just lie in an animation for kids. And that went far better than it should have gone. The final stunt that I pulled was that
I made a website called animatedstorytitles.com, where I randomly generate titles to
new animated stories that don't exist, Based on the ones that do exist. And...um... Judging by my Twitter mentions... People are really connecting with that. And it's unfortunately gotten to the point where
I can't tell the difference between a real animated story video on YouTube
and one that was generated by my website. In fact, let's play a little game. This game is called ummm... I'm just gonna say a few of these titles
and you can keep track of your guesses, "I Was Afraid of the Government
So I Got a Baby to Save My Parents". "My Parents Left Me for Dead So I Became a Star". And finally, "I'll Become a Father at 14.
I'm Terrified. Please Help Me!" (Upbeat game show music)
Alright, You got your guesses in? Here comes the answer. They're all... Fake. (music stops) Oh, uh... This is... This is a crumpled-up dollar bill. They're all real. I'm gonna need to warm you up
to the fact these channels are truly horrible, so, let's start with something lighter, like... How about... "My Parents Left Me to Die,
But I Survived and Became a Star". 'Hi, everybody. My childhood might shock you.' His voice is so intense.
It sounds like he's from a dystopian future. (Intense voice) In my world,
the androids have killed everyone. (chuckles) Like Future Trunks? 'When you complain about how little you have,
or just take pity on yourself, you must always remember that there are
many people in this world that have way less.' (no don't do that) *sigh* I don't know, it's a little belittling of
like, individual struggles, you know? Like, you're allowed to feel your feelings. I get that they're trying to be inspiring, but...okay. Let me start from the very beginning of my life. I do not remember it, of course. But when I found out,
I was sad, and happy at the same time. They always use so many words
to say like, absolutely nothing. It's like in grade school when you'd have to
like, reach the minimum word count for an essay. (Creative music)
Hmm. "The dog...is brown..." (Music stops) No, that won't do it. "The dog...and..." (Dramatic music)
When I tell you what color it was
I was both happy and sad at the same time." "And you will be too once you hear my story." (Music stops) It is brown... 'You see, my family was so poor that when I was born, my mother and father could not afford to
pay the doctor who helped my mother give birth to me.' 'Can you imagine?' No! No, I can't imagine. 'And you know what happened next?' 'The doctor suggested that they leave me with him
as payment for his services.' What?? This isn't how...medical bills work. Mmm...looks like you're short on the bill, so... Fork over the baby. 'I can only imagine what use
he would have had for a newborn child.' I also don't know what this doctor
would want with a BABY! Unless...he's a doctor slash
black market baby merchant. 'Luckily for me, my father
managed to make some money, and also borrowed a dollar here, a dime there, (Mario coin sound) and raised the amount I was worth.' Is it just me, or does the Super Mario reference
seem really inappropriate? (Sad music)
"My father, he...managed to scrounge..." "...every last penny to pay
the evil doctor for my delivery." "CHA-CHING!"
(Mario coin sound) 'I grew up as an abundantly energetic child,
and to put this energy to use, my father would wake me up at dawn
to practice martial arts.' 'We practiced kung fu together, and he also taught me to do simple acrobatics
like somersaults (ok) and backflips (wut).' Alright, weird flex. "Simple acrobatics like backflips"? But he's so caught up in his martial arts training that he does poorly in school and fails out of the third grade. 'So instead, my father decided to enroll me
in the drama academy at a local theater school.' 'Sounds miraculous, doesn't it?' N-...not "miraculous". Also, I like how they just
put drama masks on like, a shrine. 'I still remember walking into
the musty halls of that school, tightly clutching my father's hand.' 'My fears, If there were any fears at all,
disappeared as my eyes gazed upon the dozens of kids my age and older,
somersaulting and playing with swords and sticks.' 'It looked like Disneyland to me.' So he definitely said "theater school",
but the depiction is of a, like... Martial arts fighting academy? 'So I very quickly let go of my father's hand
and put my little palm into the hand of my new master.' Such a weird sentence. (Dramatic) "And I put my itty-bitty little palm
in the palm of my master." (laughs) But then uh oh, the theater school turns out not...
