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A great research resource for kids! National Geographic Kids is an age-appropriate, kid-friendly platform. This website is packed with educational stories, videos, games and fun facts. Students can learn about important historical figures like Amelia Earhart, George Washington Carver, Benjamin Franklin and more!

National Geographic Kids allows students to independently conduct research on topics that interest them in kid-friendly doses. This site is also a useful tool for learning about animals, space facts, different countries and their cultures.

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One of the world's first female pilots, Amelia Earhart broke records before mysteriously disappearing. Check out the time line below to learn about the life of this legend.

1897

Amelia Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas. Back then girls usually wore dresses, but Earhart's mother lets her wear pants so she can play like the boys. Amelia loves football and fishing.

1920

Earhart attends an air show in California, where she becomes interested in flying. She signs up for lessons and starts training to be a pilot. She eventually buys her own yellow plane, nicknaming it the "Canary." Cars ... who needs 'em?

1929

A group of 99 women pilots from all over the United States unite to celebrate female fliers. They call their new organization the Ninety-Nines and elect Earhart as their leader. #Amelia4Prez

1932

Earhart becomes the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean, which she does by herself. She also breaks the records for the longest flight by a woman and for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the shortest amount of time. In her case, the sky's not the limit.

1933

Earhart becomes famous for her feats and travels the world speaking to kids about her flying adventures. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, invite the flier to the White House. Earhart returns the favor by taking the First Lady for a ride in her plane.

1937

During a round-the-world flight, Earhart's plane disappears over the Pacific Ocean, and she's never heard from again. As the search for answers to what happened continues, one thing is certain: Earhart was an inspiration to pilots-and women-everywhere.

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One of the world's first female pilots, Amelia Earhart broke records before mysteriously disappearing. Check out the time line below to learn about the life of this legend.

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A very useful & practical source for students. This site offers a section of just biographies sorted alphabetically by last name, allowing students to choose from a very large list of subjects to write about. Almost every biography entry comes with a photo of the subject, making them more easily identifiable for our students. Each entry has viewing settings for either Kids, Students, or Scholars. Students can research historical subjects like James Lafayette, George Washington, and Julius Caesar. As well as contemporary subjects like Kate DiCamillo, Princess Diana, and Michelle Obama.

Other sections of Britannica Kids include activities and games, podcasts, animal facts, atlases and culture lessons from different countries.

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A few years after graduation, DiCamillo moved to Minnesota. There she wrote her first book, (2000), while she worked in a book warehouse. Because of Winn-Dixie is about a young, lonely girl who moves to a new town where she finds a dog in a supermarket. The book became a best seller and was made into a film in 2005.

DiCamillo's second novel, The Tiger Rising (2001), is about two friends who discover a caged tiger in the woods. Her next book, The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread (2003), is about a mouse who falls in love with a princess. The Tale of Despereaux won the Newbery Medal in 2004. It was made into a film in 2008.

DiCamillo's other novels include The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006) and The Magician's Elephant (2009). DiCamillo won her second Newbery Medal in 2014 for Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2013). This book follows the adventures of a young girl who loves comic books and a squirrel that has human abilities.

DiCamillo began writing chapter books for younger readers in 2005. One series centers around a pig named Mercy Watson, her owners, their neighbors, and other townspeople. The series includes Mercy Watson to the Rescue (2005), Mercy Watson Fights Crime (2006), and more. In 2010 DiCamillo partnered with her friend, Alison McGhee, to write the Bink and Gollie series. This series follows two roller-skating best friends on their unique adventures.

DiCamillo has also written picture books for young children. These include Great Joy (2007) and Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken (2008).

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A few years after graduation, DiCamillo moved to Minnesota. There she wrote her first book, (2000), while she worked in a book warehouse. Because of Winn-Dixie is about a young, lonely girl who moves to a new town where she finds a dog in a supermarket.

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This is a classic resource for our students doing research. Although it could do with some updating, Ducksters offers an entire biography section that is organized alphabetically and into sections according to subject profession (i.e. world leaders, U.S. Presidents, Artists, etc.). Further down, historical figures are even organized into locations like Ancient Greece and Rome. The list of biographical subjects on Ducksters is certainly very limited as well, only giving out rather big names such as Frida Kahlo, Alexander The Great, and Steve Jobs. If students were hoping to research more contemporary subjects like athletes, they would have to look somewhere else.

