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Creative Production 263and they will acknowledge various sources of help they turned to toget started.Adults are not simply bystanders to their children’s expert technicalcreative endeavors; we found a number of cases in which parents andeducators played an important role in influencing their children’s involvementwith media, either by providing resources; introducing kids to genres,software, or sites; or by working in collaboration with kids. One group ofsuccessful young YouTube video makers talked about how their uncle hada cable television show, which they eventually inherited. The boys describedthemselves as able to figure out technical aspects of video making on theirown, but they acknowledge that they helped each other out and originallylearned from their dad. A sixteen-year-old white girl from New York namedAshley, who wishes to be a filmmaker, noted, “I learned to use the camerajust by playing around with it, and I used an editing program on my mom’siMac computer.” As described in box 6.2, Ashley also revealed a numberof ways in which her mother helped her learn how to make good videos.Many youth also described how school projects in video making providedthe impetus for them to get started in video production. After-school programsand community centers also provide spaces where kids could messaround and learn about creative production with knowledgeable adultsand peers. Despite the centrality of self-directed learning in young people’sstories of how they got started in video production, successful entry intoproduction is enabled by a wide range of social and technical resourcesthat support as-needed help and learning. What self-motivated youthrequire to pursue these interests is not so much a formal instructionalsetting as access to wide-ranging sources of expertise.Box 6.2 All in the FamilyPatricia G. LangeA mother and daughter named Lola and Ashley have a series of shows onYouTube. Ashley is a sixteen-year-old white girl who characterizes herself asa “future filmmaker” on her YouTube page. From New York, the motherdaughterteam summarizes and provides commentary about current reality-TV shows. They first learned about YouTube through a television show thatreviews and comments on television. Contrary to the idea that YouTubereplaces television, the mother-daughter team’s discussions and critiques