Ask a teen what they want to be when they grow up, and there鈥檚 a fair chance being an  is on their list.

Digital media and the people who star in it have been cultural mainstays for teens鈥� entire lives, so creating social media, video or podcast content seems a natural, albeit nontraditional, career path. And now they can  in that very field.

Arizona State University recently launched a new bachelor鈥檚 degree in content creation, offered through its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The curriculum overlaps with that of ASU鈥檚 mass communication and media studies degree, with the major departure being a slate of specialized electives on podcasting, studio production and on-camera presence.

ASU鈥檚 announcement was met with swift criticism from many sides 鈥� from people who feel content creation is not a legitimate profession to those who question the  in launching a social media career.

But the ASU program is not the first of its kind.

And the university, which declined an interview request about the new program, is not the first to offer content creation courses.

Universities, eager to compete for a , are rolling out new majors intended to prepare students for today鈥檚 careers. Whether they lead to jobs can be up for debate.

College courses in content creation have riled critics

Many higher education institutions have started offering classes focused on the burgeoning content creation industry over the past couple years, and several have certificate or minor programs. Syracuse University, Quinnipiac University and Colorado State University offer minors, and St. Bonaventure University announced a content creation major last winter.

To Brooke Erin Duffy, a communication professor at Cornell University, these college programs represent an inflection point. During the past year, Duffy said, institutions in education and beyond have been acknowledging content creation as a viable career path 鈥� even if the term 鈥渋nfluencer鈥� itself hits a nerve.

On social media, influencers are everywhere, sharing shopping recommendations and lifestyle content or promoting beliefs about health or politics. Because even influencers with relatively small followings have loyal audiences, brands also often pay them to talk about products.

The image of a prototypical influencer, Duffy said, is usually a 鈥測oung girl who is snapping selfies and just reaping in tremendous rewards for seemingly not doing anything.鈥�

But that鈥檚 not the reality for many content creators, who are working on media production, audience retention strategies, brand partnerships and business relationships associated with their online presence.

鈥淚t is a time-consuming, labor-intensive job that often doesn鈥檛 pay well 鈥� at least in the beginning,鈥� Duffy said. 鈥淏ut a lot of that gets concealed behind 鈥� this assumption that it鈥檚 a dream job.鈥�

The creator economy is booming, but not everyone reaps the riches

Even if someone has the skills to make it in content creation, it isn鈥檛 easy to break in.

Social media is already a crowded field, and it鈥檚 going to get even more competitive in the coming years, said Max Willens, a principal analyst at Emarketer who covers the creator economy.

Emarketer forecasts that social media creator revenue in the U.S. will climb above $20 billion this year, but Willens said it鈥檚 important to contextualize what that means for individual creators.

鈥淭he overwhelming majority of that money is not going into creators鈥� pockets,鈥� he said, even though their content and their followers form the foundation of the lucrative field.

Influencers can earn money from social media platforms, which reward high engagement, and some earn commission if people buy a product they鈥檙e promoting. But the largest share of influencers鈥� earnings comes from sponsored content 鈥� getting paid to talk about a brand or product. Willens said he expects the amount brands spend distributing and amplifying creator content will eventually surpass the amount creators earn making it.

The idea that a specialized college degree will 鈥渟uddenly turn people into viral content machines deserves a bit of a reality check,鈥� Willens said.

Duffy noted that becoming an influencer often is perceived, incorrectly, as a path to get rich quick. Colleges that introduce content creation degrees may be hoping to attract new students 鈥� and their parents 鈥� who are looking for 鈥渁 job that will pay off,鈥� Duffy said. 鈥淲hether or not it does is another story.鈥�

A degree鈥檚 price is also a factor: At ASU, base tuition for Arizona residents is about $12,000 per academic year, excluding scholarships, but the total cost of attendance can exceed $37,000 after factoring in room, board and other fees. For students from outside of Arizona, tuition is more than $35,000 and the total cost of attendance is around $60,000 before scholarships.

Creators see value and transferable skills in these programs

While many content creation students may be hoping to become viral sensations, Phoenix-based creator Aiesha Beasley said she could see programs like ASU鈥檚 being valuable even to those without that dream.

鈥淗aving a digital presence and a personal brand is very important nowadays,鈥� Beasley said. Building a platform and sharing that personal brand online can help a person network and gain entry to settings they may not have had access to otherwise, she said.

