How the Fishers couple behind GabeBabeTV became famous YouTubers (2024)

How the Fishers couple behind GabeBabeTV became famous YouTubers (1)

We arrived early.

Exactly 24 hours early, in fact, thanks to ascheduling fluke. But IndyStar photographer Robert Scheer and I didn't knowthat until we rang the doorbell at the Fishers home of YouTube superstars Gabrielle "Gabe" Flowers Rader and Chad "Babe" Rader andsawthe puzzled look on Gabrielle's face.

Chad Jr., 5, and Oscar, the Maltese Shih Tzu mix,came running to the door. Gabrielle, holding 5-week-oldReagan, invited us in anyway, and with only mild trepidation: "Oh, this place is a mess!"

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Even thoughwe'd caught them off guard, the personalities we met were trueto ones on the family's 300,000-subscribervlogging channel GabeBabeTV: Friendly, smiling, laughing. Happy. And the house wasn't really a mess, except for a neatly organized pile of documents on the kitchen table.

Chad was en route from his new job as online experience manager for Heartland Church in Fishers, so Gabrielle, 35, ran upstairs to change out of her sweatshirt.

How the Fishers couple behind GabeBabeTV became famous YouTubers (2)

Chad Jr., orCeej, as his parents call him, wastesting out his Olympics figure skating skills while watching the massive mounted 65-inchTV the familyreceived for promoting an electronics brand.

"Where'd you get all your energy?" I asked Ceej after his fourth carpet axel.

"Jesus!" he said, beaming and adjusting his gray "Be Your Best You" T-shirt in mid-air.

Gabrielle came downstairs in a salmon dolman-sleevedsweater and moments later, Chad arrived, kissing her and asking her about her day.

The Raders live by the motto of "love, life and laughter," both when the cameras are rolling and when they're not, and view the channel as an extension of their lives.

"We've been conscious about the times when you can be talkingor laughing or in the moment and then you turn the camera off, that moment shouldn't necessarily stop," Chad said."You're still in the moment. You just stopped recording. We never put on for the camera. If you try to fake it, people will see it."

How it started

Gabrielle and Chad both graduated in 2000 fromNorth Central High School but don't remember each other.They really metin 2009, after Chad reluctantly joined Facebook while he was in the army serving in Afghanistan. His niece and nephew wanted to keep in touch with him.

"Facebook prompts you to search your high school classmates, and there she was. I said, 'I think you're beautiful, hope you don't have a boyfriend, if you do I apologize,'" he said. "We just started talking from there."

After he came back to the U.S.,thecouple started dating andmarried in 2011. A year earlier,Gabrielle launched aYouTube channel,gflowers02,for hair tutorials and product reviews. She did it alone for almost two years before the two began posting videos together.

"I was watching other vloggers on YouTube, it was like a new thing," she said."People were just living their life and showing it and I was like, 'Babe we should totally try it.' So we did, and that is what stuck."

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The early videos were short and sweet: A few minutes showing Chad testingout Gabrielle's cherry cream cheesecookies, exclaiming, "Mm! Good job, baby!" Or, a short clip of Chad taking out Gabrielle's weave titled, "Him Loves me."They grew in length and video quality, as well as the couples'comfort in front of the cameraas the years went on.

They watched as subscribers multiplied from 1,000 to 5,000 in just a month once Chad joined the channel, and by the end of 2014, they hit 100,000 subscribers.

What began as ahobby is now a career for the couple.They post a 10-to-20-minute vlog every weekday at noon, each garnering upwards of 50,000 views.

"I think because of the dynamic between us—being an interracial couple and being something different and somethingthat wasn't always shown — I think people were drawn to see that and maybe to see how different it was," Gabrielle said. "And then they saw how different it was not. They were like, 'Hey these people are just like me, they're living their life.'"

The vlogs now are about as realas real life as it gets: In some videos, they are dealing with the loss of Chad's father, sharing their feelings about transgender issues and the birth of their children.In others,Gabrielle ispicking up Chad Jr. from school andshopping at Costco.

"We both are sometimes are like, 'Man, that was a boring blog,' Chad said. "But those are the ones that do the best, honestly. Because we're not trying do something crazy."

Each one begins with Gabrielle singing their theme song, andthe catchphrase she started with her solo channel years ago: "Whattup, peeps?!"

Being real

They aim to be realreality TV. Really. Without setup, astory line or drama. Turning the camera on or off doesn't change a situation, Chad said, but they alsochoosewhat they present to the public.

"We've made choices in what we will show, that we don't discipline Chad, and we won't discipline Reagan if it gets to that point," Chad said. "We won't do that on camera because it's not needed. We won't show every single hug or every single moment because we want to live our lives."

That's not to say they don't have their bad moments.

