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Pint-Size Star of YouTube Cooking Video Stirs Up Sweet Success
Filed under: In The News, Funny Stuff
Zaylee Jean loves to watch other kids perform on YouTube. So it wasn't a stretch when the 3-year-old and her parents talked about making a video of the toddler starring in her own "Yippity Yo Cooking Show."
Now, more than 100,000 viewers have watched the energetic child do battle with a spatula and cookie dough, toss flour, demand milk and call her dad "Old Man" in demonstrating how to bake Grandma Wendy's Chocolate Chip Cookies.
"Zaylee Jean loves to help out when we cook, when we allow her to. We got the idea to make a video," her father tells ParentDish in a phone interview. "We said, 'We'll make a video sometime and you can make your own cooking show.' She got all excited."
(Although the family originally posted the video publicly, they requested their names not be used. "There is too much scary stuff out there and people can identify you too easily," the child's dad says. The video has now been removed from YouTube by the family.)
One weekend in January, 2010, shortly after Zaylee Jean's third birthday, her dad says he bought some chocolate chips and set up the video equipment. Before filming, the girl picked out her dress while her mom fixed her hair.
The main reason the family created the "Yippity Yo Cooking Show," the family tells ParentDish, was to have fun and to be able to easily share the video with friends and family -- without having to deal with capturing e-mail addresses to send out a link.
Watching the hits grow from 100 a day to more than 5,000, the couple suspects the popularity of the "Yippity Yo Cooking Show" is due to the fact that many parents can relate to the rambunctiousness of Zaylee Jean's love for chocolate. Mainly, the feedback has been positive, but there are some naysayers out there.
"People with children seem to get it. But people, especially on YouTube, people are going to make fun of you. Commenting with insults," Zaylee Jean's dad says, noting comments that say "we are exploiting our child and should be arrested for child endangerment. You let the comments roll off your back."
His wife of five years chooses not to read the comments, instead focusing on the fun their "very theatrical" daughter had in making the video.
Keeping in mind the attention span of a 3-year-old, the couple says it took about an hour-and-a-half to videotape Zaylee Jean preparing the cookies. Her father spent 20 hours editing the 10-minute piece together.
"It is a lot of editing," Zaylee Jean's mom says.
Zaylee Jean shows her personality in the video, singing her own made-up song, however, her father says she also repeated some of what her parents told her to say. For example, Zaylee Jean mentions Rachael Ray while preparing the batter.
"I don't know if she's really seen Rachael Ray -- maybe Gordon Ramsay," he says with a laugh. "Zaylee Jean's so good at repeating and parroting, but I don't think she has any idea who Rachael Ray is."
Zaylee Jean's parents say she enjoys cooking and during the interview the 3-year-old could be heard "cooking in her Fisher-Price kitchen." But while Zaylee Jean really does enjoy to "cook," her vocabulary is a little different in reality than what you hear in the video.
"We gave her permission to say 'Shut up, old man!' " her dad says, adding that Zaylee Jean has managed to slip that phrase into a couple conversations since the filming.
Zaylee Jean's father says making a video is a "great way" for parents to bond with their children and have fun with their kids, and it's something most parents can do, even if they want to keep it private.
"Kids love that creativity," he says. "I know I did when I was a kid."
Zaylee Jean's family has taped a second video and would like to keep the fun going to not disappoint friends, family and new YouTube fans.
However, fans of Grandma Wendy's recipes and Zaylee Jean's choco-love may be disappointed: Her next video involves birds.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 21)
4-19-2010 @ 10:14AM
tambo said...I think her parents are encouraging her to be a brat. She was rude to her father and her verbal anger and hatred was unacceptable. I am sure her parents think it is cute but this type of behavior needs to be corrected while she is young, of course she has to hear that language from someone....
4-19-2010 @ 10:26AM
Me said...All you people saying she's acting like she's retarded--have you really never seen a hyper three year old?
OR
a three year old on a SUGAR rush?!
If you ever have kids, hopefully no one will think they're retarded when they come to visit your home. People surprise me these days. It's like they've never seen little children when before! Kids DO get hyper, duh! Especially when they're at the center of attention like this! jeez.