Beasley, who has been a full-time content creator for three years after more than a decade posting online, works with small businesses to help optimize their social media presence. She noted that ASU鈥檚 courses would teach several transferable skills in fields such as communications and marketing.

Content creator and actor Sammy Cristerna graduated from Arizona State University this spring with a degree in sociology and political science, but said he 鈥渁bsolutely鈥� would have taken classes in the content creation program and considered the major if it had been available.

The courses, Cristerna said, would have been useful in learning how to negotiate brand deals, maximize monetization opportunities and cultivate and keep an audience. Some of those skills can be self-taught through experience, he added. Still, 鈥渋t鈥檚 nice to have that formal education.鈥�

The one thing Cristerna said he isn鈥檛 sure will translate in the classroom is personality.

To connect on camera, a person needs to have 鈥済ood energy,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 hard to teach.鈥�

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A second grader in Norway drew a YouTube logo when my colleagues and I asked what they wanted to be when they grow up. When we asked why, the child explained that YouTubers are famous and make lots of money.

When we asked second graders in Wisconsin this same question, we were surprised to often receive similar answers: Kids there also wanted to be YouTube influencers when they grow up.

I . Since 2021, colleagues and I have spoken with a range of elementary, middle and high school students as young as 7 years old in the U.S. and Norway in 2024 to understand how children imagine their careers.

Our forthcoming research shows that social media has emerged as one of the biggest influences for young people鈥檚 career choice, second only to family, friends or teachers.

Over 60% of middle and high school students we surveyed from 2021-2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or picked their future careers based on what they saw online. Other popular choices were professional soccer player, musician and actor.

Our process

In a separate  by the organization Education and Employers, 20,000 children, ages 7 to 11, were asked about their possible future careers and then explained how they learned about that job.

We decided to use a similar approach to understand children鈥檚 career dreams and influences.

In Wisconsin, we surveyed more than 80 different children, ages 7 to 11. We also conducted focus groups with more than 140 middle and high school students about their academic and career plans and what influenced their ideas.

We then conducted interviews in Norway with over 60 children in the same age range.

In both places, we gave kids simple prompts that included 鈥淲hen I grow up I would like to be 鈥� .鈥� We also asked them, 鈥淗ow do you know about this job?鈥�

We found that there is a disconnect between how schools are helping kids think about their possible future careers and what factors are actually influencing young people as they imagine their futures.

Influencer dreams

In some instances, students as young as 7 in Wisconsin and Norway simply drew the YouTube or TikTok logo, or wrote that they aspired to be an 鈥渋nfluencer鈥� without any idea of who or what they would influence.

They shared that YouTubers and influencers 鈥済ets lots of money鈥� and that 鈥渢hey want to be famous.鈥�

Students also drew pictures of footballers, musicians, actors and princesses. Some students shared career goals like becoming a wildlife biologist, pilot, engineer or filmmaker.

Older students were more likely to mention careers like nurse, electrician, engineer, teacher, welder, police officer and small-business owner 鈥� although becoming an influencer and content creator remained a common aspiration for teenagers and children.

We found that social media also had a positive influence on some students.

One student in a rural town said that online posts and videos encouraged them to want to become a marine biologist, even though the closest ocean is over 1,300 miles 鈥� or 2.09 million meters 鈥� away.

The limited role of schools

It鈥檚 common for middle and high school students to take online career interest surveys to help understand which jobs could be a good fit. Many schools also offer career fairs and job shadowing opportunities.

Most students, though, receive very limited individualized guidance on career paths from .

But they generally do receive some kind of prompts to help them think about what sort of career they want.

Within roughly the past decade,  began requiring personalized, multiyear educational plans that helps students as young as 11 years old develop their own education and career goals.

In 2015, for example,  that required school districts to provide academic and career planning services to students in grades 6 through 12. Students take an online career survey each year.

The students answer questions about their interests, and the online program then names a recommended career. The list typically includes traditional jobs like electrician or accountant, rather than something more modern, like content creator.

One potential reason is that many of the online career-planning programs schools use were created before social media became a central part of young people鈥檚 daily lives.

Some schools also have classes where high school students learn about different educational pathways and jobs. Yet these classes often meet only periodically, while high school students typically use . As a result, formal career education increasingly competes with a constant stream of online messages about work, success and the future.

Our focus groups with middle and high school students in Wisconsin revealed that few students find these online career planning programs at school helpful.

