If you are a teenager or the parent of a teenager you’ll know what is this “happy place” called Unicorn Island & most importantly the “YouTuber” Lilly Singh from Canada who took them all to this magical land of happiness 🙂
Superwoman is the screen name of 26 year-old Lilly Singh. Born and raised in Scarborough and now living with her parents in Markham, she has become one of the world’s biggest YouTube stars.
If you’re older than 16, you probably have no idea who she is. If you’re younger than 16, there’s a decent chance she’s your hero; nearly four million people subscribe to her YouTube channel, on which she posts short, funny videos twice a week.
Singh is part of a generation of You Tubers cornering the entertainment market of the future: low-budget, self-produced, alternately intimate and goofy and, most importantly, 100-per-cent digital.
People between 12 and 17 watch less conventional TV than any other age bracket: about 21 hours a week compared to the 34 weekly hours watched by their parents (people aged 35-49). A study found a third of millennials watch mostly online videos or don’t watch broadcast TV at all.
YouTube receives over a billion unique visitors a month, and those viewers aren’t just watching sitcom reruns or old movies. The online video boom has created its own genres, with its own standards of quality and its own constellation of stars.
Lilly Singh is one of those stars. She is, in the Internet parlance, a YouTuber.
And I realised what a big star she is when I attempted to buy her tickets !!! Before going to school Kiara told me that the tickets for A Trip to Unicorn Island would go on sale at 1.43 IST. Lilly Singh had announced this on the social media to her fans. I logged in at 1.43 pm & the site was obviously going through an overload. It wouldn’t take me to the Book my Show site & by the time I managed the show was sold out !!!
When Kiara came to know that her mother had failed in managing the tickets I was given much grief. And since our wedding vows say that we have to be together in happiness & sorrow I promptly gathered the help of the Husband in an endeavour to somehow get her the tickets.
We were told that the tickets had sold out in 13 minutes & none were available. I was even more impressed & astounded by the power of Lilly Singh.
I felt terrible but there was a glimmer of hope. Due to the immense response they had announced another show.
Aah now I was a woman on a mission !
On the day the tickets were to go on sale at 4pm IST this time I was ready with the credit card, the OTP pin, laptop opened & logged on to Lilly Singh’s world tour site & the phone also logged onto the site. I was taking no chances.
Again the same overload though this time I managed to get onto Book My Show but the front rows were full so there went the meet & greet chance. I tried for the next category where in spite of entering card details & everything I would be told there is an error. After umpteen attempts for half an hour I was ready to give up when another parent called up to say he had managed to book 4 tickets. I was very happy but we needed 7 tickets ! There were 5 kids & another Mom & I were supposed to escort the kids to the concert. We decided we’d make the kids go alone but we still needed 1 more ticket. Couldn’t make one child miss it since they all had planned it together.
Then nothing short of a miracle happened. I asked the other parent for the ticket details & logged on again. To my delight there was exactly 1 seat available in that very row right next to the 4 we had managed.
So 5 happy girls, almost happy (we hadn’t managed the meet & greet seats) went to Unicorn Island finally & us 2 Moms went to Madras Cafe for set dosa & filter coffee while we waited for them.
Post the concert as we drove home & Kiara excitedly described the show she said “Mumma she told us that all of us can be a Super Hero & that’s why she calls herself Superwoman … She told us about how she lifted herself up when she was down & that we can all be happy & Unicorn island is her happy place …You know she said everything in a fun way not like preachy !”
Not like preachy …
I think that is the key to Lilly Singh’s immense popularity with the kids.
She talks to them not down to them like other adults. I’m so happy that not only is she such a great entertainer but she is also such a great Role Model 🙂
Lilly Singh 3 cheers for you … You took my child to a happy place last night.
And I’m waiting for the day I manage to take a trip to Unicorn Island 🙂