I’ve never been a YouTube sort of girl. Sure, I use it to suit my own purposes, uploading videos for blogs and then immediately logging off.

But watch other videos? No.

Search for stuff? Never.

Until I had a son.

A son obsessed with all things containing wheels.

Noah needed to see tractors. His fire truck viewing quotient could get dangerously low, and if he didn’t get to lay eyes on a bulldozer regularly, then really – what was the point of living?

YouTube Watching

And so I found myself watching tractor videos. And enjoying them. And simultaneously marveling at how the heck they could have so many views. And remembering that here I was, a 31 year old Mom with no interest in tractors, enjoying them – so that’s how they had so many views.

Then there were the mining equipment videos. They were basically infomercials for ridiculously huge all-terrain vehicles, and each one would have a million views! Who knew mining machinery was so sexy?

I do now.

(Here’s my favorite Mining Truck Video, since I know you’re dying to watch.)

From there, we moved to tractor tipping videos – i.e., kids playing with Mater, Frank, and Lightning toys, reenacting the tipping tractor scene.

There was something about watching another kid play with toys that really spoke to Noah’s soul.

Watching YouTube

Then we found our first true love: MadAboutLego.

It was brilliant: entire mini-movies, plot and all, done with Legos in stop motion photography. And they had these fascinating bits of the Lego creations building themselves.

I responded to these revelations as was if I was the first person to ever discover The YouTube.

I texted Chris.

“I found the most amazing YouTube channel ever!! Who knew there was such cool stuff on here??”

“Um, everyone.”

It amazed me that these famous people were just on YouTube. They had 75,000 subscribers, but didn’t seem to even know Twitter existed, had an abandoned Paleolithic blog, and weren’t promoting themselves in any other way.

How did people find them? How do they interact with their fans? HOW DID THIS WEIRD ALTERNATE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIVERSE WORK?

It was all so new and strange.

We spent our days watching Legos being built, but the children didn’t seem quite as addicted as I was. Stinks for them.

But then.

Then we found her.

The fantastic, soothing voice of DisneyCollectorBR.

All she does is make videos of opening, assembling, and briefly playing with Disney toys, namely of the Cars variety, while giving a commentary in her lilting and mysterious accent.

And she never shows her face.

I watched her gentle and delicate hands de-bag toys and listened to her mystic voice narrate her de-bagging for many an hour before I realized that something deep and intrinsic was happening within all of us.

We were becoming addicted to DisneyCollector.

She calmed us. She gave us happy feelings. She left us sitting there, in a complete trance, listening to her inform us if Lightning McQueen’s eyes were painted on or were mere stickers.

Even now I can hear her melodious voice, always the same on her opening line, “Hi Guys, Disney Collector here…”

I found myself picking up on clues to her identity: an Asian symbol on a thumb ring. Okay – maybe she’s Chinese. But her age completely baffled me. She could have been eight or twenty-five – I had no idea.

For weeks, I had a picture of DisneyCollectorBR in my head. A young, Chinese girl. A tween, perhaps? Or a very young-sounding adult. A very peaceful girl, with zero life-angst and surrounded by every Disney toy ever made.

But then I clicked on one of her videos where she was speaking…Portuguese?? And in the comments, she answered the question asked by many: SHE WAS BRAZILIAN.

(Hence the BR at the end of DisneyCollector. Duh.)

My mind was blown. I immediately texted Chris to tell him the world-changing news – “DisneyCollector is BRAZILIAN!!!”

He nonchalantly answered, “Yeah, I could hear that.”

I laboriously attempted to reconstruct my mental image of her, but with no luck. The question as to her age was throwing me completely off-track.

So I googled her.

“DisneyCollectorBR Face”

The text popped up in suggested searches early, assuring me that I was not the first person to ever Google her, and giving me a small comfort that perhaps I was also not the only person to be addicted to a faceless, ageless female reviewing TOYS.

But alas – her face was not available. She is a mysterious one, for sure.

Several times a day, Noah would ask, “I want to watch Disney Collector!! I need to watch Disney Collector!”

And I loved it. Because for her and her alone, Noah would be completely still, lying on my chest, cuddling happily to her rhapsodic drug of a voice.

But then when it was time to put her down, he would have a tragic meltdown, unable to comprehend a life without her.

Yes, we had a problem.

Then Chris came home one night and told me about an episode of This American Life he’d listened to.

“You’re not going to believe this, but there is actually was such a thing as a ‘Clicky Voice Addiction,’ and a subset of humans that seek out certain voices on YouTube to trigger feelings of peace and calm.”