Some benefits of Ducksters’ platform is that the information is given in bite sized pieces that are easy for our students to digest, as well as an option to listen to a recorded reading of the page! Ducksters also features sections about History, Science, Geography and Games.

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Kids learn about the biography of Ida B. Wells, a former enslaved person who became a journalist and wrote about racial discrimination in the South. She ran a major campaign against lynching.

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This is an awesome resource for students conducting their biography project research. However, it is a service that requires a subscription after the first 7 days. Epic! is a platform that offers a large selection of books, including biographies for children and even offers a read to me option for those who may have lower reading levels.

Students may enjoy researching a wide range of subjects from contemporary names like Zendaya to Amelia Earhart. An Epic! subscription for the classroom could also benefit the students and teacher for story times. The read aloud would free up just a bit of time for the teacher to get a couple of administrative tasks done and would provide an innovative story time experience for the students.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Get unlimited access to 40,000 of the best books, audiobooks, videos, & more for kids 12 and under. Try it free.

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Kiddle is the adorable children’s version of Google. Students can type their inquiries into the search bar just like on Google and have the option to view results from the web, articles from their own site (referred to as Kpedia), Kimages and more. This platform is solely to show kid-friendly internet results, so you don’t have to worry about what your students may be exposed to during research time. Students can pick virtually any biographical subject to research on this platform and it is likely to come up, this is a very up to date website. Some popular names that students may want to research that can be found on Kiddle are Taylor Swift, Lionel Messi, and Mr. Beast.

Kiddle biography entries are written very similarly to that of Wikipedia entries, because of this, students with lower reading levels may need assistance digesting the information. While the language is not extremely complex, there is a lot of information on any given page.

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Jimmy Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), better known as MrBeast, is an American YouTuber. He is credited with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centers on expensive stunts. His YouTube channel reached 130 million subscribers in January 2023, making it the fourth-most-subscribed on the platform, and the highest as a non-corporate identity.

Donaldson began posting videos to YouTube in early 2012 at the age of 13 under the handle MrBeast6000; his early content ranged from Let's Plays to "videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers." He went viral in 2017 after his "counting to 100,000" video earned tens of thousands of views in just a few days, and he has become increasingly popular ever since, with most of his videos gaining tens of millions of views. Over time, his style of content diversified to include challenge and donation videos that reward thousands of dollars, videos with arduous tasks or survival challenges, and original vlogs. Once his channel took off, Donaldson hired several of his childhood friends to help him run the growing brand. As of 2022, the MrBeast team is made up of 30 people, including Donaldson himself.

Other than MrBeast, Donaldson runs the YouTube channels Beast Reacts, MrBeast Gaming, MrBeast 2 (formerly MrBeast Shorts), and the philanthropy channel Beast Philanthropy. He formerly ran MrBeast 3 (initially MrBeast 2), which is now inactive. He was also one of the 10 highest-paid YouTubers of 2020. Donaldson is also the founder of MrBeast Burger and Feastables, and a co-creator of Team Trees, a fundraiser for the Arbor Day Foundation that has raised over $23 million, and Team Seas, a fundraiser for Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup that has raised over $30 million. Donaldson won Creator of the Year award three times at the Streamy Awards in 2020, 2021, and 2022; he also won the Favorite Male Creator award at the 2022 Kids' Choice Awards.

Early life and family

Jimmy Donaldson was born on May 7, 1998, in the state of Kansas. He was mainly raised alongside his older brother Charles "C.J." Donaldson in Greenville, North Carolina. In 2016, Donaldson graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a private secondary school in the area. Donaldson has publically mentioned being diagnosed with Crohn's disease during high school. He briefly attended East Carolina University before dropping out. Donaldson's brother is also a YouTuber, who goes by CjTheseDays, and has more than 4.29 million subscribers as of November 2022.

YouTube career

Early viral attempts (2012-2017)

Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube video in February 2012, at the age of 13, under the handle "MrBeast6000"; his early content ranged from Let's Plays (mainly focused on and Call of Duty: Black Ops II), videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers, videos that offered tips to upcoming YouTube creators, and commentary on YouTube drama. Donaldson appeared only infrequently in these videos. In July 2013, the subscriber count of his channel, then named "That-dude", was around 240.

