Ms. Rachel, but make it French: The creators teaching toddlers to be bilingual

Chances are, you’ve heard of Ms. Rachel. The children’s educator and entertainer has built a media empire from her YouTube channel, which features videos helping babies and toddlers with language skills. There is a predictability to her content: Ms. Rachel wears the same outfit every time, speaks in the same cheerful, singsongy enunciated tone and delivers content that is deliberately slow, designed to both engage and educate the youngest viewers.

The formula has proved wildly successful: Ms. Rachel now has 19 million subscribers, a Netflix deal and, according to Forbes, a multimillion-dollar empire that ranks her as one of the top-earning creators. She’s also created a highly replicable format — one that early childhood educators around the world have begun to adopt, often in languages other than English. Now, English-speaking parents are turning to those videos as well, hoping their children might pick up a second language from these onscreen teachers.

Mimi Soleil is one of those educators. Her French-language videos feature many of the hallmarks of Ms. Rachel’s work, but with a Francophone twist. Mimi Soleil wears a red beret and a simple neck scarf; her videos have a playful cadence and receive millions of views. Children love them.

Soleil, whose real name is Emilie Detcheverry, says her foray into children’s content was largely inspired by Ms. Rachel. A native French speaker living in the U.S., Detcheverry was always committed to raising her children bilingually. But it wasn’t until her parents visited from France and saw their granddaughter watching Ms. Rachel that the idea to make her own videos really took shape.

“When my parents saw the show, they said, ‘You could do this in French,’” Detcheverry tells Yahoo. “That comment stayed with me and helped me see there was a real need for gentle, high-quality French content for babies and toddlers.”

Aimee Littles had a similar experience. Hoping to raise her children bilingually in Spanish and English, she struggled to find Spanish-language content that felt like the right fit. “I was searching for someone who taught the way I did,” she tells Yahoo.

“That realization became a turning point,” Littles says. She went on to create the Ms. Aimee YouTube channel and the Little Bilingual Buddies business, both of which teach young children Spanish using the same loving, intentional approach Littles uses with her own kids. In 2025, Littles left her corporate job to focus on the channel and business full-time.

Many other educators are also finding a foothold in the children’s language-video space. Madame Amy, a French-language educator, creates videos for young children that blend music, movement, humor and a sense of mystery. Her business started in person, but during the COVID pandemic, she transitioned it all online. “That shift really opened the door for me to begin creating educational videos that help parents and children learn French as a second language together,” she notes.

Isa Muñoz, one of the cofounders of Aprende Peque, works with a team to create videos that support children ages 1 to 4 in learning Spanish. The videos are hugely popular. “I never imagined reaching more than 1 million students at the same time,” she says. “This experience has far exceeded my greatest expectations.”

English-speaking parents are increasingly turning to these videos, and others like them, to expose their children to new languages — or ancestral ones — with the hope of raising multilingual kids. Lilia K., mom to a 2-and-a-half-year-old, says her Iranian heritage motivated her to want her daughter to learn Farsi, while the family’s life in Mexico City has naturally exposed the toddler to Spanish.

“My husband and I speak to her mostly in English at home,” Lilia says. “When we do screen time, I try to have it in Farsi or Spanish so she's getting language practice in a way that is still fun and entertaining for her.”

Chelsea Yolanda, a mother of two in New York City, lives in an English-speaking household but has also chosen to expose her 7- and 4-year-olds to different languages via video content.

“I searched online and found Escuelita Ms. Ramos, Alma’s Way and Spanish with Liz,” Yolanda says. “They’re great for beginners and teach the language in a way that is fun.”

Yolanda says her goal is for her children to develop “a high level of cultural and diversity awareness, understanding and empathy toward all cultures.” She adds that her 7-year-old is on the autism spectrum and is minimally verbal, but now understands fluent Spanish commands and Spanish music thanks to years of watching Spanish-language videos. Her 4-year-old, who is neurotypical, can speak many beginner Spanish words and fully understands fluent speakers and music.

“I am beyond proud of their accomplishments,” Yolanda says, “and very thankful for content creators and teachers utilizing social media and public networks to teach our children in such a meaningful way.”

Experts say bilingualism can offer clear development benefits for young children. According to Ryann Sutera, a neurodiversity-affirming speech language pathologist who works with families using videos to expose their children to other languages, children’s programming can be a low-pressure way to introduce additional languages early on.

“Research consistently shows that bilingualism is associated with stronger metalinguistic awareness, increased cognitive flexibility and improved attentional control,” Sutera says. She also notes that bilingual language development can sometimes appear delayed when children are assessed in only one language.

“A bilingual child might know 26 words in English and 19 words in Spanish,” Sutera says. “That’s a total vocabulary of 45 words, which can be completely developmentally typical. If only one language is counted, it can falsely appear as a delay when it is not.”

Taken together, the research and the growing number of creators in the space point to a broader shift in how families are approaching early language learning — one increasingly shaped by online educators.

“For many families, these videos are their child’s main exposure to the French language,” Madame Amy says of the content she creates. “I think that’s incredibly meaningful.”