Why the Queen of Toddler TV Became an Activist for Gaza
Ms. Rachel has enchanted millions of kids with lo-fi, educational videos. Now she’s in her “advocacy era.”
Rachel Accurso, aka Ms. Rachel, on the New York set of an upcoming video.
Photographer: Amy Lombard for Bloomberg Businessweek
In late summer, Rachel Accurso, a YouTube star with more than 16 million subscribers, was putting the finishing touches on her next video. As always, Ms. Rachel, as she’s known to her fans, was collaborating closely on the project with her husband, Aron. Whatever they put online, the Accursos knew, would get devoured by vast numbers of riveted youngsters. They wanted it to be exceptionally good.
Often their videos dig into a single topic. This time around they’d be exploring the nature of friendship. Specifically, what does a friend look like? Their answer would be simple and instructive: A friend can look any which way. “They can have any type of hair, they can have any color skin,” says Accurso. “It can be brown, it can be peach.” A friend could even be Palestinian.