In 2015 and 2016, Donaldson began to gain popularity with his "Worst intros on YouTube" series poking fun at YouTube video introductions. By mid-2016, Donaldson had around 30,000 subscribers. In fall 2016, Donaldson dropped out of East Carolina University to pursue a full-time career as a YouTuber. His mother did not approve of this and made him move out of the family home.

As his channel grew, Donaldson hired four childhood friends - Chris Tyson, Chandler Hallow, Garrett Ronalds, and Jake Franklin - to contribute to his channel. They then contacted numerous YouTubers in order to obtain statistics of their successful videos and predicting the platform's recommendation system. Franklin left the crew in 2020; afterwards, Karl Jacobs, previously a cameraman, was promoted to take his place.

Rise to fame (2017-2020)

In January 2017, Donaldson published an almost day-long video of himself counting to 100,000. The ordeal took him 40 hours, with some parts sped up to "keep it under 24 hours." Donaldson also gained popularity during this period with stunts, such as attempting to break glass using a hundred megaphones, watching paint dry for an hour, attempting to stay underwater for 24 hours (which ended up failing due to health issues), and an unsuccessful attempt to spin a fidget spinner for a day. By 2018, Donaldson had given out $1 million through his outlandish stunts, which earned him the title of "YouTube's biggest philanthropist."

During the PewDiePie vs T-Series rivalry in 2018, a competition to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, Donaldson bought billboards and numerous television and radio advertisements to help PewDiePie gain more subscribers than T-Series. During Super Bowl LIII, he bought multiple seats for himself and his team, whose shirts spelled out "Sub 2 PewDiePie."

In March 2019, Donaldson organized and filmed a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with a prize of $200,000 (two games were played, making game earnings of $100,000 for each game) in collaboration with Apex Legends. The event and prize pool was sponsored by Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts.

Donaldson was accused of using counterfeit money in his video titled "I Opened A FREE BANK", published on November 23, 2019. He later explained that he used fake money to avoid participant safety concerns and that participants received real checks after the shoot.

In April 2020, Donaldson created a rock, paper, scissors competition stream that featured 32 influencers and a grand prize of $250,000, which at the time became YouTube's most-watched live Original event with 662,000 concurrent viewers. The event was ultimately won by Nadeshot. In October 2020, Donaldson hosted another influencer tournament featuring 24 competitors with a grand prize of $300,000. The tournament was ultimately won by the D'Amelio family, which caused controversy due to claims that they cheated.

Profitability (2021-present)

On January 1, 2021, Donaldson released the video "Youtube Rewind 2020, Thank God It's Over". In Donaldson's video, he explains that he had always believed that YouTubers "should get more say in Rewind," and with this in mind, he decided to call "hundreds of YouTubers." At the end of the video, Donaldson gives a shoutout to PewDiePie, citing him and his 2018 Rewind as the inspiration for Donaldson's Rewind. A month later, Donaldson signed a Facebook and Snapchat content distribution deal with Jellysmack.

In November 2021, Donaldson uploaded a recreation of the survival drama streaming television series Squid Game in real life, in which 456 people competed for a $456,000 cash prize, without the violence in the show. The video has more than 325 million views as of December 24, 2022, making it Donaldson's most-viewed YouTube video and also making it one of the most-watched YouTube videos of 2021. A review of the video in stated that it "badly misunderstood the anti-capitalist message of Squid Game".

In December 2021, Donaldson created a third influencer tournament featuring 15 competitors with a grand prize of $1,000,000. In January 2022, Forbes ranked MrBeast as YouTube's highest-earning creator, earning an estimated $54 million in 2021. Forbes also stated that his income in 2021 would have placed him 40th in the 2020 Forbes Celebrity 100, earning as much money as Vin Diesel and Lewis Hamilton did in 2020.

On July 28, 2022, Donaldson surpassed 100 million subscribers on his main channel, making him the fifth channel and the second individual YouTuber to achieve the milestone. On November 17, 2022, Donaldson achieved the Guinness World Record of "Most Subscribers for an Individual Male on YouTube" with his MrBeast channel at 112,193,139 subscribers.

