Check out These Youngest Bloggers

Posted on February 3, 2009 
Filed under Uncategorized, blogs




I am often humbled by young people, and their grasp of technology is just another case in point. It’s a good thing I’m not interested in attracting thousands of readers or in making millions from my blog. Because frankly, the kids  are wuppin’ my ass.

I recently stumbled across youngestblogger.com, which lists the site’s choices for the “World’s Top 100 Youngest Bloggers.” The list, which is constantly refreshed, ranks the most successful blogs by authors aged 18 and under, and is based on the blogs’ Technorati and Alexa ranks, number of inks by other blogs back to these kids, and the number of readers who subcribe to these kids’ blogs..

Naturally, I was curious and found myself rooting around for hours, checking out the wares of these young writers and thinkers. I felt light-years behind the digital revolution as a result.

Here are just a few of the highlights, blogs I found especially wise, novel and successful:

Spencer Tweedy’s Blog – I love Spencer Tweedy, not only for his name but for his blog. He is all of 13 years old, just wrote about his Bar Mitzvah, but also weighs in on topics like the way Barack Obama uses the Internet. His writing is fresh and fun, and I love his use of multimedia – including family photos and videos from the web. And on his favorite music list? “A Whole Lotta Love” by Cream. Is this kid great, or what?

The Blog at the End of the Universe — A 13-year-old blogger who calls himself pacer521 maintains this political blog and describes himself thusly on his About Me page: I am a 13 year-old slightly liberal writer living in Los Angeles, California, and my work has been cited and published across the web. I am a full time blogger here so if you like my work, please come back frequently, as I will post new work daily. I greatly encourage comments and answer back to all credible ones.

Pacer521’s politically astute posts are among the most interesting I’ve read, and I’m apparently not the only one who feels this way. The blog receives anywhere between 20 and 80+ comments per post, depending on the topic. I especially like Blog at ther End of the Universe because pacer521 is not doing this for the money – the blog is free of any advertising. Instead, he’s doing it purely for expression. His blog has received more than 388,000 hits.

WPCandy – Number 1 on the youngestblogger list is 16-year-old Michael Castilla’s blog, WPCandy. Michael exclusively focuses on Wordpress, the blogging platform, and how to use it. Many adults I know would be lost by the techspeak in Michael’s blog, but anyone who’s blogging or interested in blogging should check in with this site. I have a feeling that Michael has a bright future ahead of him.

The Ultimate Neopets Cheats Site – Talk about finding a niche. Chloe Spencer, the 17-year-old blogger, is number 24 on the Young Bloggers list and writes exclusively about neopets, the virtual pets universe. Nothing spells success more in the blogging world than being invited to speak about your successful blog at conferences run by adults. You can find a 3-minute video of the poised Miss Spencer speaking about her site at the Blogher conference in Chicago on YouTube.

By the way, if you’re looking for work, Chloe is hiring. I think I’m neo-jealous.

To see more work by these and other youngest bloggers, check out the list at youngestblogger.com. I would also highly recommend checking out the site of the first-ever Teens in Tech Conference, held last weekend at Microsoft in San Francisco. Maybe you’ll learn something.

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