4-19-2010 @ 6:40AM
John said...Ummmm, Well it is very cute....Ummmm, but I'm not sure, well for her sake, I don't want to hurt her feelings. I guess I will just say, It's cute. Hope to see her 5 to 7 years from now.........You Go Little Girl!!!!
Reply
4-19-2010 @ 10:38AM
patti said...I agree with Tambo...I think her parents are definitely encouraging her to be a brat and rude.....Children are much cuter when they are polite
4-19-2010 @ 12:55PM
natalie said...You must had the same rasing, sorry for you, but this little girl, if her parents don't get help, is going sadly to a sad furture. This set of parents better not say, "it not our fault, because it is".
4-19-2010 @ 12:34PM
Ann said...This child's eyes show that she has been given speed of some kind. Child abuse! Not cute. Exploitation
4-19-2010 @ 12:35PM
harry said...well.. sorta funny..but missed the mark for me..
4-19-2010 @ 8:48PM
Peggy said...I am a 70 year young Grandmother and I think she is adorable...To the critics I say she is performing exactly like 3 year old performs only she is doing it with style wow what a cutie....
4-19-2010 @ 6:50AM
Marianne said...Wake up ! Parents ! That was digusting . Kaylee is very disrespectful of her Parents.This kid looks like she will have a lot of problems when she gets older. She needs some discipline now.
Kaylee will probably hate her Parents for this video years from now .
Reply
4-19-2010 @ 7:42AM
anarod said...I do agree that this little girl is cute but her little cooking show is not a big deal I see nothing into just a big mess that she is creating in her mom's kitchen. Parents get real......
4-19-2010 @ 8:38AM
Sharon said...Cute at first. It should have come to an immediate stop when she said "Shut up old man". There is nothing cute about that. If she talks to her parents like that at 3 yrs. old I pitty them when she is pre-teen. They need to love her enough to teach her respect.
4-19-2010 @ 10:15AM
colleen said...Her name is Zaylee, not Kaylee.
4-19-2010 @ 10:23AM
KimberlysCabin10 said...It would be a cute video if the Zaylee wasn't such a spoiled rotton little brat. She ruined her own video by displaying what a little CHIT she is. Her parents must be pretty ignorant if they decided to even show this to relatives. Can you imagine being one of her relatives and having to be forced to watch this? Imagine if there are a zillion more videos of Zaybrat floating around. You know this isnt the first time they video taped her.
4-19-2010 @ 10:24AM
meow19382 said...did you people NOT read the article? it's "Zaylee" and it even says that the parents tell her/let her use phrases like "shut up, old man!"
it's adorable!
4-19-2010 @ 10:23AM
Patti said...I agree, this kid Zaylee is a brat, with no respect for her parents.
Somebody better wake her parents up, before she get much older.
She has a mouth on her !!!!! I would not watch her again, nor would I tell anyone else to view this, disqusting.
4-19-2010 @ 10:24AM
nobigdeal said...Obviously a three year old little girl couldn't possibly identify baking soda from salt or flour meaning someone told her what to say. It's scripted if you watched it all the way through it says there are outtakes. If the girl was making the show all by herself there would be no need for outtakes.
4-19-2010 @ 11:08AM
Carla said...ZAYLEE, not Kaylee. And, it seemed about right for a three year old. Hyper, happy. Certainly, she was saying a few things I wouldn't have let MY son say, but, kids burst out with things. And, its good to let them play in the kitchen, learn to cook.
4-19-2010 @ 6:29PM
Sherrill Sander said...Agree... very disrespectful child. You better get a hold of her behavior (words and actions)... glad she's not my responsibility!
4-19-2010 @ 12:20PM
cakediva said...I agree. What is cute about a small child being encouraged to use nasty, bratty behavior? I did watch the entire video, waiting for some sort of redeeming quality, which never came. So what, that they gave her "permission" to use that language. How is that cute? She also is in need of speach therapy, coming from an elementary school teacher.
This is yet another example of the downhill slide of our society, using children to portray terrible, rude, obnoxious behavior and calling it "Cute"
Wake up, people.
I have no desire to see this child in a few more years. She will definitely be running the roost, if she is not completely doing so, now. This is the child who will have all of the attention in the classroom, and not in a positive way, which takes time away from the other children, who know better.
Sad, sad and even more sad...
4-19-2010 @ 12:57PM
natalie said...AMEN