From The Age
"Probably in two weeks everyone will forget about me" ... Caitlin Hill.
Even by the web's own turbo-charged, celebrity-churning standards, her ascent has been breathtaking.
It took just six days and and three videos after joining the YouTube community for the aspiring actress to climb to the top of the charts.
Late last month her rap song video was the week's most watched video. Now into its third week on the charts, the one minute five second video has been viewed some 1.3 million times.
With some 4000 people subscribing to Caitlin's video feed, her channel now ranks as the eight most viewed this month. Collectively, her 14 short videos - all of them under five minutes in duration - have been watched over four million times.
California-based YouTube is the undisputed king of the internet video sites. Each day hundreds of users post short video clips on the site, some of which are shot on digital cameras or mobile phones and others which are copied from television or DVDs. Over 100 million videos are watched daily on the site.
Caitlin says that while her first foray onto YouTube was a bit of a lark, once she was noticed, she began thinking that it could help boost her fledgling acting career.
"I'll keep posting videos because I've always wanted to film stuff," she says. "If more people get interested then that's great, if they don't, then it doesn't matter. I'm going to make my own way in the world with or without YouTube."
Caitlin, who finished school last year, lives with her grandparents in Beenleigh in Brisbane's southern commuter belt. She has an upaid role in an independent horror film currently in production called The Girl in the Red Dress in which she plays the central character.
"She doesn't have many lines, but I get to run around and lead people to their death," Caitlin - who turns 18 this week - explains.
The video that catapulted her into the YouTube limelight - LonelyGirl: Lazydork is better than you - is a cheesy rap response to two of YouTube's more prominent personalities.
LonelyGirl15 is an American teenager who grew up in New Zealand and broadcasts angst-ridden videos about life and love from her bedroom. Lazydork is YouTube's court jester, a sometime film reviewer and rap artist who often pokes fun at YouTube celebrities like LonelyGirl15 via his witty ditties.
Caitlin's riposte was a tearaway hit. Her viewers (mostly) showered her in praise with accolades like "cute", "cool" and "awesome".
The downside of YouTube celebrity is that it also attracts the nutters, perverts and haters.
Eighteen-year-old Emmalina, the last Australian YouTube star, recently removed all her videos and quit the internet after her computer was hacked into and personal files, videos and images were stolen.
"Some people have been trying to gross up to me," Caitlin says. "I don't respond to it but it cracks me up because they don't seem to realise how pathetic they sound."
Caitlin is also well aware of the vicissitudes of internet stardom.
"Probably in two weeks everyone will forget about me and I'll go back to being a nobody," she says.
But for the time being she's enjoying the spotlight.
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