Remember the days when we worshipped film and TV stars and fell at the feet of musicians? It seems as though they’re well and truly over now because there’s rarely an afternoon when you won’t find a very different breed of ‘star’ trending on Twitter.

YouTube stars aren’t the next big thing, they are THE big thing right now and that fact has been pointed out by the likes of Jezebel, bloggers and the majority of the Twitterati. Check out the results of this Variety survey if you don’t believe me.

Zoella is one of the UK’s most popular YouTube stars and will release her first novel later this year. (Pic: Zoella via Facebook)

While you were brushing up on BuzzFeed and getting to grips with the latest “mind boggling” timeline adjustment social media had thrown your way, these boys and girls were building mini empires in their bedrooms and forging business connections with each other.

Business Insider even ranked them based on the amount of cash their little empires bring in.

So, how did they do it? Well, that’s something many wannabe YouTube superstars have been trying to figure out. Even I have attempted to start my own mini vlogging enterprise, albeit slowly.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I think it’s safe to say totally underestimated just how difficult it would be to find the time to make the videos, let alone promote them. Luckily, I’m just happy making and posting videos. YouTube ‘stardom’ isn’t something that interests me.

It’s an ambition for others though. Ask most 16 year olds in the UK what they want to do with their lives and they’ll say “become the next Zoella”, apparently. And to think, all I ever wanted to do was talk about entertainment news for a living.

What does someone have to do to make that leap from 24 views to 240,000 or even 2.4 million though? Do they need the best camera on the market to make a decent vlog? And what do you have to do to turn your little hobby into a business that opens more doors than you even knew existed?

Clearly, it ain’t gonna happen in the space of a couple of weeks. This lot have been plugging away at it for quite some time. Most of them didn’t even think their little hobby would become their day job when they started out.

So how DO you become a YouTube superstar? Well, I guess that’s for them to know and me to find out.

And blog about. Obviously.