AN IRISH teen has swapped his dream of attending Oxford University to further his YouTube career.
Adam Beales, 18 and from Derry, is one of Ireland's most popular YouTubers with over 676,000 subscribers on his channel TheNewAdamB99.
With a mass of videos from vlogs, life hacks, challenges and pranks, the young Irishman has had more than 52 million views.
His success brought him not just more subscribers – Beales is projected to reach one million by February 2018 – but also an agent and is rumoured to be earning thousands of pounds a month, but remains coy saying his income goes up and down.
He was recently among the invited guests at a major YouTube convention in London and signed a promotional deal with Disney, all while studying for his A-levels.
Just a year ago, the head boy for St Columb's College - whose alumni boasts two Nobel Laureates, the poet Séamus Heaney and the politician John Hume - was dreaming of attending Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard.
With 11 A* grades at GCSE and studying for four A levels, Beales is among the top students at his school, but now the Derry teen is investing his future in a web career.
Speaking to The Irish Times he explained: "Last year before this all happened I was thinking, I can do this, I can go to Oxford or Cambridge, or to America.
"Then after YouTube happened I had that conversation with my mammy and daddy.
Watch one of TheNewAdamb99's hilarious viral videos below...
"They think everything’s happened too fast, they’re still very cautious, but in the past few months they’ve seen the potential and the opportunities which have been presented to me.
"There’s a whole new life out there. YouTube is the new TV and online media is the new world."
"This year’s been life-changing for me, the other day I went to my corner shop for a bag of spuds and a pint of milk, and literally 18 wains came along with me back up to the house to get their pictures taken.”
Beales told the paper he sees himself pursuing YouTube as a hobby, but earning from it, while he's likely to stay local attending Ulster University’s Magee campus in Derry to study computer science.
But he still has big plan, for television, a book, and a UK tour, while expanding his range of merchandise, and wants to bring sales and distribution “in house” as part of a family business run by his mother, who would quit her job as a civil servant.
"There’s a YouTube star on this year’s I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, the first ever," he says.
You can catch Adam Beales, otherwise known as TheNewAdamb99 on his YouTube channel here.
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