Young girls turn curiosity into a YouTube show

SPARTA — Did you know that Gatorade was named after the Florida University football team, the Gators? Did you know that the killer whale is a member of the dolphin family? The Haister and Caister “Didja Know” Show on YouTube is the place where one can learn hundreds of fun facts on a variety of subjects. What makes this show special is that two Sparta Middle School students, twin sisters Hannah and Cailin Loesch, produce it. The 12-year-old twins have done 18 episodes since starting in Jan. 2009. “When we were five years old, we had a metal box that we called our research box. We used to research animals, Loch Ness monster, Helen Keller, all kinds of topics, we used to print out facts and pictures, and put them in our box. We never actually did anything with the things in the box except look through them. We still have the box in our basement! Well, that interest in random facts and when we got our Flip video cameras for Christmas is how Haister Caister Didja Know show was born. It is a show about random facts, done in a way that kids our age would find fun,” said Hannah. The twins research books and Internet and come up with different interesting topics. They update their show about once a week. “Our mom watches what we do on the Internet. One has to be very careful with it. But parents could feel totally comfortable letting their children watch our show,” said Cailin. About the name of the show, Haister and Caister, the Loesch girls say they cannot remember exactly who started it, but this is what some of their friends called them. Hannah and Cailin research facts for a couple days, and then write the script and edit. This takes a week from start to finish. They do all of these things on their own, and have to do them around school schedules, sports, etc. Their parents film their videos. Although the Haister Caister Didja Know show is completely their efforts, the twins expressed gratitude to their teacher, Erica Hartman from Sparta Middle School who taught them how to make a Web site. They had to do a book report via a Web site for school, and that is how they learned the skills to create their own. The Web site for their show is www.didjaknowshow.com. Hannah and Cailin can be reached through email at didyouknow@didyouknow.com