to be all sunshine and rainbows. 'But the magic soon wore off
when a child was enrolled in this school.' 'A contract between the parents
and the administration was drawn up.' 'According to this agreement,
one of the main clauses was that the parents wouldn't have any recourse
in the case their child was injured or even... ...DIED." Yeah, umm...that's a standard liability clause. Have you never been on a field trip? I guess they...probably don't have field trips
at martial arts boot camp? 'There was no miracle for me,
neither at school, nor at home.' 'Unemployment in my home country rose high.' "Unemployment in my unnamed home country". They never name where they are in these stories. Which is weird, because they're already so fake,
they could at least pick a specific location. So then his parents inexplicably
leave their undisclosed home country and go to Australia,
which they do mention by name... '--had to move to Australia.' ...but don't take him along. I guess that's why the title of this video is
"My Parents Left Me to Die"? 'I stayed at the drama academy,
where we had all kinds of training.' And then while they're describing this
brutal martial arts slash theatre education... 'We had to get up at 5 a.m.
and train for 15, 16 hours a day.' 'Corporal punishment and psychological pressure
was commonplace at the school.' ...they start dropping like...hints about his identity? 'At one of the construction sites,
a fellow worker took me under his wing.' 'His name was Jack,
and I got the nickname "Little Jack", which was soon shortened to "Jackie",' Is this...Jackie Chan? '...Jackie Chan.' What?! That's not Jackie Chan's origin story! Sure, Jackie Chan went to a theater school,
but his parents didn't leave him for dead! They took a real famous person's origin story
and then changed the details to make it more dramatic? Can they do this? There's no way that Jackie Chan signed off on this. There's another video that they did, called "I Was So Poor I Wore a Potato Sack Dress to School, Now All the World Knows Me", where the woman in the thumbnail
is wearing a name tag that says "OPRAH"! 'My name is Oprah Winfrey.' Are they allowed to pretend to be Oprah?? It's at the very least misleading, because their audience doesn't know that
Oprah didn't...collab with Actually Happened. "Wait, so if Oprah's here,
then doesn't that mean Actually Happened is real?" I'm tired of this channel, man! I like how they found
an American person to do the voice, but the script is still obviously written by someone
who doesn't speak English as a first language. '...and this was when I could perfectly see
what my life path was all about.' 'I've had thousands upon thousands
ups and downs in my life.' So that's Actually Happened,
and they're the ones that started it all, and by "started at all", I mean
they were the first to copy Storybooth. That spurred a bunch of copycats,
the main one being My Story Animated. They're famous for such iconically relatable videos,
like "I'm Too Pretty", and "I'm the Richest Girl at School,
and That's Embarrassing!" We all remember those classics. 'Sometimes I just wished we could be
a normal family with a normal amount of money.' They, are still putting out STRAIGHT GARBAGE. Like this video, "I Was Afraid of the Government... ...So I Got a Baby!" When I initially found this video, it was called "The Government FORCED Me
to Get a Baby to Save My Parents". Um...which... I mean, I'm not sure which is worse. This video, is...uh...about as bad as
you would expect it to be, and I'm not gonna go through the whole thing, Because it's so upsetting! But I will...um...pick out a few key elements. My name is Jemmy, and I'm 16 years old. My story begins two years ago when my parents and I
migrated from our country to find a better life in the US. So for starters, this story is about a...
undocumented immigrant, who moves to the United States with their family to
escape some hardship from their home country, which is a very serious topic, and... What's...really frustrating about these channels,
is that they take these serious topics and they just like, don't treat them
with any care...whatsoever? There was no way we could afford the cost and bear with the long process of legal means
of living in the United States, so we did what others had done.
We became illegal immigrants. Oh, don't be so shocked. We're not bad people. I know it's wrong. I mean, it's called illegal for a reason. (Don't know about that one chief) I mean you didn't hear it from me, but... The forefathers...of the US were...
also not in the country legally. And that's the real tea, sis. You know, not everything that is illegal...is wrong. Like for example, in Massachusetts
it's illegal to dance to the national anthem. And...that can't be right. What if I want to shake my ass
to the star-spangled banner? I am aware that it's not what we should have done,
but this was crucial in our case. We didn't know what else to do! It's crucial in many cases actually, people don't usually
leave their country and uproot their entire lives... ...for kicks. I guess unless they're...professional soccer players. Everything was going great,
this...girl who's...does she have a name? My name is "jeh-mee". Is it "Dimi" or "Jimmy"? (replays video) 'My name is "jeh-mee".' J-Jemmy? Jemmy found work as a maid,
and things were going great! That is, until she saw on the TV that
they deport undocumented immigrants, which... ...has always been a risk, but, it scares Jemmy, and that is when
she comes up with her master plan. 'My parents panicked, not knowing what to do.' 'We've been hiding for long as illegal immigrants and we knew that we'd most likely
get deported in the rush of things.' "In the...rush of...things?" Maybe that's a reach. 'An idea popped into my head that
I knew could save the whole situation.' 'The thing is, it was too extreme.' 'I thought about it a lot and eventually...' 'I decided to do it.' Okay. In one of the houses where I worked,
I met a boy who I ended up falling in love with. He was the son of the household.