Students said they found career planning activities 鈥渞edundant鈥� and described them as 鈥渢he same thing we did in middle school.鈥�

One 17-year-old student in Wisconsin said the career survey was a 鈥渨aste of time. The test told me I should be a truck driver.鈥� This student took the survey when she had already been accepted into nursing school.

Students consistently said they learned more from conversations with teachers, counselors, family members and professionals than from online questionnaires.

When dreams don鈥檛 match reality

Many young people now learn about careers through TikTok videos, YouTube channels, social media personalities and online communities. These influences can play a larger role in shaping career aspirations than formal school career-planning activities.

While many people aspire to make money online as influencers or content creators, nearly half of all online content creators earn .

I think that educators and families should recognize that young people are thinking about their possible careers 鈥� they are just more likely to rely on social media, rather than online surveys at school, to imagine their futures.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Employing student influencers is the latest strategy in the Detroit school district鈥檚 ongoing efforts to grow enrollment in city schools.

District officials unveiled last week to hire 23 students to share positive messages about their schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. The high schoolers will create and share social media content aimed at winning over prospective students and parents, as well as engaging their peers.

The initiative is one of several new ideas the district is considering to reverse a 20-year trend of .

鈥淥ur students are at the center of everything that we do,鈥� said Sharlonda Buckman, assistant superintendent of Family and Community Engagement, during last week鈥檚 meeting. 鈥淭hey have real stories, real accomplishments, real growth.鈥�

When families hear students鈥� stories and see possibilities for their children, their perceptions about the district may shift, Buckman added.

have already opened. One student from each of the district鈥檚 high schools will be selected to take on the task. If approved by the board, the influencers will be assigned content and events to promote each month on rotating schedules, earning $250 each month they post.

Many factors have contributed to enrollment declines, including a shrinking, lower birthrates, , and . The district also competes with , which enroll about , as well as suburban districts that heavily recruit Detroit students.

Traditional strategies to attract students 鈥� including canvassing neighborhoods, hosting Summer on the Block events, expanding prekindergarten, focusing on reenrollment rates, and putting up billboards 鈥� have produced modest results, according to the district.

The district estimates it currently has more than 49,200 students 鈥� an increase of about 400 compared to the official count at the end of last school year.

Last summer, board members asked the district to come up with innovative, cost-efficient ways to drive enrollment more rapidly.

Board member Monique Bryant said during a July committee meeting she wanted to see students tell the stories of their own schools.

鈥淚 think we have an opportunity to use our students more, and I think we get more bang for our buck than what we鈥檙e spending now,鈥� she said.

Students and parents would be 鈥榖rand ambassadors鈥� for their schools

Overall, the district鈥檚 plan to boost enrollment is to shape the public鈥檚 perception of DPSCD to be more positive, increasing awareness of its schools with targeted advertising and connecting with more families in the city.

Marketing research supports the board鈥檚 idea to center student voices to reach those goals, district officials said.

In a survey of about 300 people conducted by the district, about 30% said they wanted to see student success stories, said Deputy Executive Marketing Director Jessica Byrd.

In addition to winning over parents, students also want to see themselves in district messaging, Byrd said. By partnering with high schoolers who are gifted at reaching peers on social media, the district will reach more potential students, she added.

鈥淭hey bring their audience to our platforms, and that鈥檚 essentially what we want,鈥� Byrd said.

The influencers will participate in monthly content creation workshops with the marketing team. They will post both on the district鈥檚 social media and their own.

DPSCD also proposes hiring 10 to 15 parent and community ambassadors to 鈥渃ounter negative perceptions and amplify enrollment messaging.鈥� The presentation did not include how much the ambassadors would be paid.

The ambassadors may be people who are trusted by their communities, such as church leaders, block club presidents, and parents of students in the district. They will have monthly themes for their messaging, including safety, the district鈥檚 gains in literacy achievement, and career and technical education programs.

The district has relied on volunteer in previous years, with slightly different roles. In the past, ambassadors represented the district at community and school events.

This year, the district proposes spending nearly $42,000 on both the student influencers and the community ambassadors.

In total, the marketing plan, including other new initiatives such as web content managers, would cost around $1.4 million, according to the district鈥檚 presentation.

The district will continue its traditional enrollment campaigns, including canvassing, yard signs, and events.

Board members at last week鈥檚 meeting said they were pleased with the new plans, which would be funded in the district鈥檚 budget for the next fiscal year. The board must approve a budget by June 30.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.