Paige Hyland Speaks Out About Life After ‘Dance Moms,' Newfound YouTube Career

TV viewers were shocked and saddened when dancing sensation Paige Hyland left her reality-TV roots, exiting Lifetime’s series “Dance Moms” with her family in Feb. 2014. While Paige no longer lights up our TV screen’s each week, that hasn’t stop the teen from doing what she does best: entertaining. In order to keep up with her bevy of online fans, Paige, 14, recently relaunched her YouTube channel, Paige Hyland, and unsurprisingly, it’s been a smashing success.

“I used to watch YouTube videos a lot so I thought that it would be a good way to interact with my fans and for them to see what I’m doing now,” Paige told the International Business Times.

Using famous YouTubers like Bethany Mota and Teala Dunn for inspiration, Paige has created a YouTube vlog and beauty guru-esque persona on the social site, resulting in a wide variety of videos— everything from daily routines, Q&A’s and room tours. Luckily for her 152,000 subscribers, they also have a say what will come next on her channel. “I do a lot of what they tell me to do!” Paige admitted to IBTimes.

Not only has her subscriber count jumped since relaunching her YouTube page, her life behind the camera has also changed. “I didn’t think that they would watch them but they actually do,” Paige said when speaking about her friends enjoying her videos. According to eighth grader, her pals have been more than supportive of her new career. “I go to school and my friend will say the line that I said and I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh.’ But I think they like them… It’s fun for them to watch.”

And it's not just Paige's friends are who in favor of her Internet fame. Paige’s mom and former “Dance Moms” co-star, Kelly Hyland, said she is also pleased with the success of her daughter’s newfound hobby. “I like that the fans get to see Paige, not how she was on ‘Dance Moms.’ They get to really see her personality and see who Paige is,” Kelly said.

Paige’s subscribers who got a kick out of seeing Kelly cameo in the videos will be pleased to learn that the dance -- and hockey!-- mom will most likely have a recurring role on her daughter’s Internet show. “I enjoy it,” Kelly said of her appearance in Paige's recent nighttime routine video. “It was a good mother-daughter time. I would definitely do some more!”

With her YouTube career on the up-and-up, Paige dedicates one day per month to filming new content for her subscribers. Despite her dedication to her videos— she typically spends 6 to 8 hours each session — Kelly said school will remain her daughter’s first priority. “In our house, school comes first,” Kelly said. “They have to keep their grades up with school before they are allowed to do all this extra stuff.”

And while Paige may be busy with filming and her schoolwork, “Dance Moms” fans will be happy to learn that Paige is still cultivating her performance skills and even recently tried her hand at volleyball. “I dance, but I’m not in a studio right now,” she said. “I’m just taking different classes at different places. Different teachers teach different ways, so it’s nice.”

“We don’t want to do one single studio right now,” Kelly added.

As for her channel's future, fans can expect a lot more coming from the Paige Hyland channel. Not only is Paige game for potentially filming daily vlogs in the future — She hinted that she might give it a go during summer break — she is also eager to collaborate with her sister and former “Dance Moms” teammate, Brooke Hyland, 16.

“Yeah, definitely,” Paige said when asked about the possibility of doing a sister tag with Brooke, one of YouTube’s more popular videos. “A lot of people have been asking that so I think we can work something out soon.”

While a cameo from Brooke may soon come to fruition, Paige revealed that her singing sibling will most likely not pursue a YouTube career anytime soon. “Right now, she’s really busy. She’s trying to get her license and she’s really busy with school. In the future, I could see her doing it,” she said.

With her YouTube channel becoming more popular by the day, Paige and Kelly shared that going back to reality-TV most likely isn’t in the cards for their family. “I guess it depends on what it was for,” Kelly said. “I would like something positive for the girls to do. They loved being on television. They loved having their fan base and things like that, they just didn’t love the negativity.”

“I think it would be nice to go back on TV,” Paige said. “But for right now, I’m sticking with YouTube!”

The Paige Hyland YouTube channel premieres new videos every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST. This week Paige will be releasing her January favorites video. Check out Paige’s most recent video, #ASKPaigeASKKelly Episode One, below: