In recent years, there have been many YouTube personalities, otherwise known as YouTubers, who have received book deals or released debut novels. Many people may dismiss their videos as silly or superficial, but there are a number of these YouTube celebrities that are making a positive impact. Here are a few Youtubers who are doing more than just filming videos.

Tyler Oakley 
With almost 400 videos and over 7 million subscribers, Tyler Oakley has been an active YouTube content creator for eight years and is one of the most popular online personalities. Oakley has worked with The Trevor Project since 2009 and has raised over 1 Million Dollars through his annual birthday campaign. He has worked with and interviewed many celebrities that work in traditional media including: One Direction, Darren Criss of GLEE, Charlie XCX, Bella Thorne, Ellen DeGeneres, First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama.

Oakley’s book BINGE is a collection of stories never before told to the camera. Fans are able to experience Oakley’s exciting and crazy life like never before.

John and Hank Green
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, John and Hank Green have been active Youtubers since 2007. Their joined channel, “Vlogbrothers,” has over 7,400 videos and over 2 million subscribers.

John Green is most famous for his young adult novels: The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, and An Abundance of Kathrines. In 2014, John Green worked with Bill Gates to help raise money for clean, safe drinking water in Ethiopia and raised $325,958 for the cause.

One of Hank Green’s most notable contributions to the YouTube community is founding VidCon, the world’s most popular online video convention.  The celebration of online videos takes place in Anaheim, California, where Youtube creators meet and interact with their viewers.  In 2008 Hank also co-founded the record label DFTBA with Alan Lastufka. The label featuring many Youtubers including Charlie McDonnell and Dave Days. Along with this and many other projects, the Green brothers post videos on their channel about current events that they feel are important for their viewers to watch.

These are just a few achievements of the Vlogbrothers, but both are said to currently be writing books. 

Connor Franta
Connor Franta started his YouTube channel in 2010 and now has over 5 million subscribers and over 200 videos. Starting in 2014, Franta launched his birthday Thirst Project Campaign where viewers showed their support to the cause and donated money. Through this fundraiser, Franta raised a total over $230,000 to help create wells for safe drinking water in Swaziland, Africa by 2022. On June 30,2015, Franta was honored the Board of Governors Award at The Thirst Project’s sixth annual Thirst Gala for his work and contributions to the organization.

Franta’s autobiography, A Work in Progress, is about his life growing up in Minnesota; challenges he faces growing up; and finding his voice and passion. 

Josh Sundquist
Josh Sundquist may only have over 200,000 subscribers but his impact has touched the lives of many more. When Sundquist was only 9-years-old, he was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. Later that year his left leg was amputated, and Sunquist was only given a 50% chance of survival.  At age 13 he was officially cured of his disease. Three years later, he trained for skiing and competed in the 2006 Paralympics with the US Ski and Soccer teams. In 2010 he published his first novel, Just Don’t Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness and Made It Down the Mountain. In 2014 he released another novel called We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story. Both novels are about his struggles and achievements as an amputee, physically, socially and mentally.

Now 31-years-old, Sundquist continues to inspire many as an active YouTube creator and motivational speaker.

Dan Howell and Phil Lester
As two of the most popular British YouTube personalities in the world, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) have over 8 million subscribers combined. Both created their YouTube channels in the early 2000s but didn’t meet each other in person until 2009. Since then, they have become roommates and collaborated on many projects. Their most notable achievement is hosting a radio show for BBC Radio 1 where they bring the internet to radio in the UK. Through this radio show they have been able to do many things including hosting behind the scenes footage of BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards, interview music artists and actors including One Direction and the stars of “The Hunger Games” franchise and give other creators the chance to be a radio show host themselves. In 2013, Lester and Howell were awarded the Sony Golden Headphone Award for UK’s Favorite Radio Presenters.

In October of 2015, they released their book The Amazing Book is Not on Fire, which Howell describes as “the enchiridion of Dan and Phil.” The book features never before told stories, pictures and fun activities for readers to enjoy.

These are just a few of the many YouTube creators who have written books and accomplished many other things, but the list goes on and on and will continue to grow throughout the years. This new form of entertainment is slowly taking over the entertainment industry and the community is impacting the world in a very positive way.