Martha Stewart has shared her thoughts on MrBeast after recently spending three days with the YouTube star, admitting that she initially had plenty of questions about his extraordinary popularity.
Speaking to AARP The Magazine, the 85-year-old lifestyle icon said she recently spent three days with Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast. She did not reveal why they spent the time together or whether their meeting was connected to a potential collaboration.
“I just spent three days with [28-year-old media personality] MrBeast,” Stewart said.
Martha Stewart praises MrBeast’s appeal
Stewart said she initially struggled to understand why MrBeast had attracted such a massive global audience.
“Who the heck is MrBeast? Why is he getting billions of hits on his YouTube channels?” she recalled.
After spending time with the creator, however, Stewart said she had a better understanding of his appeal.
“He struck a chord. He found a void that wasn’t being filled, and he filled it,” she said.
Stewart also offered a positive assessment of the content MrBeast produces, saying she did not believe he was simply wasting his audience’s time.
“He does not seem to be wasting people’s time. He seems to be entertaining and intriguing,” she told the magazine.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has built one of the largest audiences on YouTube through large-scale challenges, competitions, giveaways and entertainment-focused videos.
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Stewart reflects on influence
The comments came during a broader discussion about what makes an influencer successful in today’s media landscape.
Stewart acknowledged that there is no simple definition of influence, noting that millions of people are now affected by creators and public figures in different ways.
“I don’t really know, because so many people are influencing so many millions of people in very odd ways today,” she said.
She compared modern creator culture with her own approach to building a long-running personal brand, arguing that a sense of personal connection remains important.
“People want to know you. They want to know that you’re part of their daily life, important to them in some specific way,” Stewart said.
She pointed to her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, as an example of that lasting connection.
“People still come up to me all the time and say, ‘I have every issue of your magazine, so I still refer to it all the time.’ It’s exactly what you want to have happened,” she said.
Stewart’s comments offer a glimpse into her impression of one of the biggest digital creators of the current era, following their recent three-day meeting.
