Exclusive: The YouTube megastar, beloved by kids and parents across the US, speaks to The Independent about fundraising for children in Gaza. “The look in his eyes has stayed in my mind since I saw the video,” Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, tells The Independent.
![[Ms Rachel felt compelled to publicly advocate for the children of Gaza]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/27/20/GettyImages-2173776566.jpg)
“A kind doctor hugged him and told him the bombing was over and he finally broke down into tears. No child should experience that kind of fear, shock and terror.”. That video was one of many that compelled Ms. Rachel to speak out on a conflict that has fiercely divided opinion in the US. Over the coming months, she would become one of the most prominent public advocates for children caught up in the war — but it also brought a backlash.
![[Children stand amidst the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli air strike in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Gaza Strip, on May 13, 2023]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/13/19/SEI155754271.jpg)
A former child educator from Maine, Ms. Rachel has built an audience of more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube with her mix of educational videos and songs for young children. Parents worship her as a deity for the respite she gives them; her bright, high-pitched intonation is the background music to households across the country.
Images of those atrocities were filtering through on social media, and to Ms. Rachel’s feed. “I couldn’t look away from the scale and gravity of suffering I was seeing every day,” Ms. Rachel says. “I know how crucial the first few years are for brain development and the lifelong effects trauma and malnutrition have on the brain. It’s a failure of humanity to deny children food, water, medical care, shelter and education, and to not protect children from violence,” she adds.
