Your Kid’s Favorite Storyteller May Be on YouTube: What a New UCLA Survey Says

Ask a ten-year-old what a “story” is, and you may not hear “a movie” or “a book.” You may hear the name of a YouTube creator. A new survey from UCLA suggests that is not unusual at all, and it gives families a good reason to sit down together and talk about what young people are watching.

What the survey found

The Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA released its 2026 Teens and Screens report, titled “Rewrite This! How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Are Redefining Modern Storytelling.” It is based on a nationwide survey of about 1,500 tweens, teens and young adults. Parenting Patch, which covered the findings on October 23, describes the participants as ages 10 to 24.

Here are some of the numbers reported:

• YouTube as a storyteller: 72.9% named YouTube as a way stories get told, slightly ahead of TV (70.3%) and movies (70.2%).
• Short videos count: 79% said short-form content, such as Reels, YouTube and TikTok, can tell a story.
• New faces welcome: 39.8% would cast new actors in a project, compared with 38.2% who would cast known actors and 16.8% who would cast an influencer.
• Feeling seen: 55% want more neurodivergent characters on screen, but only 22.7% said current portrayals ring true most of the time.
• Gaming: For the second year in a row, positive feelings about gaming were reported at nearly three times the rate of negative ones, and 79.1% know how to report someone in the games they play.

Parenting Patch also cites separate Pew Research Center data that 76% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 use YouTube daily, and 17% say they use it almost constantly. We have not reviewed the Pew data ourselves, so please treat that figure as reported by Parenting Patch.

What this means at home

It is easy to read a headline like this and feel worried. But look closely at what young people are saying. They want stories that feel true. They want to see people like themselves. Many of them also know how to protect themselves online, like reporting someone in a game. That is something to build on.

Parenting Patch offers a few practical takeaways for parents, and they are simple enough to start today:

1. Look past the clock. Total screen time matters, but so does what is actually on the screen.
2. Ask about their favorite creators. Curiosity opens more doors than a lecture.
3. Check that content fits their age. A creator can be popular and still not be right for a ten-year-old.
4. Balance online videos with offline activities. A walk, a board game or a meal together fills a different kind of cup.

Three easy ways to try it this week

1. Watch one video together

Ask your child to show you their favorite channel. Sit beside them and enjoy it. You will learn more in fifteen minutes of watching than in an hour of guessing.

2. Swap stories

Take turns. They share a video that moved or amused them. You share a story from your own childhood, or from your family’s history. Young people are hungry for stories that feel real, and your life is full of them.

3. Tell the story of how God carried your family

Every family has chapters where things were hard and help came. Say them out loud. Children remember what they hear in a warm voice at a kitchen table.

“We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.”
— Psalm 78:4 (KJV)

Long before cameras, phones or YouTube, God’s people understood that stories are how faith and wisdom travel from one generation to the next. The tools change. The calling does not.

A hopeful note

This survey does not tell us that young people have stopped caring about good stories. It tells us they care a great deal, and that they are telling and finding stories in new places. Our part is to show up, stay curious, and make sure they hear the best story of all, told by someone who loves them.

One small caution: this is one survey, and survey results describe groups, not your child. You know your own family best. If screen habits are causing real struggles with sleep, mood or school, consider speaking with your child’s doctor or school counselor.

What is the best story your family has ever told around the table, and who told it?

Sources: Parenting Patch, “UCLA’s 2026 Teens and Screens Survey: What Parents Should Know About Kids, Entertainment and YouTube” (October 23, 2026); UCLA Center for Scholars & Storytellers, “Teens and Screens 2026: Rewrite This! How Gen Z and Gen Alpha Are Redefining Modern Storytelling” (2026, no exact date listed); KJV text via KingJamesBibleOnline.org.