Parents of tweens may struggle with letting their kids have a little more independence online versus micro-managing everything on their watch list. But there are plenty of YouTube channels out in the wild that are both educational and creative, funny, weird, or gross enough to hold your tween’s attention. Here are 9 of the best YouTube creators for tween viewers based on kid-friendly content and education disguised as fun.
The basics: Moriah does a range of creative projects from baking to facepaint, but is best known for her squishy makeovers. With glue and paint, she turns well-loved and wonky squishies into bright new characters.
Tween appeal: Silly personality, piles of cute squishies, and Moriah’s creative cast of squishy and feline friends.
Parent appeal: Inspiration for kids to take creative chances.
Bonus material: Moriah Elizabeth self-published two volumes of Create This Book, a workbook full of creative prompts and invitations to make a mess for your art; she has also created an app called Spark Creative Play with the same sort of creative prompts.
The basics: Graslie hosted more than 200 videos for The Brain Scoop before moving on to create content on her own channel. She explores space, nature, history, paleontology, books, and critters.
Tween appeal: Taxidermy?
Parent appeal: Behind the scenes museum content with experts to explain everything.
Bonus material: Two of Graslie’s video series—Art Lab and Prehistoric Road Trip.
The basics: Hart blends music and math, making it interesting with doodles and geometric paper tricks.
Tween appeal: Hexaflexagons and Möbius strips.
Parent appeal: Using music and art, Hart can present mathematical concepts to kids in new ways.
Bonus material: Cooking with math.
The basics: A PBS-branded channel covering biology, climate science, physics and more.
Tween appeal: Shortish videos (most are 10-15 minutes) with thorough answers to science mysteries like why the color blue is so rare and the magic of mirrors.
Parent appeal: PBS-level credibility and production quality.
Bonus material: In Our Nature, a wildlife documentary series.
The basics: Artist Rob Jensen gives step-by-step instructions for drawing popular characters, cute objects, and seasonal subjects with the help of his four children.
Tween appeal: They post five videos a week, and there’s already more than 2,000 videos available, so most kids should be able to find a subject and skill level they are comfortable with.
Parent appeal: Because he is drawing with his children, Rob’s videos have built-in encouragement, good pacing, and examples of artistic variation.
Bonus material: A playlist of 51 videos on drawing Pokemon.
The basics: A mom and daughter team present crafty construction, miniatures, and doll makeovers for tweens (and adults) who still love to play with doll houses.
Tween appeal: Who doesn’t love a diorama?
Parent appeal: The crafting level is challenging but reproducible; videos are not specifically aimed at kids but are kid-safe.
Bonus material: Doll dramas like Life on the Shelf and Sommer & Cali.
The basics: Through adventures and interviews with experts, Diana Cowern makes physics mysteries both exciting and understandable.
Tween appeal: It seems supernatural but it’s science—videos about moving rocks at Racetrack Playa, giant tunnels in the desert, and mysteries of the universe.
Parent appeal: It’s never too early to start understanding physics.
Bonus material: An explanation of Time Crystals, a “new” phase of matter, that is somehow comprehensible.
The basics: Educator Mike Wilson uses music to make science and coding interesting and accessible to kids. He calls the channel “a musical utility to help you academically.”
Tween appeal: Mike is cool.
Parent appeal: Don’t we all agree our kids will probably need some basic coding knowledge?
Bonus material: Water bears.
The basics: Hosts Coyote Peterson, Christina Wilson, Mark Vins, and Mario Aldecoa get extremely hands-on with nature.
Tween appeal: Stunts with venomous insects, mermaid training, and gross-out challenges.
Parent appeal: Watching videos of dangerous animals is preferable to visiting them in person.
Bonus material: Amid all the shock-value videos, there is some solid conservation content.
