Youtube users view 4 billion hours of video each month, according to facts.randomhistory.com, and Alex Pekala, senior, can say his channel contributes to the worldwide obsession with the site. Pekala has been running his own Youtube channel for about five years, creating videos and sharing his interests.

“I always wanted to capture myself opening things for the first time. When I was little, I always used to always watch those type of videos. I didn’t have the money to go out and buy games all the time, so I would just watch others get them instead. When I finally saved up and got my first system, I uploaded that and it got a lot of attention,” Pekala said.

Pekala’s channel focuses on Nintendo and video gaming, but he features videos of himself vlogging (video blogging), doing challenges, and unboxing new items.

“I definitely try to be as original as I can. Even if it is a video lots of people have done before, I want to make it my own and make it original somehow. I always try to put my own twist on it. I think that has really helped because people respond to that, it’s something new and different,” said the YouTuber.

The senior had one other Youtube channel before 7th grade that originally consisted of stop-motion animation with legos. Pekala wanted to pursue his Youtube career, but have his channel focused around gaming, so he started the CND (CaptainNintendoDude) Channel in 2011, when he was in 7th grade.

Pekala’s newest Youtube currently has 46k subscribers, and Pekala says he hopes to expand his growth on Youtube, since he’s been noticed by talent agents and companies wanting to sponsor their products in his videos. Close friends like Jacob Ducay, senior at Sprayberry High School in Georgia, has been able to observe Pekala’s channel grow.

“It was crazy. I remember when he first got a thousand subscribers. Even though he only had only a thousand, and there were people that had a thousand more subscribers than him, it was still just the idea that he would be getting 500+ views on his videos. It was just the fact that there was 500 people watching his videos. Even though it seems like such a small number compared to other people when you look at it just with him, 500 people was half of our school. It was such a huge deal,” Ducay said.

Within the past year, Pekala changed the style of his videos, according to Ducay. He believes that these are the best videos Pekala has ever released.

“It is nice to see his channel grow because people enjoy what he was doing. He got so much happiness out of it. Even now his channel is growing and it’s amazing. This last summer, he has just passed 32 thousand subscribers. I remember driving through a town in Wisconsin, and there was a sign that said the total population. It said that it was something like 31 thousand and I thought ‘It is almost like this whole town watches Alex’s videos,’” Ducay said, “ which is crazy, and it’s kind of like seeing a lego set be built very, very slowly. You gradually see it get bigger and bigger, and the bigger it gets, the more exciting it becomes.”

If Pekala continues to stay as passionate as he in about his channel, says Ducay, he thinks Pekala can become very successful.

“It’s really cool. It opens lots of opportunities. With how much Youtube has evolved, people are making a living off of it, and a really good living too. It’s hard because in our culture people don’t really see it as a career, and people don’t really have much respect for it,” Pekala said. “But that’s starting to change a lot more now, and I hope when I’m making enough with it to support myself, so thats its not just like a hobby, I can dedicate a lot more time to it because it’s such an asset to my life.”