Uh oh.

I listened to the podcast in question and looked up ASMR, the diagnosis for this addiction.

And was relieved.

Phew. I don’t get tingling in my head from DisneyCollector. I must be okay.

But I wouldn’t mind having head tingling from her…she’s so delightful.

Yes. I wonder how I can get head tingling from Disney Collector? Can you catch this syndrome?

And that’s the point that I realized that perhaps we all needed a YouTube break.


74 thoughts on “Regarding a Summer Love Affair with YouTube.

  1. Haha! There was one time in college where the picture was out on the movie channel and we ended up staring at the static screen and listening to “The Man Who Knew Too Little.” It was actually very enjoyable and we thought — this must be what radio shows were like before TV, all you can do is listen and let your imagination run wild. Or, in the case of DisneyCollector, maybe it is a more comforting, womb-like experience. Minimul visual input and soothing repetitive auditory input.

    Weird YouTube habits we have developed:

    – I can get a window of peace while working at home if I put on one of those 20 minute “cute kittens” compilations for my three year old daughter. That or 20 minutes of laughing babies. She’s hooked. 20 minutes of watching other kids laughing is apparently endlessly fascinating.

    – My husband watches videos of other people playing video games. Especially Battlefield. He has several favorite players, can recognize them by the sound of their voices, and talks about them as if they are friends. VIDEO GAME PLAYER CELEBRITIES. I guess there are weirder things to be famous for.

    – I am hooked on fan videos of my favorite TV shows (Bones, Castle, Dr. Who, etc.). These videos usually have clips from the show set to music. And usually there is a little “Buy the MP3” button they nicely add to their description that links you over to amazon or iTunes. I have bought more music this year than I have at any point in my life, all due to that little button. Although I notice my music collection is becoming a bit emo. And I tend to get confused when watching the show because YouTube has these great videos about events or relationships that never actually happen.

    YouTube is definitely an alternate reality.

  2. …and thank you for introducing me to MADABOUTLEGO. I can forsee losing hours of my life. And maybe have a fun hobby for retirement. I am a little scared to try out DisneyColletor.

    1. Hi I just read your article. I too am also glad that my toddler isn’t the only one watching those videos. Same here I don’t know how my toddler found disneycollector either. Im glad she did though it keeps her calm.

  3. When a certain someone is being clingy and MUST BE HELD but I have stuff to do online, I set up youtube on the monitor playing the VeggieTales channel while I work on the laptop screen. It is quite wonderful!

  4. OMG, the voice addiction is a thing?! I’m in trouble…

    About 6 years ago, my husband was playing Final Fantasy XII when Balthier comes on the screen. My husband never finished the game. I did. I found myself at work, searching YouTube for cut scenes just to hear his voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fbmYp5Vztc

    The voice actor’s name is Gideon Emery.

    He has his own YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/GIDVOX

    He has an album of jazz standards. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/standard-ease/id450795893

    He’s voiced numerous other video games, characters, and audiobooks. (You know I own them. Especially the audiobooks. The autobiography of Warwick Davis is the best.)

    I’ve gotten to chat with him over email, Facebook, and Twitter over the years. I got to meet him last June. He is the nicest, sweetest guy ever, and therefore has become my favorite actor.

    He promises that he eventually will release an album of acapella songs.

    I still haven’t convinced him to read the phonebook. Yet. I’m working on it.

  5. Oh my goodness! You have just described the YouTube Activity in our house to a T. The trucks, Lego videos and DisneyCollectorBr. Eli even puts on his DisneyCollector voice when talking about his toys to me. I had always imagined her as being from India, and had wondered about the Br… So thanks for clearing that up for me. After reading this I decided to see if she had a Facebook page, she does but just with an avatar. I messaged her that she might be amused to read you post. :-)

  6. My husband gets stuck on YouTube for hours sometimes…and the weird thing is, no matter where he starts, he always ends up watching broadcasts of the Academy Awards from the 60s and 70s…is there a disorder for this??

  7. I have watched every one of the videos you described, except for the DisneyCollector.. Like Noah, River LOVED those big machines videos, and he would go through phases of what he was especially interested in, like tractors stuck in the mud, or giant excavators. At 7, he’s moved on to Minecraft videos – essentially people playing Minecraft and narrating what they are doing. He LOVES these and they are insanely popular. Unfortunately, a lot are made by teenage boys and young men with very…colorful. language so we have to screen them carefully.

