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BY GEORGE DICKIE Everyone has to start somewhere. With Rachel Fong, it was with an Easy-Bake Oven. Yes, the 17-year-old recent high-school graduate from Piedmont, Calif., and host of the YouTube baking channel "Kawaii Sweet World," developed her baking skills by way of those Hasbro toy ovens with a light bulb for a baking element. "It was just kind of a throwback to my childhood," she explains, "and I think a lot of people connected with that because they had Easy-Bake Ovens, too. And then from there, I started getting into actual baking videos and that's where I'm at now." "Kawaii Sweet World," which debuted in December 2010 with the first of its video tutorials for making kawaii (the Japanese word for "cute") desserts, has gained big traction on YouTube, garnering millions of views and more than 880,000 subscribers. A quick look through the channel reveals an imaginative mix of confections ranging from a giant hot chocolate mug cake and emoji macaroons to Hello Kitty cookies and Disney Tsum Tsum cake pops. She discovered her love of baking thanks to her mother, but when she didn't care for the desserts they were making for Dad, she began baking on her own with her toy oven. That eventually led into video production, a detour into craft videos and then the advent of "Kawaii Sweet World." Her skills – both video and baking – are self-taught and the recipes she prepares are her own. She shoots all her videos from the studio she created in her parents' basement. After taking a gap year, she'll be off to Stanford University next fall to study possibly economics or political science, though she's not quite sure which yet. She's certainly gratified by the success of "Kawaii Sweet World" and wouldn't mind continuing it into adulthood but she wants to explore what else is out there for her. Meantime, she's grateful what it has given her. "It definitely validated all my hard work ...," she says, "because I had had my channel for so long and then the baking videos really helped my channel take off. So it was definitely a great feeling because I was really shy in school, too, and then also it kind of validated me as a person because my channel really gave me a voice even while I was still really shy. So that was definitely a great feeling." Teen baker hits it big with YouTube's 'Kawaii Sweet World' Rachel Fong What book are you currently reading? "I am currently reading two books. I am reading 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,' just because I've heard so many good things about it. And then I'm also listening to an audio book, and that one is 'Grit' by Angela Duckworth." What did you have for dinner last night? "Last night, my grandma came over and then she cooked us some traditional Chinese food." What is your next project? "I just got finished working with a charity called She's the First and they sponsor girls education in low-income countries. So now I'm looking toward doing an opportunity with them in the wintertime, in January I guess." When was your last vacation, where and why? "The last true vacation I had with no work was Disneyland with my family and that was to celebrate my high-school graduation, and that was in the summertime." Page 8 January 2 - 8, 2017 SUNDAY 3:00 p.m. WNDU 0 SBS Tournament of Champi- ons, Final Round. From Plantation Course at Kapalua in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. (N) GOLF SBS Tournament of Champions, Third Round. (N) 6:00 p.m. GOLF SBS Tour- nament of Champions, Final Round. (N) HoCkey MONDAY 1:00 p.m. WNDU 0 NHL Chicago Blackhawks at St. Louis Blues. NHL Winter Classic. (N) TUESDAY 7:00 p.m. CSNCH NHL Toronto Maple Leafs at Washington Capitals. From Verizon Center in Wash- ington, D.C. (N) NBCSN NHL Buffalo Sabres at New York Rang- ers. From Madison Square Garden in New York. (N Subject to Blackout) 10:00 p.m. NBCSN NHL Los Angeles Kings at San Jose Sharks. From the SAP Center at San Jose in San Jose, Calif. (N Subject to Blackout) WEDNESDAY 8:00 p.m. NBCSN NHL New York Rangers at Philadelphia Flyers. From Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. (N Subject to Blackout) THURSDAY 8:30 p.m. CSNCH NHL Buffalo Sabres at Chicago Blackhawks. From the United Center in Chicago. (N) NBCSN NHL Buffalo Sabres at Chicago Black- hawks. From the United Center in Chicago. (N Subject to Blackout) FRIDAY 7:30 p.m. NBCSN College Hockey Michigan Tech at Notre Dame. (N) 8:30 p.m. CSNCH NHL Carolina Hurricanes at Chicago Blackhawks. From the United Center in Chicago. (N) SATURDAY 7:00 p.m. NBCSN College Hockey Michigan Tech at Notre Dame. From Comp- ton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind. (N) SUNDAY 8:00 p.m. NBCSN NHL Minnesota Wild at Ana- heim Ducks. From the Honda Center in Anaheim, RETIRE WORK Take Control of Your Future 64825 County Road 31 Goshen, IN 46528 1-866-764-1601 www.QualityDriveAway.com See America and Supplement Your Income!! Get Paid to Deliver Vehicles Throughout the U.S. & Canada Retiring Doesn't have to be Scary We Have Vehicles for Every License Type! Call Us Today!

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