Sonja Haller|USA TODAY
Just 1½ years ago, Katie Stauffer was working as an escrow officer in Gilbert, Arizona.
One day, her oldest daughter asked to posta video she'd made of her two younger twin sisters, Mila and Emma, on her mom's Instagram account.
"Why not?"Stauffer said.
The adorable babbling toddlers made their rounds on the internet and quickly became sensations. The second video, posted soon after the first,went viral anda family internet dynasty was born.
You might not recognize their names, but you've probably seenthe sassy sisters in one of their many stratospheric videosthat can garnermore than 11million views on Instagram.
Mila is incredibly outgoing and appears in videos more often than her sometimes-shy twin, Emma.Stauffer writes and creates the videos with herhusband, Charley, and 15-year-old daughter, Kaitlin.
With their ultra-cute toddler voices, the girls satirize common adult gripes — like not wanting to go to the gym, rude people in movie theaters and chatty strangers on airplanes. No matter the topic, the videos have a "we've all been there" quality.
Now, Stauffer is fielding offers in Hollywood about projects for her 3-year-old daughters, who, by the way, are going to events with stars like Shawn Mendes and getting career advice from none other thanKris Jenner.
Support from Kris Jenner
Managing their careerfull time can beoverwhelming, even with a manager and an agent. ButStaufferhas someone powerful in her corner — Kris Jenner, the matriarch and powerhouse of the Kardashian empire.
"We talk on Instagram and she said if I ever needed advice just let her know," Stauffer said. "And I was like OK. She was just so nice and down to earth. You know, she just said if you literally want to get to together and talk we could."
The Arizonamom of five is renting a house this month in Los Angelesbecause of business with the twins and turned the invitation intoopportunity. She enlisted Jenner's help in making a Halloween-themed video for her Youtube channel.
Halloween is an especially fun time for the girls, who turn 4 on the holiday.
Like all the Stauffer-girl videos, it follows the usual formula. The girls look and dress adorable. They speak far beyond their toddler years. The writing issnappy. And the videos are bite-sized fun.
Yes, the videos are scripted
Originally, big sister Kaitlin began writing scripts with lines to feed Mila, who was a natural actress and wantedto participate.Emma sometimes wanted to join in, but often didn't.
"She would show us and sometimes my husband would tweak it. I mean, Kaitlin was a teenager. They began writing scripts together," Stauffer said.
All the while, the videos, up tothree a week, were shot and edited with a phone camera. Staufferonce posted a video shot with a professional camera but people preferred the amateur-style ones.
Her healthy Instagram following of 150,000 ballooned to millions almost overnight. The Instagram account has 4.1 million followers and her YouTube channel has 509,000 subscribers.
Everyone loved the videos. Except those that thought they were passing the not-even-potty-trained girls off as sharing their adult-like, snarky thoughts with the world.
"Some said, 'It's so obviousshe's reading off a script.' Well, first of all, she's not reading. She's not even 2 in that video. Sometimes you get the haters. But for the amount of trolling comments we got, we got way more positive ones,"Stauffer said.
When the girls are approached by fans who recognize them,Stauffer says she takes her cues from the twins, as she always has. When they were shooting videos, they called the shots, as toddlers often do. When they had had enough, filming stopped.
"Mila loves it all 90 percent of the time. (She says) 'Oh, you want to take a picture with me, don't you? OK, let's take a picture.' But Emma? She's more stand-offish. And Emma doesn't really talk about what's going on around her. But Mila will say, 'Those are my fans.'"
It "isn't about the money"
The Stauffers also took heat for how lucrative the girls'viral videos are. As the videos grew in popularity, companies began sending products to be featured in the videos and some of them are marked with #ad.
How much of a financial windfall the videos areStauffer will not say, though internet stars can make millions. The Stauffer twins in 2017were the subject of a New York Times story called"Why isn't your toddler paying your mortgage?"Certainly, she made enough to quit her job.And she says a previous news video inwhich she said, "I dobetter" than her doctor husband was a joke.
"This isn't about the money for us. The kids are making money and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's going to be there for them. The main thing to know is that it's going to all five kids."
More celebs, anew YouTube channel andother things to come
Stauffer says the family's income streams are diversifying with the girls landing a TV commercialforSamsung and a digital commercial for AllstateInsurance. There's more, too, but her people don't want her to talk about them yet.
"We've really gotten busy and we're lucky now if we do (a video) every two weeks. It's hit or miss," Stauffer said. "And we don't push Mila. Ever."
The Arizona family is back and forth to Los Angelesoften for business meetings and events the girls are invited to, includingthe "SmallFoot" premiere, where theyinterviewedthe movie's starsChanning Tatum, James Corden, and Danny DeVito.
This month, the girls are the stars of their own pumpkin patch in Culver City, Calif. calledMila & Emma's Halloween Pumpkin Patch at Platform. The pumpkin patch includes meet-and-greets with the tiny celebs.
In late September, they made the jump from Instagram to YouTube and launchedtheMila & Emma Channel on YouTube, which is for kids. Thechannel includes videos of the girls doing fun things like ice cream challenges and sharing thoughts ontoys, music,games and fashion.
Another social media channel is in the writing stagescalled, "Mila and Emma Take Hollywood." The short videos will feature a celebrity in each episode and again features the writing of her husband and daughter, but also some "big-time Hollywood writers," Stauffer said.
The series will launch sometime in November, either on Instagram or YouTube or both.
READ MORE:
- Kindergartner has hilarious reaction after first day. We're like, 'Welcome to the real world'
- Adorable kid drops watermelon. We all feel the pain and relate to the struggle that is life
- Fourth-grader's talent show cover of John Lennon's 'Imagine' goes viral
- This mom's plea to stop saying 'hurry up' to kids is hitting a heart string
