Youtube darling Jennifer Chung has a new interview out with Pacific Citizen. I especially enjoyed reading this interview because it touched upon a number of rarely discussed topics such as income from Youtube partnerships, her family life, and the cultural friction caused by her family’s situation and her pursuit of music. I highly recommend you all check this article out. You can read it in full after the break or by heading over to PC.

Dreaming Big With YouTube Darling Jennifer Chung

With over 100,000 YouTube subscribers, songstress Jennifer Chung receives fan mail from all over the world. By Nalea J. Ko, Reporter Published Sept. 8, 2010 Growing up in a single-parent household meant YouTube singer Jennifer Chung did not have the luxury of taking voice lessons. That did not stop the Korean American from finding her voice. From singing Britney Spears hits, Chung moved on to talent shows and high school musicals. Then came YouTube. Singers and performers like Chung, 20, have utilized the video-sharing site to reach millions of viewers. Ten YouTubers have been able to turn their stardom on the Web site into a six-figure income, according to a new study by TubeMogul. The study, which looks at viewership data from July 2009 to July 2010, says 10 YouTube stars pocketed over $100,000 in the past year. But Chung says she has not been able to parlay her success on YouTube into a sizeable paycheck and questions the accuracy of the study. “If I even made one tenth of what they say online then I wouldn’t have to work at a restaurant or worry about my bills,” Chung said, about taking a hostess job after graduating in the summer from the University of California, Irvine. When Chung is not posting videos online or working as a hostess, she has been laboring on her new album. The Korean American just returned from New York where she performed in the International Secret Agent concert that featured other talents like Far East Movement, David Choi and Quest Dance Crew, among others. “Right now I’m just still gathering songs together and seeing what would make a cohesive album,” Chung said, after a day of recording in the studio. “I guess I’m just trying to find a good sound for me.” On Sept. 28 she will perform at Rutgers University for B Here, a campaign to raise awareness about Hepatitis B. The touring campaign will head to California college campuses in November. It has been about three years since Chung posted her first video on YouTube during the summer following high school graduation. Over 2 million viewers have checked out Chung’s online ditties since then. She is the No. 75 “Most Subscribed” to musician on the site, with over 100,000 subscribers. But Chung says gaining subscribers was never her ultimate aim. “YouTube was really new at that time,” Chung explained. “I just posted up videos because my friends were like, ‘Hey, we miss you singing so why don’t you just post up stuff?’ So I started to do videos that way.” As more viewers tuned in to listen to Chung sing, she started posting more videos. Her exposure online brought opportunities like winning the BroadwayWorld.com’s “Give Us Your Voice” contest in 2007. After belting out the Disney song “Part of Your World” up to par with the “Little Mermaid” herself, Chung won a trip to New York and a meet-and-greet with composer Alan Menken. “I think that was the first time I realized how much YouTube had catapulted my dreams,” she said. Before YouTube, the Korea-born songstress grew up in Northern California. At 6, her parents divorced and Chung had to pitch in to help raise her younger brother, Joseph. Chung says she has not seen her father since she was 14. “Yeah, it basically was just us.” Chung added, “I had a lot of responsibilities, but I feel like it’s made me more organized or just ready to take on the world in a different way.” Trying to break the stigma of being from a single-parent household, Chung says she jam-packed her high school schedule with extracurricular activities like band and mock trial. Her mother also had an “unconventional job” as a dance teacher, which Chung says also drew additional criticism from the Korean American community. “They just pitied her,” Chung said. “My mom would be upset because she didn’t want to be pitied. If anything she’d want encouragement for the fact that she is taking things on, on her own.” Chung was never lacking, however, in support from her mother. “I think she’s my No. 1 fan for sure,” Chung explained. “If I have 100 views on a video, 99 of them are hers.” Even with her mother’s blessings to pursue music, Chung says she feels a twang of guilt. “It also makes me sad still because I want to be able to support her,” the 20-year-old said. “I would just want her to be able to have a home because we never lived in a house before. We’ve always moved around in apartments.” Chung may not be pulling in a $100,000 a year from YouTube, but she says she will continue posting videos as long as she is having fun in the process. “I don’t want to do it just because I’m trying to get more subscribers because it’s totally not about that,” she explained. “But in order for me to stay true to myself I have to do it as long as I’m continually having fun with it.”