Why Shawn Johnson and Andrew East Are 'Selective' About Showing Their Kids Online

Transcript

00:00I'm obsessed with your videos. You have like 2 million subscribers on YouTube.

00:03That's unbelievable. Did you ever feel like it was going to get like to this point? And

00:08how do you decide like when you're going to film, how much you show your children, things like that?

00:12We show our children less and less as they get older because they're becoming more and

00:16more recognizable with like, they're no longer just like infants and babies,

00:20but they're becoming people and they have opinions. And I don't want my daughter to

00:24go to kindergarten and having people be like, oh, I saw your vacation. You know,

00:27it's more of like a parent's perspective of like what we're going through.

00:32So it's always like a very fluid conversation that my husband and I are having, but we

00:36always deem it as like shareable home videos. We have the unedited versions where it's like

00:41all the moments that are so sweet that we get to experience. And then we try to

00:45share it with the world in a relatable way. But it is a conversation we always have.

00:49Sure. Is it something that you think like down the line, like you won't show them at all,

00:53or is it going to be very selective?

00:54It's very, very selective and it will be up to them. I mean, because Drew is now becoming

01:00five years old and you could have a conversation with her. It's more so up to them. And I don't

01:06ever want to cross a boundary where I'm showing something that they wouldn't want. Everything we

01:09try to show, I would never want them to be embarrassed by. I'm not outing their most

01:14vulnerable moments. I'm not showing them in, you know, exposing ways. My husband and I always say

01:19at the end of the day, our social media is about us as parents and not them as kids.

01:25Sure. Yeah.

01:26And so yes, I do think soon, like as our kids graduate to a certain age, they will be off of

01:34social media because they become real, like little people around the world. And I don't,

01:41it'll be up to them if they want to be seen.

01:43Yeah, no, definitely. No, it's such a hard line to figure out like what to do. Because like you

01:48said, she's going to be going to kindergarten next year. She's going to meet a whole host of

01:52different kids and things like that and different families. Is it weird for her sometimes when

01:56people come up to the two of you and ask for pictures and things like that? She's like,

02:00what's going on?

02:01I will say this has been an interesting thing we're dealing with right now. And I never want to

02:10prop myself up to my kids. I don't want to be like, oh, mommy was a big deal at some point.

02:14I don't ever think that. But I do, we are having a hard time with Drew at the moment because people

02:20will come up and ask for a picture. And I always say, you know, Drew, go stand with daddy. And

02:26there's been interesting moments right now where she's like, why don't they want a picture with me?

02:30And so we've been explaining different things of like, when you're old enough, you know,

02:36that will be up to you if you want to take a picture. But right now, mommy and daddy are

02:39protecting you. Adults can't ask for your picture, you know, just trying to teach boundaries.