"If it's negative, you're not going to see it," Gabrielle said. "It's real life, so things happen in our life just like everybody else's but we don't necessarily show that. You can turn on reality TVand see all the drama you want to, but that's not way you come to GabeBabeTV for.Our job is to uplift and motivate and show positivity."

Making a living on YouTube

Gabe and Babe frequently do product placements and ads before their vlogs, for things like Diaper Genie, Club Crackers and Sun Basket. They've worked with about 160 brands and done 315 placements. They earn money on YouTube's pre-roll ads, too.

But it wasn't always this way. They vlogged for about two years before they wereapproached by a marketer. The first brand to want the couple's promotion — dating site HotOrNot.com— paidthem $200 in 2014. They were married,so they had to spin it to be about date night.

Then, GabeBabeTV did a commercial for WalMart.

"All of a sudden money came in, and it got to be the point that it was full-time for her," Chad said."We started getting more placements, and we were like, we could do this."

Both worked for a defense contractor before Gabrielle left her day job, and Chad continued working for a little bit longer before leaving his 9-to-5. He only recently decided to go back to work, not for financial reasons, but because the opportunity opened up and he wanted to.

Brands continue to buy placements with them, approaching them frequently. But they don't say yes to everyone— they tasted a nutrient water that was so disgusting, they couldn't put their name behind it. They alsoturn down products that don't fit their image, like cigarette companies.

"We say no a lot," Gabrielle said."We always want to make sure that the brands we work with are brands we use or that see a use for, or that our subscribers would use."

GabeBabeTV soon formed as an LLC, and isnow an S Corporation where they pay themselves salaries. It's more than a 40-hour-a-week job for the couple, though it's tough to quantify because the line between real life and YouTube life is a blurry one.They recentlyhired an assistant who works a few hours a week to help with emails.

"It's gotten to the point, and it's a blessing, where we can't handle it all ourselves," Chad said.

Fame and comments

They knew they made it big when the negative YouTube comments started coming in, Gabrielle said.

"OMG her voice annoys me....how does he do it????" one commenter said in 2014. Others critique their parenting or their food choices.

"I think hurt people hurt people," she said.

Gabrielle pays little attention to those, she said, andtries to respond to as many of the positive ones as she can.

"I think that people expect for there to be drama, or for there to be negativity, and when they don't see it, it's alarming to them and a lot of people feel like it's not real, it's fake, it must be an act, because no body can be that happy," she said.

All four members of the Raderfamily— plus friends and extended family— arenow recognized by a "peep" or two, or three, whenever they leave the house.

"There's not very many places we go where we don't meet at least one person," Gabrielle said."My mom is always getting recognized."

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With the visibility comessafety concerns, though. The family's Fishers home is blurred out in Google Maps for their protection, and they're careful never to show the exterior of their house or any houses of their family or friends who might appear on the vlog.People have discoveredwhere they live, though. One persontried to deliver 100 pizzas to the house, but the prankster used the couple's email address, so they caught it before they were delivered.

"People sometimes don't like seeing happiness, or they're in a place in their life where they're not as happy, so they attack what they can from afar," Chad said. "It stinks, but it's the way of life nowadays."

'The stars of the show'

When GabeBabeTV was created, the couple couldn't foresee how kids would become an integral part of it.

Chad Jr. hasn't known a life without vlogging, and his comfort with the camera offers something Gabe and Babe didn't expect: The start of adocumentary of their children's lives.

"The cool thing about vlogging is having the best home videos that you could ever have," Gabrielle said. "And who now gets to see their parents in their prime? I would love to see my mom in her 30s."

They never film when he's not into it, she said. Chad Jr himself has startedpicking up the camera, hitting record, and saying,"Whattup, peeps?"

Like his parents, he also gets recognized, but isn't quite sure how to yet connect the peeps behind the camera with those he meets in real life, Gabrielle said.

"We're setting him up for what could be a future for him if he wanted it," she said.

How the Fishers couple behind GabeBabeTV became famous YouTubers (5)

What's next

In December, Raders launched landing website www.gabebabetv.com for all their social media sites, accounts, videos, podcasts and other media.

They started a consulting business for both relationship advice and social media marketing, and hope to write a book on those subjects.

"We just think we're normal people," Chad said. "Our friends will be like, 'You know you're celebrities,' and no, we're not. We're not celebrities, we're just regular people who decided to put ourselves out there and film our lives."

That future, they say, will exist more in the real world and a little bit less on YouTube, with speaking engagements and other events around their lifestyle of"love, life and laughter."

"We're doing something I never envisioned myself doing, but I get to help people still," Chad, 35, said. "That's part of our walk. We're doing something I never envisioned myself doing, but we're able to help people, still."

Call IndyStar reporter Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752. Follow her onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram.

How the Fishers couple behind GabeBabeTV became famous YouTubers (2024)

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