    And BTW, now that you’ve discovered youtube, look on pinterest for good educational videos – like TheyMIghtBeGiants singing about fractions, the solar system, osmosis, and tons of other math and science topics in a fun and educational way.. There’s lots of fun learning stuff out there.

  8. First of all, I have been away for faaaaarrrrrr too long. And second of all, I am so with you on being late to the party (who joined Facebook in 2009 as many of her friends were abandoning it? This kid. Twitter? Still don’t really get it. Instagram? Didn’t I just see that stuff on Facebook?!) Anyway, we discovered a new and brilliant use for YiuTube a few weeks ago — tooth brush timer. That’s right … we play a Yea Alabama video with the Milliin Dollar Band that is just a bit more than two minutes long. C and W can’t stop brushing until Yea Alabama is over (and really, why would anyone ever want to cut that song short?) Wins all around and I inevitably head to work or bed happily humming about the Bulldogs and Yellowjackets and Rose Bowls!

    1. That’s awesome! Although I fight Ali to brush her teeth for a shorter time – or maybe it’s the entire process of setting out ten shot glasses of water every day. At any rate, it takes a good fifteen minutes.

  9. I heard that podcast too! I was thinking the same thing, that her voice soothed you like the person in the segment. So funny. I can’t remember what the soothing voice was talking about, but it was something totally random and weird. Ha! Voice addictions…I wonder if that’s a technical diagnosis.

    1. I don’t think it is yet, since the Internet (namely Reddit) “discovered” it and not doctors – I don’t think doctors like researching things that the internet recognizes as a thing. But one day, we’ll all be able to take a pill to get tingly-feelings from each other’s voices… :-)

  10. YES! My son watches DisneyCollector and you’re right, her voice is so soothing. He is mesmerized by her just taking the toy out and showing how it works. Hilarious.

  11. UGH! I actually CANNOT STAND HER VOICE!!!! And it bothers me that she is making all these videos playing with toys and my son is MESMERIZED by them. I CAN”T GET AWAY! What is her DEAL?!?! I, too, have Googled her face thinking that perhaps having a picture in my mind would help make the voice not-so-annoying. But no luck. There is also another guy doing the videos whose voice I ALSO ABHOR…but can’t find his name right now. I REALLY JUST WISH SOMEONE WOULD RE-DUB her videos with another voice. It really is LIKE FINGERNAILS on a chalkboard to me!

  12. Who is disney collector? We all want to know. I have been researching for hours to find out who she is,but my only lead is this one, but it is very unlikely. Here is a link for all of you that want an idea of how she might look like : http://www.theeclecticgrabbag.com/2012/11/disneypixars-brave-ultimate-collectors.html it’s the only picture i found, and this could be her. Notice her skin color, the same, and she has accessories on her hand, as disney collector does. She also has two kids, like disney collector. Hope this helps.

    Signing off,
    The questioner

  13. I’m not to familiar with DisneyCollector, but when it comes to YouTube and toy videos, my kids LOOOOOOOOVE EvanTubeHD. They beg me each morning to watch this 7 year old talk about toys. And ask me over and over if they can play with Evan and his little sister. The videos are much better than some most of the content I view on YouTube.

  14. WOW, my 3 daughter is obsessed with DisneyCollectorBR as well. I have no clue how this even started. Sometimes my daughter sounds like her when she talks. It’s crazy. I have been pretty curious too on how this person looks and I googled “who is disneycollectorbr” and came acrossed your blog.

  15. Haha Just wanted to say that I also googled “disneycollecterbr” hoping to find a pic of her. I felt silly doing it until I saw the suggestion “disneycollecterbr face”..so funny!

    My 2 year old is currently addicted to her videos.. But to be honest, I can’t stand her voice. Not sure if it’s the accent or because my son watches her sooo much.

    PS– Unless she shows her face.. I still picture her as Asian! Lol

  16. Your story mirrors my own. My 3-year old was obsessed with firetrucks and somehow we stumbled across disneycollecterbr. Your story about your mini-obsession with her identity and how enjoyable she is to watch is the same as mine. I am glad to know this kooky experience isn’t mine alone.

  17. This is so funny. I stumbled across your blog here because I was trying to search what DisneyCollector looked like! I have a 2 yr old son obsessed with the Cars movies. And we have stumbled onto her YouTube videos (as well as BluCollection). We’re on the iPad multiple times per day watching these videos. And I’ve actually found myself drawn to them as well which is so bizarre. Too funny.

