Success Story: An Interview With 14 Years Old Entrepreneur
Mayah Esam Khattak, a 14-year-old, is a young entrepreneur and content creator at YouTube. She worked her way into being self-taught in stop-motion animation and reached over 100,000 subscribers in less than a year, securing her silver play creator’s award.
How do you define being successful?
To me, success is like choosing a path you want to take and seeing it through till the end, with all the highs and lows included.
What inspired you to take up animation?
It was just a random video that popped up in my recommendations, and it seemed pretty different than the regular videos I saw. It was animated n got my attention immediately. I followed some more videos and later decided I wanted to pursue this.
What were some of your journey's challenges and yet rewarding aspects?
Once I launched my channel, the pressure to create regular n unique content was exhausting. I had to spend hours figuring out the plot twists and characters, and keeping up with my studies was quite a struggle. Luckily I was home-schooled then, so the flexibility of schedules helped.
How does it feel to be financially independent at such a young age? What do you plan to do with your earnings?
To be honest, it’s a mixed-emotion thing. I feel proud that I have made an early start, yet it’s also funny when all my school fellows are more interested than I am in the things I can buy for myself! I have a bank account and will soon be a tax filer too. I would love to travel the world and invest wisely.
With the overload of content on all social platforms, how do you manage to stay unique with your followers?
I invest much of myself, my time, and my energies in engaging with my followers. Even the tiny bits of hi and hellos are answered as I want them to feel valued and that their feedback matters to me.
What's the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
Life on the internet can be tricky and misleading at times. People make assumptions about you without going through the troubles of getting their facts right. Sometimes people are not who they present themselves as. One should be mindful of these things as they can affect your mental health.
Future Plans?
I would love to graduate with various animations and maybe join any animation company or create one of my own. Who knows? I should be good if I have the creative freedom to imagine.