In December 2022, two MrBeast outfits and other cosmetic items were added to Fortnite Battle Royale. Epic Games also held a tournament in Fortnite called "MrBeast's Extreme Survival Challenge", which had a payout prize of one million dollars.

In February 2023, he appeared in a viral commercial for the NFL which aired during Super Bowl LVII.

Business model

- Jimmy Donaldson on his YouTube videos

Donaldson's videos are known to have elements in order to go viral. By doing so, he gains advertising sales of "tens of millions of dollars", as social media's recommendation systems show his videos to more people. Therefore, according to The Detroit News, his videos have elements of internet challenges, guest appearances and reaction videos - three popular video genres online. On YouTube, his videos make use of catchy clickbait titles such as "I Adopted EVERY Dog in a Dog Shelter", explain the challenges in under half a minute, and keep their length between ten and twenty minutes.

According to Donaldson, large monetary prizes are also an important factor in viewer engagement. Therefore, his videos often involve him donating large amounts of money to individuals, with many of these videos being sponsored by various companies through large-scale brand deals that appear as advertisements within his videos. He also sometimes hosts competitions in video games, such as Minecraft, for large prizes, including donating a house in one of his gaming videos. MrBeast has been credited with launching a new style of high-cost stunt videos on YouTube, where creators pull off elaborate challenges and large-scale sponsored giveaways. Donaldson claimed in January 2021 that he runs his main channel at a loss.

Psychologist Tim Kasser analyzed that a MrBeast video promoting a product would be about half as expensive as running a television ad, with higher engagement and reception.

Other ventures

Finger on the App

In June 2020, Donaldson, in collaboration with Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, released a one-time multiplayer mobile game titled "Finger on the App". In the game, players touch their phone screen and the last person to remove their finger from the screen wins $25,000. In the end, four people ended up winning $20,000 each after keeping their finger on the app for over 70 hours. The game was reportedly so successful that a sequel titled "Finger on the App 2" was planned to originally launch in December 2020. However, the game was postponed to February and then further delayed to March 2021 due to a flood of downloads, causing the game to crash and requiring the game's developers to upgrade their servers. This time, the game featured a grand prize of $100,000. The winner kept their finger on the phone screen for around 51 hours; the second-place finisher also received a prize of $20,000.

MrBeast Burger

Will Hyde, a producer for the MrBeast channel, announced in a November 2020 article with The Wake Weekly that Donaldson would launch a virtual restaurant called MrBeast Burger in December 2020. Hyde said his team worked with Virtual Dining Concepts during the development of the restaurant concept. He said that MrBeast Burger will sell franchise rights to serve the burgers to restaurants across the US and customers will be able to order the burgers via online delivery services. Then in August 2022, Donaldson announced that he would bring a MrBeast Burger shop to the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York City, to be the location of his first U.S. restaurant. The restaurant opened on September 4, 2022.

Feastables

In January 2022, Donaldson announced the creation of a new food company called Feastables, which launched with its own brand of chocolate bars called "MrBeast Bars." At launch they offered 3 flavors of bars, original, almond and quinoa crunch. The launch corresponded with a sweepstakes with over $1 million in prizes, including 10 grand prize winners who would receive a chance to compete for a chocolate factory in a future video. The video was released in June 2022, which featured Gordon Ramsay as a cake judge and a $500,000 cash prize. The video contained a series of elimination challenges where the winner won the chocolate factory. The video contained cameos from competitive eaters Matt Stonie & Joey Chestnut. On February 2, 2022, Feastables announced partnerships with Turtle Beach Corporation and Roccat to provide prizes for the sweepstakes. Feastables reportedly made $10 million in its first few months of operation.

Investments and partnerships

Donaldson is an investor in the tech startup Backbone, which produces the Backbone One, a controller that makes smartphones appear more similar to Nintendo Switch controllers, and the Backbone app, a content creation and social tools app for its users.

In March 2021, Donaldson partnered with Creative Juice financial network to introduce Juice Funds, a $2 million investment fund for content creators.

In April 2021, Donaldson became a long-term investor and partner of financial technology company Current. The same month, Donaldson received backlash after fans lost large amounts of money in a cryptocurrency scheme that Donaldson had invested in and promoted.

