We all love YouTube for the multitude of amazing videos, posted on all kinds of subjects. We also admire the people that are ingenious, innovative, and have the ability to create these amazing videos. YouTube actually invests in making some of the best channel owners famous.

YouTube holds an annual contest, called NextUp, and picks 16 winners. These winners are those deliver both interesting content and gather an impressive number of subscribers.

These winning channels have various topics: how to apply make-up, how to cook, a DIY channel, even a channel about hot-trending Pokémon. The winners are then gathered together in a hotel function room and trained by a professional YouTube team prepare these emerging, shiny new YouTube stars.

After each day's training, the group assembles in the evening to learn how to make cocktails (and drink them), while getting to know each other and learning team-building skills.

It's great to see an Internet mastodons like YouTube making such a committed investment in talented young people. After all, they are the future. Their channels prove that they can think outside the box and have far-reaching potential.

What kinds of people win such a contest?

They are regular folk. Some start a channel as a to pursue interests. Others create their channels out of curiosity.

A guitar player started a YouTube channel when he was 12, when his mother decided to post a video with him playing at a venue. A young woman wanted to show that  a vegan diet is neither complex nor expensive. Through her "Cheap Lazy Vegan" YouTube channel, she's showing her viewers how to make easy and delicious vegan meals that are easily affordable.

There are more amazing stories of successful YouTube channels and their creative owners <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/06/how-youtube-makes-its-next-generation-stars">here</a>.

It is great to see young people being encouraged to do what they like, to be creative, and pursue their dreams. Even if all these channels started out as experiments, many of these young people realized that their passion can turn into a real job.

A win-win situation.