Salish Matter and Dad Jordan on Those Dating YouTube Videos & Sincerely Yours

Though YouTube videos of Salish regularly command tens of millions of views, both Salish and Jordan insist that they only film once a week, on Sundays. Every other day of the week, they say, Salish is a normal kid (albeit one with a sold-out skin care line and millions of followers) who goes to school, hangs out with her friends, and does extracurricular activities like gymnastics and track. But is it possible to be a normal high schooler in the face of such viral fame? “I feel like I’m just the same as everyone else,” Salish said. “I mean, I am the same as everyone else.” No one at school treats her any differently, she said. “Hold on, though,” Jordan says, interrupting. “What about after the event and the skin care? And you said that the freshman boys were taking the opportunity–” This time, Salish cuts her dad off. “No, no, no,” she says and gives him a look. “Did you see that?” Jordan asks me. “The look that she just gave me? I know that means, I’m not going to do that scene.”

Salish and Jordan are both aware of the growing conversation around the ethical and privacy considerations of child influencers which centers around questions about whether a child can consent to online fame and if being a child influencer is inherently exploitative. Salish feels for those kids, she says, but it’s not her experience. “I feel like we do it very well. I love working with everybody so much on Sundays. But I think that’s true for some people, which is very sad, but not for us.” Jordan, for the record, agrees. “There are families that have exploited – or whatever word you want to use – their children for their own financial gain in a way that’s harmful to the kids. For me, my fear is that she looks back on this time and regrets doing it. We do try and prioritize fun and her enjoyment of the process first and then the views and the creative second.” But it is a business – and seemingly, a lucrative one. “It is a business,” Jordan says. “And we’ve been fortunate to be successful at it. You can say we’ve achieved anything we could have imagined achieving. At this point, we’re building memories. I feel comfortable that when she looks back on all this, she’ll look back on it fondly.”

According to the Sincerely Yours website, the products are ‘Skin Care Made For Teens’. In a world of Sephora kids, where 10-year-olds have favorite moisturizers and face cleansers, the idea of a 15-year-old being the face of a skin care line is less absurd than it would have been a few years ago. As of Sept. 29, the brand has already racked up 167,000 followers on Instagram, where commenters gush over the products and beg Salish to restock them. Near the end of our conversation, a PR representative who has been listening in on the call chimes in to ask Salish what success looks like for her. “Wow, that’s a hard question,” Salish says. “I just want people to be happy, especially with the content we put out in the world. Yeah. That’s what I want – just making people happy.”