From Unboxing Videos to Entertaining Millions of Subscribers— the Story of the Vania Mania Kids Family Project

How can a child inspire his parents? The answers are endless; for the child’s sake, parents often find themselves accomplishing more than they had previously dreamed. However, these accomplishments are often achieved for the child, not with him. Back in 2015, a set of parents were inspired by their children to work together to create a YouTube channel that would not only entertain and educate their kids, but many others as well. The result was Vania Mania Kids, a family project that turned hours of fun into a life’s work. 

According to Diana Bolbat, the mother of the family, she and her husband lived an ordinary life before the start of their blog, working long hours in completely different spheres. Then there were their children, Ivan and Maria, who opened a new world for their parents. The children occasionally watched popular childrens’ videos in which kids unpacked toys, and they one day asked their parents if they could film something similar.  

At first glance, the concept of the videos may seem bizarre to adults who don’t understand the appeal of watching a video of a kid unboxing and playing with a new toy. But children loved the content. Moreover, to Ivan and Maria, the idea of creating the videos themselves was even more appealing because a new, exciting toy was implied. For the kids, each new video filmed meant something new to play with. 

The childrens’ parents agreed, and it was then in September 2015 that the YouTube channel Vania Mania Kids was born. At the time, the children were 2.7 and 4 years old, respectively, and they were already starring in the channel’s videos. 

Modern children are smart, and the Vania Mania Kids stars are no exception. With their clever scheme to get new toys, they created a fast-growing YouTube channel with their parents. In the end, perhaps the funniest part of the process was not the new toys, but the increasing amount of time that the family began spending together on their new channel. 

In the channel’s beginning, the first videos were all shot in one take using a smartphone camera. The kids unpacked toys, and their parents caught their reactions, thinking, “it’ll turn out as it turns out.” The goal was simply to entertain Vanya and Masha as well as any kids who wanted to watch. For the parents, the main reward was that they got to spend more time with their kids. 

The family would spend delightful weekends together, which they all looked forward to. The children got several new toys, with their parents watching and filming. After a year of filming videos, the family decided to try investing in advertising. Their initial $3000 investment in the promotion of their channel became a springboard, after which they achieved a steady increase in subscribers and channel views. Slowly, but gradually, their following grew. After their channel generated more income than the mother’s salary, the parents began to closely engage in the channel, seeing it as a serious business opportunity. They became engrossed in studying the intricacies of creating and editing videos with the aim to improve their content even further. They learned to set up previews, use advertising to attract new viewers, and more clearly define their channel in order to stand out. 

The stars of Vania Mania kids are five young creatives who love to play, learn, and invent in their videos, which they often help create in addition to acting in. They live bright and interesting lives and enjoy sharing their stories with viewers. The main generators of the concepts for the videos are the mom and dad, who have been constantly producing videos since the creation of the channel. Despite starting with two parents, two kids, and a smartphone, the channel has grown into a business involving a 20-person team. Still, despite the addition of directors, screenwriters, and camera operators, every episode is born from the parents’ creative imaginations. 

At the moment, the channel’s success is staggering– more than 20 million people are subscribed from around the world. The family blog is included in the top global children’s channels on YouTube, with subscribers from the USA, Canada, South America, India, China, and a multitude of other countries. The family plans to increase the channel to reach 30 million subscribers and develop personal blogs for each of the 5 children. These personal blogs will be unique to each of the children and will follow their individual stories. 

In 2015, Ivan and Maria inspired their parents to learn a new skill and start a blog. Now, the Vania Mania Kids stars are inspiring kids and adults all over the world.