Rich, handsome. And somehow we dated! That's convenient! She decides that Josh, the child, that is also
her boyfriend, is the only person that can help her. 'I knew Josh, my boyfriend,
was the only person who could help me.' That's not...true. 'He was American and from
a wealthy and powerful family.' He looks like... Tuxedo Mask... 'Maybe, if things got more "official" between us,
the chances of us staying in the US would rise.' I don't like where this is headed. 'Now I'm not talking about marriage,
I wish that would work.' I-It would work. What do you mean you wish it would work? 'So instead, I came up with
an idea that was more doable.' 'I wanted to get pregnant!' What?! So our plan is to manipulate this boy into
getting her pregnant by lying to him. Why is this an animated story for kids? Even though a story like this one
could be true...for somebody, it's...very irresponsible to just like,
turn it into a soap opera with none of the nuance. I was gonna say it gets worse from there,
but it just stays equally bad. I've talked about these two channels before,
but since I made my last video, there are like six other ripoff channels AT LEAST. Like this one is called "Share My Story",
and it's complete with identical thumbnails of the other two channels
and equally outlandish stories. "I Graduated High School at 12". 'Hey, I'm Mark, and I've always been really smart.' 'That's why school was boring.
It was just too easy for me.' So that just went from
zero to unrelatable in two seconds... Their latest video is called "My Dad Thinks I'm Dead",
and the thumbnail is exactly the same as Actually Happened's video called
"My Friends Think I'm Dead", down to the color! They all are doing the same videos... ...like uh... "I Became a Criminal and Got Caught" (searches) "steal my boyfriend animated"... "She Wants to Steal My Boyfriend"...
"She TRIED to Steal My Boyfriend"... ..."My MOM Stole My Boyfriend"... (high pitched and sped up) ..."I Have Inappropriate
Feelings for my Mom's Boyfriend"... "My Dad's Girlfriend is Younger Than Me"...
"My Mom Tried To Steal My Crush"... There's so many of these channels. I- there's- I just found one called "Teen Stories"
that I didn't even know about before, And it has 100,000 subscribers! Oh my GOD, (laughs) I searched the term "My Dad Is A Deputy"
and it comes up on... ...FOUR of these channels. How many deputies' sons are writing
into these animated story channels? Anyway...all of this sleuthing lead me to... ...the WORST version of animated stories
I've EVER seen in my life. So far we've talked about... Actually Happened, Share My Story, Teen Stories, Dory Story... ...and now, behold... ...My Story. Just...just...My Story. And as someone who has their own
fake story animation channel that has about as many subscribers as My Story has, I don't know how they got the quality so bad. I thought I was spending as little money as possible
to get the lowest quality possible, and then I watched My Story videos. So let's see, on the surface it looks pretty familiar. "My Mom Stole Big Money From My Dad"... "My Friend Stole My Dad's Car"... "My Teacher Took Off His Pants"? The topics, like, I don't know if it's like uh... I don't know if it's getting lost in translation, but some of the topics are
extremely serious, and sensational, and they're next to topics that are not at all that? Like..."My Grandmother is a Man", "I Was Forced To Get Married At 13" ... "My Parents Became Informal"?? Why is that a video? I became rich really young...
I have a very rare disease... and... ...my dad has a mohawk! That's pretty cRaZy. What we know about all these channels
is that they're content farms, they exist just to make money, almost all the stories are fake. A lot of them are based in
eastern Europe, specifically Russia. But, My Story, it takes...it takes the cake. It takes all the cake. All the cake belongs to My Story. Hello friends. My name is Mark and I want to tell you
about how my parents became informal... Oh, so they're not even hiding the fact
that this is a Russian video. ...and how it all ended for our family. What does that even mean?? It's framed the same way as all these other videos
about these horrific things that happen. And for some reason it's just like... (dramatic) I'm gonna tell you guys about... My daddy used to wear... He used to wear button-ups around the house and
now he wears t-shirts and it's really freaking me out. 'When I was born we had a very normal family.' Yeah, I mean, except for the fact that... You had full-grown man arms and legs as a baby. 'My parents were typical employees of the system. 'Dad was an ordinary electrician
and Mother was an accountant.' "Typical employees of the system"? This is like...this is like 1984 s***. This is like, so dystopian sounding. 'We were like everyone else and were
no different from other families.' "We were like... (chuckles) "We were like everyone else and were
no different than other families"? That's redundant. "We were like everyone else... ...AND we were like everyone else!" 'They dragged me to the car to go on vacation.' I don't know if it's very normal to put... ...$100 bills in a giant jug. 'I went to kindergarten and
was friends with a lot of kids.' 'I'm not sure if we were happy.
