Jérôme Jarre facts for kids

Jérôme Jarre is a French creator and humanitarian (someone who helps people in need). He is famous for his videos on social media apps like Vine and Snapchat. In June 2014, he was one of the most followed people on Vine. Around the same time, he also became one of the first big stars on Snapchat.

Jarre started several businesses in places like China and Canada. But then, he began making short videos on Vine right when it launched. He loved it so much that he left his businesses to focus completely on making videos. In May 2013, he helped start a company called GrapeStory. This company helped connect social media stars with brands that wanted to work with them.

In 2014, he turned down a huge offer of $1,000,000 from a big advertising company. He said no because the product they wanted him to promote didn't fit with his personal beliefs.

In March 2017, Jérôme Jarre started a big campaign to help people in Somalia. He worked with Turkish Airlines to deliver aid. Many famous people like Ben Stiller, Nas Daily, Sarah Silverman, and Casey Neistat joined in to help. By September 2017, he had helped raise almost $4,000,000 to help people in Somalia who were suffering from a serious drought. He also posted many videos on Twitter to support the Somali people and their country.

Jarre once had more than 15 million followers across different social media platforms. However, he later decided to step away from being famous and from social media. He wanted to live a more private life and find himself as a person.

Early Life and Learning

Jérôme Jarre was born in Albertville, France. He was raised by his mother, Agnes Jarre. When he was 19, he left Kedge Business School and moved to China. He lived in China for a year, where he learned to speak English and Chinese. During this time, he also started several small businesses.

Jérôme Jarre's Career Journey

Starting Businesses

In China, Jarre started a few businesses. One of them did very well, and he used the money he earned to move to Toronto, Canada. There, he co-founded a software company called Atendy with Christopher Carmichael.

Becoming a Creator

While in Toronto, Jarre heard about the new app called Vine. He quickly made an account and started posting videos. He then moved back to Paris, France. He continued to make Vines while also managing his business. Eventually, he decided to leave his business to focus entirely on creating content for Vine.

Helping People with Live Cash Transfers

Jarre worked with the American Refugee Committee (ARC) to create a new way to help people. In September 2017, his group, Love Army, was invited to talk about their humanitarian work at an event called GOALKEEPERS. This event was hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation during the United Nations General Assembly. Other speakers at the event included important figures like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau, and Malala Yousafzai.

Jérôme Jarre, Casey Neistat, and Juanpa Zurita spoke on behalf of Love Army and ARC. At the same time, the ARC team was in Somalia with 1000 people in 8 different villages. They were getting ready to receive money directly on their mobile phones. For the first time ever, a live video connection was set up between the people receiving aid and the GOALKEEPERS event. This meant everyone at the event could see exactly where the money was going.

Then, Jerome and his team did something surprising. They asked Bill and Melinda Gates to help them reach their fundraising goal of $1 million. The Gates’ agreed! In just moments, Abdirashid Duale, the CEO of Dahabshiil, who was in the audience, transferred the money from his phone live. Each of the 1000 people instantly received $1000, and this amazing moment was shown live to everyone.

Social Media Fame

Vine Videos

Jarre posted his very first Vine video in January 2013, on the day Vine launched. Three months later, he released a video called Don't be afraid of love. This video quickly became one of the first videos to go viral on Vine. It was even shown twice on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Six months after starting his Vine account, he had 20,000 followers. Many of his Vines showed him playing funny pranks on strangers. After being featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, his follower count jumped from 20,000 to 1 million in just one month! Later, Ellen asked him to cover the Red Carpet ceremony for the 86th Academy Awards. There, he made many Vines with famous Hollywood actors. He was also hired by Canal+ to cover the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, he was a judge for a 6-second film competition at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In November 2013, Jarre started a project on Vine called Humans. For this project, he would ask strangers, "What is the most important message you would like to share with the world right now?" The videos from this project were posted on a separate Vine account called Humans. A writer from BuzzFeed said that Jarre's series would "restore your faith in humanity."

Jarre made many Vines with Hollywood stars, including Robert De Niro, Pharrell Williams, Ashton Kutcher, Ben Stiller, Ansel Elgort, Beyonce, Ariana Grande, and Kristen Bell. In 2015, Jarre stopped using Vine.

Snapchat Stories

After gaining 7 million followers on Vine, Jarre started using Snapchat. He would create two-minute stories to share with his followers. Once, he made a Snapchat story with the musician Stromae about a carrot looking for its father. On July 11, 2014, Jarre went to the Snapchat office and tweeted, "Hey Snapchat, I am outside your office. Let me in if you see this." The hashtag #JeromeInsideSnapchat became the top trending topic in the US and the UK! He was then invited inside the Snapchat office, where he made a Snapchat story with the CEO, Evan Spiegel.

One of his Snapchat stories was viewed by twenty-six million people!

The Ugly Selfie Challenge

In 2015, Jarre started the #UglySelfieChallenge. He encouraged people to stop trying to take perfect selfies. Instead, he asked them to post selfies making silly faces. Everyone who participated had to nominate three more people to do the same. More than 100,000 photos of "ugly faces" were shared online.

GrapeStory Agency

GrapeStory is a talent agency that Jarre co-founded with Gary Vaynerchuk in May 2013. This agency helps connect social media creators with brands that want to create marketing content. After becoming very popular on Vine, Jarre decided to start an agency for stars on Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Jarre was looking for a business partner when he found out Vaynerchuk would be in Toronto. Jarre had actually taught himself English by listening to an audio version of Vaynerchuk's self-help book, Crush It!, when he was in China. When Jarre shared his idea, Vaynerchuk liked it and decided to become his business partner. Jarre then left his business in Toronto and moved to New York to work on GrapeStory. By August 2013, the agency had signed up between 20 and 30 Vine stars.

Litre of Light Mission

Jarre launched a campaign called "Litre of Light" or "The Solar Light Mission." In this project, "likes" on social media posts became a kind of money. Plastic bottles were used to create lights for communities in rural Philippines that didn't have electricity. He once helped turn 150,000 Instagram likes into a lit-up village in the Philippines.

See also

In Spanish: Jérôme Jarre para niños