Martha Stewart, often described as one of the original influencers, admits she went in with plenty of questions about MrBeast, the YouTube phenomenon whose massive online reach initially left her puzzled.
Speaking to AARP The Magazine, the 85-year-old lifestyle icon revealed she recently spent three days with the creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, though she didn’t disclose the reason for their time together or whether it was tied to an upcoming collaboration.
“I just spent three days with [28-year-old media personality] MrBeast,” Stewart said.
“Who the heck is MrBeast? Why is he getting billions of hits on his YouTube channels? He struck a chord. He found a void that wasn’t being filled, and he filled it.”
She went on to offer a more considered assessment of his appeal, telling AARP, “He does not seem to be wasting people’s time. He seems to be entertaining and intriguing.”
With 518 million subscribers, MrBeast remains the top-ranked YouTuber globally.
The comments came as part of a broader conversation about what actually defines a successful influencer in the current media landscape, a question Stewart admitted she doesn’t have a simple answer for.
“I don’t really know, because so many people are influencing so many millions of people in very odd ways today,” she said.
She drew a parallel between her own brand-building approach and the strategies used by today’s top creators, emphasizing that personal connection remains central to lasting influence.
“People want to know you. They want to know that you’re part of their daily life, important to them in some specific way,” she said, pointing to her own magazine, Martha Stewart Living, as an example.
“People still come up to me all the time and say, ‘I have every issue of your magazine, so I still refer to it all the time.’ It’s exactly what you want to have happened.”
2026-09-26 03:29:00