I never felt sad as a child.' He responded to that like
someone asked him a question? So...would you say that you were happy? 'I'm not sure if we were happy.' 'But I saw that my parents came home from work
each day very tired and depressed.' 'But when I was seven years old,
something happened to my parents.' 'I have no idea why, but they suddenly
decided to change everything in our lives.' I guess by "informal", he means his family
bought a motor home and drove around the country? 'They simply threw out their old life,
and bought a "mawter" (motor) home.' 'We traveled to the most diverse cities of the world.' #VanLife. 'All our acquaintances just live with their parents
in one place and live dull lives.' 'But we had a wonderful time
and complete freedom of action.' 'It was a bit crampled in our mobile home...' Damn. I hate being "crampled". I'm trying to come up with a conflict in this video,
and there isn't one, except for... umm... ...he couldn't play computer games? 'More precisely, there was
not enough space for one particular thing.' 'A normal desktop computer on which
I could play all the up-to-date games.' This sounds like a alien wrote this. And combined with the animation,
it's just so bizarre. "I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY ALL THE UP-TO-DATE GAMES,
FOR I AM HUMAN CHILD." Also, he runs like he's in Attack on Titan. (loud thumps, growing louder)
(crowd is quiet) (LOUD STOMPS)
(CROWD PANICKING) (In Japanese)
PUSH! PUSH FOR YOUR LIVES! Literally nothing happens in this story. They just eventually give up their #VanLife...
to go back to their normal lives. And that's the end. This channel is the king of
taking very serious subjects and... ...and just being completely inappropriate. Like, it's so obvious that the stories are fake,
because they're so disrespectful to who... ...is telling the story. Hello. My name is Alice and this is
my amazing story about never giving up. I grew up in an average family. Me, Mom, Dad, and two of my siblings
weren't remarkable in any way, but we were still happy and
got along with each other. (nonchalantly) That is, until my father died.
(gun shot) (bursts into laughter) *inhale* (audible disappointment) It's just so inappropriate! It's such a...It's such a...It's so serious! This video is called "I Became a Millionaire at 17", and in case...in case you weren't...
sure that this takes place in Russia, Uh... They are. *CHA-CHING* 'Looking back, I am still amazed at
how much money I managed to make.' 'It was about 40,000 rubles a month!' 40,000...rubles... About 630 dollars a month. That's...that's...pretty goo d! But wait, that makes the millionaire accomplishment
seem...a little less impressive. Uh, the video "My Grandmother is a Man", which is unfortunately a video that has been
duplicated across a number of these channels, seems like it's gonna be way more offensive than it is, but it...turns out to be like a Mrs. Doubtfire situation? But once again, because they frame the most mundane
situations as like, these ridiculous revelations, it does come off pretty offensive. Hi, my name is Nicole, and now I want to tell you
the terrible secret kept by my grandmother. It's like...it's not a...ghost story. 'Grandmother began to cut firewood with a chainsaw.
I'd never seen that before.' The main reason I wanted to show you this video is because there's a point where the grandmother
injures herself with a chainsaw, and...just keeps chopping wood? 'Then suddenly the chain broke
and struck her leg with all of its might!' 'Blood gushed and poured out on her skirt for a minute!' 'But she didn't seem upset and
didn't utter a word, did not even groan, everything was the same as usual.' 'But this was only the beginning of my discoveries.' So that's...not very believable at all. And the...pinned comment...on this video is... "Are you sure your grandmother is not a man?" After watching this video a few times, I'm pretty sure that they only
avoided being super offensive by being completely incoherent. So I've kind of held back on...
some of the worst of the worst, in terms of video topics. But one thing that is like, completely inappropriate
that all of these channels are talking about, is...is teen pregnancy. You know, you saw it in the...
