Ms. RachelRachel Accurso built a media empire for children, now she carries the weight of bringing their voices to the world. By Marilyn Kunce
“Can you say… mama?” This is Marilyn, and if you have a young child at home, like I do, you might read that sentence in Ms. Rachel’s voice (also like I do!), with an image of her pink headband and jean overalls. For millions of children and parents like me, Ms. Rachel has been a familiar voice in the living room during the strange and exhausting early years of childhood. Now, she’s become the voice not just to, but for, millions of suffering children in America and around the globe. Powerful people are trying to silence her for it, but she’s doing it anyway, because she believes it’s the right thing to do. What is happening to our world that a children’s YouTube star has to speak truth to power for anyone to even notice these children? I am gonna start by letting y’all know that we are not gonna get into the screen-free or screens allowed side of the debate today! In my case, I started playing Ms. Rachel’s videos for moments where I didn’t have a helping hand nearby and needed to run to the restroom, or when attending to a toddler and a newborn was a little difficult to do at the same time. Ms. Rachel became part teacher, part entertainer, part nanny, during those short stretches of time when I needed help. Some moms turn her on when they need a few minutes to make food, to shower for the first time this week, or to be able to start a new load of laundry after living off the dryer load and running out of clothes. Let’s be so for real here, who has time to fold and put away clothes when you have young children? I think y’all get the point. People say, “we all need a village”. Well, in today’s day, where moms can be isolated by the many turns of this era, that village sometimes is a short Ms. Rachel video. As moms, we tend to have high, and a lot of times unachievable, expectations for ourselves. Fellow momma out there, if you’re trying your best, you are a good mom in my book. Recently, though, I’ve learned that there are heavier times when moms and dads need to turn to Ms. Rachel. In the hospital, the cancer ward, even pediatric hospice… Sigh, I have to pause here because my little Harvey spent a terrifying two months in pediatric intensive care and it gives me extreme sadness to think that pediatric hospice has to exist and to imagine the pain the parents of those children must feel. In these hardest situations, when we might not have the strength to to do it ourselves, parents can count on Ms. Rachel to be there by their side and talk to them with genuine joy, showing up virtually to sing to them with the biggest and warmest smile. Recently I’ve learned that there is another dark place, something we don’t like to talk about, or we don’t like to see because it is uncomfortable, where Ms. Rachel shows up. On the other side of the world, where there is war. It is everywhere these days, and while it is hard to avoid, we nevertheless can avoid it, and we certainly do avoid looking into its details. We are so SO incredibly lucky here in America, where war isn’t in our neighborhoods and we can tune it out of our screens. We don’t have to keep our children inside to keep them from being injured or killed, on a daily basis by a freaking bomb. Parents in war zones like Ukraine and Gaza and beyond rely on Ms. Rachel in more ways than we can imagine. Ms. Rachel discovered this horrible truth when she was alerted that mothers were playing her videos for their children in Gaza during amputations without amnesia. Can you imagine your little children having their legs and arms cut off, and the only thing they had to numb the pain was Ms. Rachel? If you haven’t watched this video of an American doctor describing what it is like to amputate on a little girl without amnesia, and only songs at your disposal, praying that she would faint or pass out (which she never did), then you should. Because these are the horrors Americans have been ignoring and that Ms. Rachel is working to bring to light. I sobbed in horror when I learned the story of Rahaf, a little girl no older than Harvey, my three-year-old that Ms. Rachel invited to her show. Rahaf was hit by an Israeli airstrike and lost both her legs. She and her mom were evacuated after the attack, but not her brothers or father. Her big brothers were only seven and nine years old. The youngest of them, Ahmed, has been injured twice now during airstrikes, and he is still trapped in Gaza. These children don’t have a voice, most people don’t know, and probably don’t want to know, the things that are happening to them because they don’t want their beliefs challenged. But Ms. Rachel is giving them a voice and a platform anyway. At such young age, Rahaf understands that she is separated from her brothers. She explains how she and her mom avoid eating while video-chatting her brothers and dad in Gaza as food is very scarce there and a lot are starving. If you’re reading this and you have children, and you can move past the international politics that close so many eyes, you should understand how horrible this is. No child should have to go through these things, but so many are. And their stories are hardly being told because of politics. I’m not writing this from a political point of view. This isn’t about politics. This is about humanity. Ms. Rachel was the one who covered Rahaf’s story. Even now, as I’m writing this and looking through links to add as sources so you can read more about it, it is through Ms. Rachel’s posts where you get the most information. This isn’t the only dark place Ms. Rachel has brought children joy or given them a voice. She is doing it right here in America, for children imprisoned in immigration detention centers, like Dilley ICE Detention. Organizations such as Human Rights First, RAICES, and Amnesty International have documented systemic due process violations