Special Section

In Fantacyland

Strum teen’s web videos leave big impressions

Lindsey Matysik |

Gabi Mills, from Strum, is definitely a youth to remember in the Chippewa Valley. At only 14 years old, she has plenty of reasons to be excited about for her future. For starters, she is quite the sensation on YouTube – her channel, Fantacylandfilms, has more than 6,000 subscribers. Her videos boast 4 million hits currently, and she even has earned money from Google thanks to her quirky video shorts. Mills, who has dozens of videos available to watch on the channel, mostly records with a full arsenal of Littlest Pet Shop toys, but she occasionally updates her account with different short videos that include speed paintings and other interesting blurbs in her life, like her kitten’s first winter. She even has a video where she gives a tour of her room (and recording space), which is unsurprisingly brightly colored just like her toys and expansive imagination. Her Littlest Pet Shop videos play out like storybook plays, where she narrates while moving the toy figures, which come in a wide variety of interesting characters. She has a few videos based on fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel, while some of her videos feature creative brand new characters called Sidekick Boy and Swan Princess. If being a popular YouTube contributor wasn’t enough, Gabi Mills has also written two books, and she also had an offer to work on an exciting opportunity with Hasbro toys. With all of these accomplishments under her belt, Mills definitely will be someone to watch – both on YouTube with your kids and in “real life.”