"I Was Afraid of the Government" video. But...there are so MANY of these videos! And I just don't understand why. And it would be one thing if they were...
actually sharing someone's experience and giving like, a nuanced view of the... ...the struggles that are associated with teen pregnancy. But...it's treated like a soap opera! On channels that are clearly meant for kids. And...it's been really hard, actually,
for me to talk about some of these videos because I...I wasn't sure like, how to even do it, but, if you search... "i got pregnant animated story"... Oh my god! Now I'm discovering new channels
of these that I didn't even know existed. You can watch the clear...race to the bottom,
that has happened with these videos, with this one specific video topic. "I Got Pregnant at 16"..."15"... "13"! And then My Story, this channel
that we just talked about, has a video called "I Got Pregnant at 12"! Like, how is that okay? And to make matters worse, they don't treat the topic
with the seriousness that it requires, especially when you're talking to kids. They treat it...like a romance novel! Hello. My name is Mary, and I'm 19. Seven years ago, a shocking story happened to me, and it changed my life...forever. Almost ten years ago, a tourist club called Atlas
was founded in the neighboring town. After spending a week there,
me, my family, and about 20 other people went out to conquer another mountaintop. Alright, so, just to set the stage,
this story starts out completely absurd. She's 19, she's saying that 7 years ago, her life changed, so when she was 12, which is like
the title "How I Got Pregnant at 12", and then they jump back to 10 years ago,
when she was 9, and...is for some reason hiking a mountaintop?? 'On the sixth day of camping, a terrible storm broke out, and it was soon followed by an avalanche.' An AVALANCHE? This is not a place for nine-year-olds! 'The first wave of snow separated me
from my parents and knocked me off my feet.' I'm sorry...I know it's a fake story... It's... And I know that I should be serious about this... ...but she has like a...a Russian southern accent. (Russian southern accent)
"Knocked me off mah feet!" 'Someone else's hand found me and pulled me up.' (imitating accent)
"Then someone found me and pulled me up!" 'It was Carter who pulled me out of that snowbed!" A nine-year-old boy... ...pulled you out of an AVALANCHE? What? 'We barely made it to a tree and clumped to each other, I looked into his eyes...' Don't do this. '...and that's when I felt the first affection
and chemistry between us.' Stop. 'Two years later, I don't know if it was
a coincidence or fate, but I heard a familiar voice.' 'It was him, Carter!' 'We were so happy to see each other.' 'I hugged him tight, and he kissed my neck...' They're TWELVE! S-- WHAT? 'Carter changed a lot and it definitely was for the better!' 'It's been only two years,
and he already looked like a man." Why did you make this video? I can't keep going. But it gets worse. 'My mom was crying, and I just
sat there feeling completely empty.' 'Well, aside from my baby.' (Jarvis) WHAT IS HAPPENING? There's so many of these videos.
I haven't even talked about half the topics. There has to be some kind of community guideline
that these videos are breaking. And these channel are only...multiplying, because the ones at the top keep getting more popular. (Voiceover) Not to mention Actually Happened
and My Story Animated have both been featured on the Trending page a lot. Kids are watching these videos. One hundred percent. Read any of the comments. These stories are only about... 12 to 16-year-olds and their parents. Th...these aren't...for adults, and they're animated. I can't believe this isn't a bigger deal to people, because people protested the Simpsons, because Bart talked back to kids (adults). Most of these videos have more objectionable content
than anything that's animated... on television right now. Also cartoons don't pretend to be real. But like, to me it's just like this lazy sensationalism, that, they know it's gonna get clicks
and they can make a quick buck off of it, and...they're making up the stories, and they... I don't even know if they're being
intellectually honest when they say that, like, "Oh, we want to like, make the world a better place
or whatever, by sharing these stories." 'cuz...they don't seem real. And if they are, then it's extremely negligent. Like, you can't just say anything,
and hide behind the guise that you're telling... ...a kids story. You have to have some responsibility. I'm sorry. This turned into a rant. Uh...I didn't want to end on a sour note,
but I don't know how to end it. (Voiceover)
Jarvis died. (outro music) Thanks to... Adetayo Alexander Oluwaseyi Oladele, Jr., for your girlfriend sending me a message on Twitter. I have no idea if I'm saying that right. Also, I disagree, High School Musical 2
IS the best movie, of all time. Uh... It's not even close. If you want me to butcher your name, send me a message on Instagram,
just to keep things simple. Just send me a message on Instagram. Also, thanks to everyone that participated in my survey
that I posted about last week on social media. The shoutout for that
will be happening in the next video, because I emailed the winner, and...
they haven't gotten back to me yet. But, be sure to follow me 'cause I want to
do more stuff like that in the future. I've got to go work on my next video,
which is about The Bachelorette. Uh...which is a...marriage game show, that... ...probably shouldn't exist. Alright. Bye!
i was afraid so i get a
BABY