At 13 years old, Rowan Elsmore produces original travel videos well above his weight class.
Mike Moore
Kicker
More than ever, technology and social media are gripping the world’s youth – for better or for worse. But 13-year-old Ottawa native Rowan Elsmore has found a positive way of always being online.
A genuine curiosity about the world and an ambition to be on YouTube has created Rowan’s passion for filmmaking and photography.
Rowan and his dad John have created AverageRow, a YouTube channel featuring the teenager’s how-to videos, photography and video product reviews, and most notably travel vlogs from his family’s adventures around the world.
Rowan’s videos have a professional gleam to them, right down to his editing skills, original graphics and integral use of video clips to help tell his stories.
The idea to start a YouTube channel and share his perspective with the world was something Rowan had always wanted to do. His original idea was to produce gaming videos, but it quickly changed to storytelling. He has even taken his filmmaking one step further as 24 of his latest videos are also closed-captioned and translated into 10 different languages – the idea being to make his videos accessible to as many people as possible.
The content of his videos, such as hiking and exploring, is something that came naturally to him.
“There’s always something new. No matter where you go, you’re going to come across something interesting and something worth filming,” Rowan said with the maturity of someone who could be three times his elder.
“There’s never a lack of stuff to film at all. I’ve always had this interest in wildlife and nature, and I just wanted to share that with the world. So that’s what I did.”
“My favorite place without a doubt was Gros Morne. The nature and the wildlife and just the landscape of it was incredible.”
Rowan’s videos take his impressive 2,859 subscribers across the world with him as he jumps at the opportunity to try new things such as dog sledding, salmon fishing and camping through the United Kingdom, United States and across Canada. Most recently, he featured his summer trip to Newfoundland, where he explored the province from coast to coast.
“My favorite place without a doubt was Gros Morne. The nature and the wildlife and just the landscape of it was incredible. We stopped by the Tablelands, and that was like something I’ve never seen before. If you’re on the island, you got to go visit Gros Morne.”
With all of this world experience under his belt at such a young age, Rowan already has a plan in place to turn his passion into a career after he graduates from school.
“My ultimate goal is to become a travel journalist,” he said. “I love traveling. It’s one of my favourite things ever in the world. I also enjoy writing, filmmaking and talking, so it just seems to fit. It would be amazing if one day I could get paid to go around the world and just experience different cultures and places.”
He even has a bucket list of places to see and film, and soon he will cross one off that has been sitting at the top of his list for quite some time.
“Hands-down, Iceland. That’s my number one. It’s been my number one for years,” Elsmore said. “I’ve always been fascinated with that place and I’m actually going there at the end of this summer. I can’t wait for that.”
I love Rowan’s Posts. Rowan’s mom is my Niece, his Grandmother is my sister Robin. You are a very intelligent young man and will go far in this life, even more than that, I believe, is that you are going to enjoy this life and get the most that you can out if it. You have had many adventures already in your short life, with many stories to tell. Hopefully I will still be reading about them, sitting in my Rocker, when I am very old and Gray. Lots of love and admiration. Norma