Philanthropy

On October 25, 2019, Donaldson and former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober organized a collaborative fundraising challenge event on YouTube called #TeamTrees. The goal of this project was to raise $20 million for the Arbor Day Foundation by January 1, 2020, and plant trees "no later than December 2022." Every donation goes to the Arbor Day Foundation, which pledges to plant one tree for every dollar donated. Notable YouTubers such as Rhett & Link, Marshmello, iJustine, Marques Brownlee, The Slow Mo Guys, Ninja, Simone Giertz, Jacksepticeye, and Smarter Every Day brought attention to this idea. Trees began to be planted in October 2019 in national parks of the United States. On December 19 of that year, the $20,000,000 goal was surpassed,. So far Team Trees has planted 9 million trees across the globe and are expected to finish in 2022. The project has also received large donations from corporate executives Jack Dorsey, Susan Wojcicki, Elon Musk, and Tobias Lütke. Companies such as Discovery, Verizon and Plants vs. Zombies have also contributed.

As of July 19, 2022, they have received over $23.89 million in donations which equates to 23.89 million trees planted. As of July 19, 2022, they need to plant 4 million more trees to achieve this number.

Beast Philanthropy

On September 17, 2020, the YouTube channel Beast Philanthropy was created. On the channel's first video, Donaldson announced the charity and food bank and named Darren, who had appeared in previous videos, as executive director. According to the channel description, 100% of its advertising revenue, brand deals, and merchandise sales are donated to charity.

On October 29, 2021, Donaldson and Rober organized another collaborative challenge event on YouTube titled #TeamSeas. The goal of this project was to raise $30 million for the Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup by January 1, 2022. The $30 million goal would fund the removal of 30 million pounds of plastic and other waste from oceans, rivers, and beaches. Donaldson and Rober enlisted thousands of content creators, including AzzyLand, DanTDM, TommyInnit, LinusTechTips, TierZoo, LEMMiNO, The Infographics Show, Hannah Stocking, Dhar Mann and Marques Brownlee, and partnered with BEN and TubeBuddy's initiative of 8 million global creators, to promote the fundraiser.

Cataract surgery

In January 2023, Donaldson paid for cataract surgery for a thousand people who had severely limited vision and had been unable to afford the procedure. Responses to his video on the subject ranged from praise to allegations that he was motivated solely by profit. Other comments criticized the American medical system for failing to provide the necessary healthcare to the patients in the video, questioning why patients had to rely on a YouTuber for the procedure.

Public image

Opinion polls have shown that Donaldson is one of the most well-liked YouTubers on the platform. A 2021 SurveyMonkey poll showed that 70% of respondents have a favorable view of him, compared to 12% who had an unfavorable view.

During a Clubhouse room in February 2021, Donaldson booted entrepreneur Farokh Sarmad after he said he could not pronounce his name, a move that Sarmad later said was racist. Sarmad's claims were questioned and denied by other Clubhouse users who were present at the call who argued against Sarmad's claims, claiming that MrBeast removed him along with others to make room for women on the stage to be more inclusive.

In a May 2021 New York Times article, Matt Turner, an editor for Donaldson from February 2018 to September 2019, claimed that Donaldson berated him almost daily.

Nate Anderson quit after working for Donaldson for a week in 2018 over what he said were unreasonable demands and called Donaldson a perfectionist. After releasing a video describing his experience, Anderson reportedly received death threats from MrBeast's fans. Nine other employees who worked for Donaldson also stated that while Donaldson was sometimes generous, his demeanour would change when cameras were off. They described a difficult work environment while working under him.

Awards and nominations

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Jimmy Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), better known as MrBeast, is an American YouTuber. He is credited with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centers on expensive stunts. His YouTube channel reached 130 million subscribers in January 2023, making it the fourth-most-subscribed on the platform, and the highest as a non-corporate identity.

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The Clark-Wilkins Library hosts a very large selection of biographies and autobiographies to choose from. Our biographical subjects range from contemporary names like Taylor Swift, Shel Silverstien, and Dave Pilkey to ancient and historical figures like Alexander The Great, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King Jr. Students can visit our biography section and shop for names that interest them!