With Obama Interviews, Three YouTube Stars Are About to Get a Lot More Famous Bethany Mota, GloZell and Hank Green will host one-on-one interviews with the president next week following his State of the Union address.
By Geoff Weiss
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After taking Hollywood by storm, YouTube has its sights set on Capitol Hill.
President Obama has invited three of the platform's most beloved personalities to the White House for one-on-one interviews following his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The chosen creators include: Bethany Mota, a beauty guru and Dancing With the Stars castoff; GloZell, a green lipstick-wearing comedian whose "Cinnamon Challenge" video boasts 42 million views; and noted vlogger Hank Green.
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Google is building each of the YouTubers their own sets within the White House, BuzzFeed reports. The interviews, which will take place two days after Obama's address, will range from five to 10 minutes each. Questions will be culled from various social-media outlets using the hashtag #YouTubeAsksObama. Obama will not vet the questions, a Google official told BuzzFeed.
In a teaser video for the event, proposed topics include education, unemployment, racial profiling, net neutrality -- and also, Mota says with a wink, "Who's your favorite YouTube creator?"
This isn't the first time that President Obama has tried to tap influential YouTubers. Last February, to drive enrollment on HealthCare.gov, the President invited 13 online celebrities to the White House for an hour-long discussion about how the administration might go about harnessing the medium to reach today's youth.
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