The Profile Dossier: Ms. Rachel, the YouTube star that toddlers love

She has been described as “the Beyoncé for kids.”

Rachel Griffin-Accurso, better known as “Ms. Rachel,” is a YouTube sensation among the toddler crowd. With her iconic bluejean overalls, pink shirt, and matching headbands, she has been described as “the Beyoncé for kids.”

If you’re a parent, you can almost hear the, “Peek-a-boo! What was thaaat? Did you see that?” in her voice.

With more than 5 million YouTube subscribers, Griffin-Accurso’s videos are informed by research, and she uses techniques recommended by speech therapists and early childhood experts to create “high-quality screen time.”

Griffin-Accurso’s passion for helping toddlers learn how to speak comes from a deeply personal experience. After having her son Thomas in 2018, she left her job as a music teacher to be with him full-time. Around his first birthday, she noticed that he was having trouble keeping up with speech milestones.

“His mouth wasn’t connecting to his brain,” she said.

So she started making close-up videos of herself for him, in which he could easily see how her mouth moved to pronounce certain words. She and her husband decided to post a few of the videos on YouTube, and those videos struck a nerve with parents who were seeking a similar solution for their own kids.

“It makes so much sense to everyone else, but to me, it feels accidental,” she said.

Here’s what we can learn about childhood development, boundaries, and dealing with unexpected success from Ms. Rachel.

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