  18. Hi. I’m actually kind of happy I found this. I’m a 17 year old guy. And I watch her videos to get me to sleep. I also found another channel called cellphonetrek. But if you type in cellphonetrek Erika. And just watch those videos. The woman that does them has such a soothing voice. >.< it's like a drug.

  19. my three year old LOVES disneycollectorbr videos. All i want to know is who is the woman behind the brightly colored watches and sparkling rings… It kills me.

  20. Same thing here, my daughter fell in love with disneycollector (actually, she calls her ‘hi-guys!’ I was wondering who she is and where she’s from and that’s why I ended up here… Must admit though that I can’t really stand her all that much, at first I found there was something sick about a grown up cultivating this insane obsession for playdoh, then I came to hate her because of the obsessive behavior she creates in kids. Children are supposed to be free and innocent, not passively addicted to some weirdo doing useless (and totally commercial ) stuff on computer screens. So, yes, I hate her for what she’s doing to our kids in order to get money out of it. On the other hand I must also admit she has been very smart inventing herself a very well paid job and maybe even a total whole in the market, but still, my job is to protect my kid and it gets harder because of people like her…

  21. My PDD-NOS diagnosed son is absolutly in love with DCBR. He now announces “Hey guys” before beginning to play with any toy, presenting each piece of the toy like she does. For a child who craves repetition and has difficulty learning how to play with his toys, it’s a godsend that she seems to have just about every toy in existence, and has developed quite a following just being a child at heart. Thank you for sharing your story.

  22. I am so glad that we aren’t alone. I think my daughter has watched the disneycollector video about the Elmo playdoh color mixer approximately 10,000 times. I try to find other videos and we always end up back at her videos. I always wonder if she gets her nails done professionally before every new video. Maybe her and her nail person plan out the color choice. I wonder if Disney sends her toys? So many questions.

  23. We are having the same questions here and the same addiction.
    I was playing with the idea that she was Hispanic and married to BluCollection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41NmJQv6EA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    I have always been so curious about the “collection” aspect of the videos since she unwraps everything (something fairly brutally) and plays with it. Wouldn’t a serious collector want to keep these items in mint condition? But I never thought of it as a money making thing, now it makes more sense to me.

  24. My 3 year old son also loves her videos. We found them because he loves cars. Everyday he comes to me with my iphone or the ipod, and he asks me to put on “cars” for him and he always watches her videos. There is also another guy that for some reason I think is her husband, he has a similar channel his is Bluecollection, and he also shows Cars toys.

  25. My son loves her too. He has been into it since summer. I can’t stand her voice personally but he loves her. My friend’s son tooo!!

  26. My son also loves Disneycollector.br and blucollection. I also do not know how he found them. I had wondered if she was in Brazil, would find it hard to get all of those toys there. I can assume she gets them for free to try out, sort of like a beauty blogger? My son prefers the egg surprise ones and loves the Kinder Surprise (of course illegal in US :( ). Now an annoying voice…surprise eggs by Fluffyjet productions.

  27. Omg.

    My son is also obsessed with YouTube and started with surprise eggs in general, then we started focusing just on Disney collector, and I found your blog because I was googling Disney collector. I’m sure you get a ton of traffic from that. So yeah, I’m the same boat, friend. :)

  28. My son too has an obesession with YouTube! He loves DisneyCollector! His latest find though is EvanTubeHD. Evan and his family are household names around our house! Gotta love YouTube, and knowing other children love it as much as ours :)

  29. My 5 year old daughter has autisim and I have NO clue how we came upon DisneyCollector but as I read your story, I couldnt believe we werent the only ones! Ive watched sooo so many of her videos that her voice will randomly pop into my thoughts ‘Hey Guys,, Disney Collector here..’ I as well, cane across your blog while googling, trying to put a face to that voice! Lol when we get our daughter toys that she has seen on disney collector, shes like flipping out with excitment!! And thats how the play doh obbsession came along. Glad to kniw were not the only ones that are hooked ;)

  30. My 2-year-old daughter LOVES DisneyCollecterBR and I really hate watching those videos. I just heard the TAL episode you wrote about and wondered if that’s what’s going on!

  31. Wow! I have to say I’m a little relieved my sons current obsession with Disney collector is quite a common thing, I was curious about why watching someone open up and try out various toys was so fascinating for my toddler, so I googled Disney collector and discovered we are not alone! That and peppa pig, which he prefers to watch in portugese…go figure. And she has an INSANE amount of views on her videos (with many contributions from this household).

  32. My 2yr old daughter is addicted to watching those disneycollectorbr videos. I always wondered what origin her accent was from. I also wondered how my daughter stumbled across watching her videos. Wish I knew what she looked like.