and lasting physical and psychological harm inflicted on infants, young children, and pregnant individuals at the center. Human Rights First described it as “unfathomably cruel and an assault on the rights, dignity, and wellbeing of children”. There, children are frightened, and in some cases separated from their parents. Some as young as two months old are detained. They are forced to eat food containing mold, worms, or other contaminants and dirty water. Some have experienced serious medical emergencies, and families have reported being denied or delays in receiving prescribed medication. These little prisoners have counted on Ms. Rachel to be there with them and bring them joy in one of the cruelest places in America. Rachel Accurso spoke directly with families held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. And she brought their stories to Congress where politicians who claim to care about the lives of “all children” have chosen to bury their heads in the sand or look the other way out of political convenience. Ms. Rachel walked into Washington with packets of those children’s words and artwork. She met with congressional offices from across both isles, Democratic and Republican, and urged lawmakers to end family detention and reunite children with their parents. She ultimately set out to deliver materials to every member of Congress. A Platform for Children Ms. Rachel did not begin by trying to become a political celebrity. She began as a mother and an educator. According to Rachel Accurso, her son’s speech delay was one of the reasons she became interested in creating media that could help children develop language. She had already taught music and had started an in-person baby-and-toddler music class. In 2019, she brought that idea to YouTube. As a mom and aunt of children that went through speech delay, I personally experienced the powerful tools that speech therapy and speech coaching are for getting your kids to make some advancement. Ms. Rachel’s platform began as a helpful tool to mothers, then it grew. The pandemic arrived, and millions of parents suddenly found themselves searching for ways to educate, entertain and connect with young children at home. Songs for Littles became something much bigger than a local children’s music class that was originally imagined. By 2025, the Washington Post reported that the channel had nearly 16 million YouTube subscribers, alongside a growing presence on Netflix and elsewhere. Today, Ms. Rachel’s YouTube audience is above 20 million. If we think about it, reaching 20 million homes in a world where we are more divided than ever is, to put it simply, impressive. 20 million parents have placed their trust in her. Public figures and influencers from different fields try to avoid getting political or controversial in any way beyond what’s “acceptable” because they risk losing it all. Getting cancelled is the biggest fear of the era (Ask Ed Sheeran about this). And as a teacher, Ms. Rachel probably had the easiest path to stay in her lane by just continuing to make more content for children’s entertainment. But this is where she differentiated herself. There came a moment that she realized that with that enormous platform she had built, she had power and with that came responsibility. She stopped thinking just as a content creator, she made the decision to ask herself a harder and braver question: What do I feel responsible for saying because people are listening? That transition is especially complicated for someone whose entire public identity was built around children. Moms, teachers, educators, nannies, we are supposed to be role models. We are supposed to be sweet, funny, happy, joyful, but never political. Although, Ms. Rachel’s advocacy did not begin with one single political issue. She has spoken publicly about early education, paid family leave, LGBTQ+ inclusion and humanitarian crises. Her advocacy around children in Gaza, in particular, has transformed the way many people understand her public role. In 2024, she launched a fundraiser benefiting children affected by conflict, including children in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine. She raised $50,000 through personalized cameo videos. She spent years telling all children that their feelings matter, their voices matter and they deserve to be heard, and when she realized that their voices didn’t matter to the people in charge, she decided to do something about it. That advocacy has brought praise, but also criticism and organized backlash. Her Gaza advocacy even led one so-called pro-Israel organization to call for a Justice Department investigation into whether she was acting as a foreign agent, with no factual basis. It says a lot about our country that a woman is risking her career and platform just by giving a voice to children that most people want to ignore. And it says a lot about Ms. Rachel that she’s risking it anyway, walking into the Capitol carrying the voices of children who cannot walk in themselves, and telling the story of children suffering around the globe when others choose not to. Rachel Accurso is here to stay Ms. Rachel gave Rachel Accurso a platform for political issues. And yesterday, as Ms. Rachel and Mr. Aron release their very first album, Rachel Accurso is louder than ever. I am personally grateful and in awe of her growth, which is why I decided to write this Substack. Because she is an example of social responsibility. She is an example of an everyday person that doesn’t hold office using her power for good beyond her own. Congratulations, Rachel. Harvey, Lukie and I will blast your album every school drop off and pick up, and I will continue to follow your journey to bring voices to littles all over the world in full support. Marilyn You're currently a free subscriber to Lucas’s Substack. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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