Photo by Andrew Leu via Unsplash.
Ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, and you’re bound to get a range of creative answers. But the number one choice for kids these days may be surprising. A new study in Japan found that the most appealing career path for young boys is to be a professional YouTuber or online video creator. And for girls, the top preference is singer, actress or performer.A study done by insurance provider Sony Life discovered these dream jobs after surveying 200 junior high school students and 800 high schoolers. The gender ratio was an even split, with 50 percent of the participants being boys and 50 percent being girls. The company allowed each student to pick their top three choices.30 percent of junior high boys chose YouTube creator, which is nearly double the number since Sony Life conducted this same survey in 2017. Professional YouTubers have been known to rake in big bucks. Case in point: a six-year-old Korean YouTube star just bought a home worth $8 million. Kids are clearly taking note of this.Technology was the overwhelming factor in most of the other choices for both junior and high school boys.Aside from YouTuber, 23 percent of junior school boys opted for eSports player, while 19 percent chose video game creator. High school boys meanwhile chose IT engineer (20.8 percent) as their most viable career option. 12.3 percent of high school boys chose YouTuber, making it the third-highest on their list. Professional athlete, which was the 9th choice for boys in 2017, dropped out of the top ten completely.For junior school girls, being a performer topped the list at 18 percent. The second-highest choice is manga artist or animator, with 16 percent choosing this job. As for high school girls, civil servant was the number one choice at 15 percent, followed by nurse at 11 percent, performer at 8.8 percent, clinical psychologist at 8.5 percent and office worker at 8 percent.High school girls appeared to have the most varied list of responses, but the top three choices are all philanthropic by nature. YouTube didn’t show up in the top ten priorities for girls.Find Meera on Twitter and Instagram.
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