  33. Omg! I’m looking up “who is Disney collector” and saw this post! So perfectly describes us as well! My son has bee watching her and soothed by her since right before he turned 2! He STILL loves her and pretends to be her when opening things! He has learned SO much just from watching her! I would LOVE to know who she is! I am so completely caught off guard by the Brazilian background as well! I am about to go running to tell my husband and he will be stunned as well!

  34. I’ve seen her hands a few times not lookin’ so great. I know she’s at least my age.

    Also, it is possible she is of Japanese descent; there was a surge of Japanese immigrants to Brasil in the early 1900s. Lyoto Machida, an MMA fighter is a descendent of a Japanese immigrant to Brasil.

    Cheers!

  35. My 2 year old daughter has become obsessed with Disney Collector BR’s Peppa Pig Play Doh videos – I prefer them to non-stop opening of Kinder-Surprise eggs! My husband and I found this site googling for her face – I thought she was an Asian lady!

  36. So funny that I stumbled upon this post…my 3 year old is OBSESSED with DisneyCollectorBR and BlueCollection, and now, ridiculously enough, my husband and I are also on a quest to find out who the heck these people are! He read that BluCollection guy has become a multi-millionare from his YouTube channel. Haha. Who knows! I love knowing that there is someone else out there trying to ‘get to the bottom of it.’ :)

  37. I found your website as I was googling about her!!!!! My son and I watche her everyday. Hen says “I want to watch disney collector”. Smart woman. I am glad we are not the only ones!!!!
    Have fun with her!

  38. Hello my kids watch every single day the Disney Collector. Im Brasilian and she is Brazilian too!
    Now Im getting crazy trying to find her face, please if you know how is her Let me Know!!!!

  39. Oh my gosh, this is identical to my life lol. My 3 year old stumbled upon a DisneyCollector video of her unwrapping Chocolate eggs, and ever since then has been obsessed. All I ever hear is “I wanna watch chocolate eggs!” This goes far, far beyond her Mickey addiction (which I didn’t think was possible.) one night I sat down and glanced at the video, and before I knew it, I had watched the entire 30 minute long video…. Of eggs being unwrapped! I was just as hypnotized as her! I actually really enjoy watching her make things with Play Dough lol. I started talking to my fiancé about her constantly, jokingly, like “this is an imposter trying to copy DC, I don’t want to watch this one!” Then I became curious on how and how much money people made from views on YouTube, so I googled it. As I was looking at the list of the top 50 money makers on YouTube, I said “I wish DisneyCollector was on here!”, never expecting her to actually be. Low and behold, DisneyCollector was the fourth highest paid youtuber! She has made 5 million dollars from simply opening eggs, toys, and playing with them, and has had over 2 billion views on all her videos!!! I was relieved to know that my child is not the only toddler obsessed with her! And apparently I’m not the only parent with the strange addiction as well!

  40. Like many of the other posters, I stumbled upon your article doing a search for any information about who the Disney Collector is. I also thought she was Asian, not that it matters. My 3 year old twin daughters are obsessed with watching her videos, so I hear her voice ALL THE TIME! Her videos seem to really calm them down.

    I find her voice strangely hypnotic and there’s something about the sound of the unwrapping of plastic packaging that brings me back to my childhood.

  41. You don’t know how happy I am that I found this article and especially the posts. I am an expat mom living in France with my husband and 4 year old son. Even though here we can find Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs at any store, my son is still mesmerized by these videos. Disney Collector is the no 1 favorite! I cannot believe it how many out there are on the same boat…:D. I am glad actually as I was starting to worry and think that my son has some kind of weird addiction or something. He keeps watching them over and over (like this one here http://youtu.be/jb3JJOmU8NM ) and honestly I don’t get it why. I am still worried that on long term this might get out of hand…any suggestions moms?

  42. My daughter too is very much mesmerized by Disney Collectorbr. Having grown up in the Philippines, I am 100% sure that this lady is a Filipino. The way she speaks English, the way is drags her “S” like “sssss”, the way her accent goes despite some American twang added maybe due to years of living in USA…it’s hard to explain. Only a true Filipino would recognize a fellow Filipino abroad. Anyway, yeah, she’s annoying coz I find her trying hard to speak like an American-not that it’s bad but I kinda’ get irritated every time I hear her talk. And no, she doesn’t sound young to me. She sounds like one of the moms in her 40s… But oh well, lucky her. She’s rich!!!

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