Jake Paul on His Social Media Fame: ‘Within 6 Months We Were Making More Money Than Our Parents’

Jake Paul has always been competitive.

“Growing up, I played football and was always one of the best on the team,” the social media and Disney Channel star, 19, says of his childhood in Cleveland.

“I wanted to go into the NFL, so when I was 10, my dad got my brother and me a video camera so we could record our games and watch them back.”

His dad never thought that gift would set Jake and his older brother, fellow Vine star Logan Paul, 21, on a path that would change their lives forever.

Jake was just 16 years old when he and Logan joined the six-second-video-sharing app Vine.

“Logan and I got into an argument about who could make a better video,” says Jake.

Within a week, one of their quick creations had gone viral—and social media domination followed.

Ramona Rosales

“Within six months we were making more money than our parents,” says Jake, whose father, Greg, 53, is a Realtor and mother, Pam Stepnick, also 53, is a registered nurse.

After his junior year of high school, Jake moved out to Los Angeles with his brother to pursue their showbiz careers. He found small acting roles quickly, but his big break came when his Disney Channel show Bizaardvark premiered in June. (The series was just renewed for a second season, which is slated to premiere in 2017.)

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Twitter, which owns Vine, recently announced the video-sharing site will be shutting down, but Jake is already focused on his next venture: growing his social media label Team 10.

“I want to be the Dr. Dre of social media. I want to take my success and replicate it with other artists,” says Jake, who has signed social media talent from around the globe to live and create together in L.A. (like a Silicon Valley incubator) and hopes they’ll soon rival his Vine fan base of 5.3 million.

“When I moved here, I didn’t know anything about the industry,” says Jake, who just released his memoir You Gotta Want It. “Now I’m ready to take Hollywood by storm.”