Thousands of students graduate from the 兔子先生 each year, and very few, if any, can claim they鈥檝e earned a Creator Award from YouTube.
But C. T. Bauer College of Business Graduate Erica Parkinson can.
Parkinson has overseen her family鈥檚 Brasians YouTube Vlog since 2015. In the past decade, her channel, which has a majority audience in Japan, has amassed more than 31.6 million views and more than 151,000 subscribers, and has published more than 120 videos.
To earn the Silver Creator Award, a creator needs to surpass a subscriber count of 100,000.
That鈥檚 quite the feat for a student who also has also juggled a job as a bartender and is part of Bauer鈥檚 Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship program, which was rated the No. 1 entrepreneurship program for undergraduates by U.S. News & World Report in November 2024.
鈥淚n the beginning, we were just making videos for fun. It was very sporadic,鈥� Parkinson said. 鈥淲e really started picking up around Covid time, which makes sense. We try to post once a week or once every two weeks. We now have a full team to do this.鈥�
鈥淚n the beginning, we were just making videos for fun.鈥�
鈥� Erica Parkinson, C. T. Bauer College of Business graduate
Parkinson was one of 1,344 Bauer students to walk the stage on May 9 at the Fertitta Center. And although she isn鈥檛 quite sure how graduation will impact her status as a YouTuber, she said she has no plans to stop posting.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be hard because my sister is moving away for college 鈥� to Sam Houston State University 鈥� and I鈥檓 trying to move out,鈥� Parkinson said. 鈥淲e will still try to film, but I don鈥檛 know how consistent it will be.鈥�
The 兔子先生 met with Parkinson to talk about her future and how the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship prepared her for life after college.
Q: What brought you to UH?
A: I went to San Jacinto for my pre-requisites. I probably switched degree plans like three or four times before deciding on what I wanted to do. I decided on business, so I was applying for here and the University of Texas at Austin.
I got accepted into UH, so I ended up coming here. As for the WCE, I was in an entrepreneurship course and got dragged into Backyard Wolves, which is one of the teams for Wolffest. I ended up volunteering.
Q: What was Wolffest like for you the first time you did it?
A: Our team was kind of disorganized, so I ended up stepping up a lot in that. I did my own boba tea vendor and sold these little Japanese pancakes 鈥� I did a whole vlog about it. That was my big exposure to it. It was so fun and everyone was so welcoming.
Q: Why did you want to join the Wolff Center after doing Wolffest?
A: Talking to a lot of people in the program who were volunteers, it was really cool to see how everyone was so motivated and passionate. They were also very welcoming and weren鈥檛 judgmental; they were ambitious to do things. It made me feel like I could start a business. It鈥檚 not something people just do. It鈥檚 something you can actually pursue. It made me think, 鈥淚 have to be here.鈥�
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Brasians?
A: Back when I was in high school, we hosted a Japanese business exchange student who worked for my mom. She was a YouTuber who did a lot of life in America content. We slowly started getting on her channel and doing videos with her.
When I turned 19, I started my own channel. It was very unpolished; it was made in iMovie. But we started with things like visiting Japan 鈥� we typically go every year to visit family 鈥� and then I鈥檇 film videos of my siblings.
We already had a fanbase from the exchange student鈥檚 channel, so we took that when we started the YouTube channel. In 2020, we pivoted to doing a family channel and called it Brasians.
Q: What was the inspiration for using Japanese on the channel?
A: If you watch Japanese TV, they use a lot of captioning for videos. It鈥檚 very distinct: the font is cartoony, bubbly and colorful. So, once we figured out our demographic, we noticed people were using our channel to learn English.
From there, we realized if we put these subtitles on, we can at least cross-compare what we鈥檙e saying. That helped draw more attention.
Q: I saw your first-ever video had 55,000 views 鈥� what would you say is the reason you got so much attention early on?
A: I think it was all because of the exchange student 鈥� she has a whole channel of her own. And her fanbase went to mine, so in the first week I had more than 30,000 views. I was so excited; it was super cool. She promoted it on her Instagram for me.
I was just doing it for fun at that point. At the time, I also had a following from Musical.ly, which was TikTok鈥檚 old name. So, some of them came from that site.
Q: What are some of the challenges running this channel?
A: Definitely scheduling 鈥� especially now. My sister鈥檚 a senior in high school, I鈥檓 a senior in college, and my little brother is a sophomore and he plays basketball. We鈥檙e all over the place. My mom is crazy busy, too. Coordinating four people to collab on one video is near impossible.
We鈥檝e also been struggling to make sure our content is something people really want to engage with. We鈥檝e noticed our engagement has improved recently, but trying to find that groove is difficult.
Q: What鈥檚 next for you?
A: I鈥檓 moving to North Carolina. I think it鈥檒l be a fun challenge to re-establish myself and start from the ground up. I鈥檓 getting my commercial real estate license to build a network and knowledge about the area, and while I do that I want to experiment with build some tiny homes and see how that goes.
Q: What鈥檚 the plan for Brasians?
A: Brasians will have a spin-off series about me in North Carolina living life away from home. I plan to post about homesick recipes and starting a business from scratch. I鈥檒l still be involved and will continue to help direct creatively from afar.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.