SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — The granddaughter of Park Mak-rye, 70, now South Korea’s YouTube sensation, first uploaded videos of her five months ago on YouTube to help her preserve her memory in case she contracted dementia, which runs in the family.
But they soon exploded in popularity amongst South Koreans in their 20s and 30s who are lapping up Park’s videos of her doing makeup, recreating looks of famous celebrities as well as travelling all over the world.
“One day (my granddaughter) filmed me in a few videos, and she must have uploaded them (on YouTube). About 20 days later, she tells me “Granny, we hit the jackpot,” Park said during one of her makeup video filming.
Her most popular video called “Going to the dentist and market makeup look,” that sees Park put on some discreet black eyeliner and a red lip, has now clocked over 1.8 million views.
Park now has more than 277,000 YouTube subscribers and 107,800 followers on Instagram.
Some young fans even travelled across the country to see her.
“I asked them, “the young people don’t even employ the old ones and you kids came this far to see me?”
They hugged me, telling me how much they liked me, and I felt so grateful to those students,” Park said.
Hundreds of Park’s fans gathered to see her first makeup show at ‘DIA Festival 2017′ in Seoul on Sunday (July 16), the biggest contents creators’ gathering in Asia, according to the event organizer CJ E&M.
Fans, most of them in their teens and twenties, cheered Park as she drew a Korean melon on a girl’s face as part of her unique make-up session for the festival.
Park, who owns a restaurant, says she isn’t living a double life, but a “second” life.
After her day is over, she returns home to become a YouTube star.