Teen creates content to inspire and amuse
Max Serna demonstrates how to use weights the proper way. • Photos Submitted
By Tom Victoria
Max Serna has started out strong as a content creator, figuratively and literally. The 15-year-old has both fitness and entertainment channels on YouTube.
He said the fitness channel is to inspire people while the entertainment one is to provide a place of release for all those needing a break from life’s challenges.
“My goal is to keep improving my content, so that the viewer can enjoy it as much as possible,” Max said.
On his fitness channel, he posts longer, more personal workouts while on his Instagram account, he posts shorter clips showing the viewer how to do a certain exercise instead of doing the entire workout with them.
“On the YouTube channel, it’s a lot more personal,” Max said. “I’m doing the workout with you. On my Instagram account, I’m just trying to provide my followers with the kind of information they would need to try to get into better shape.”
“You can do these exercises,” Max said. “It’s a lot more personal. I’m doing the workout with you.”
Fitness posts, the shorter of which are also on Instagram and TikTok, cover such topics as ab workouts and leg blasters.
Max lauded the benefits of working out.
“It keeps you strong, physically and mentally,” he said. “It keeps you in personal optimal shape.”
Max added fitness has an additional positive impact on a person’s outlook.
“It can be a therapy,” he said.
Max’s physique belies his age, making him look older than he is.
Max uses graphics to show what muscles are impacted by an exercise.
“I think I have pretty good genetics,” he said. “I always was kind of big.”
Max started working a couple of years ago when he and his buddies decided to get in shape one summer to impress girls. As time progressed, the pals stopped.
“I just kept doing it,” he said.
Just like Max’s age, his workout history is unexpected.
“I’ve never been to a gym,” he said. “It’s all from hard work.”
Max did not have any equipment at the onset.
“I started with simple exercises, such as squats or push-ups,” he said. “To be fit, you don’t have to buy a lot of gear.”
Max eventually acquired weights and a bench.
“It does make a difference,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to train your biceps without a pair of dumbbells.”
Max spends more than 10 hours a week, or up to 75 minutes a day, exercising.
Max points to a flask of an essential element to an active day: coffee.
For his entertainment channel, he engages with random people on the platform Omegle, which focuses on participants reacting to what other ones are doing.
In one video, Max has people guessing his age. Another has him asking people what their talents are with results ranging from speed cubing to “being a ginger.”
“I do like entertainment,” he said. “I think it’s really fun.”
Max did not have much trepidation embarking on becoming a content creator.
“I always was a pretty confident kid,” he said.
Max was not worried about what a stranger would say, but braced himself for any negative feedback from his peers. But that did not occur.
“They told me keep up the good work,” he said.
Like anyone posting content, Max has attracted some Internet critics.
“It doesn’t matter what one a few people think,” he said. “One or two trolls - I don’t care about that.”
Max strums in Empuriabrava, Spain.
Max plays the guitar and sings.
Max maintains a schedule alien to many teens. He rises between 3 and 4 a.m. After eating breakfast and taking his vitamins, he works out from 4:30 to 6:15, meditates for 15 minutes, does homework or work on video content for an hour before heading to school and attempts to go to bed by 8 p.m.
Despite Max’s age, he already is a world traveler. Born in New York, he lived in the United States for the first third of his life. The next third was spent in Brindisi, Italy. Having resided in Aix-en-Provence, France, for the last third, his family headed back to Brindisi.
Along with fitness and entertainment, Max strums the guitar and sings. He performs pieces from various music genres.
“It’s more authentic,” he said about using a guitar without other instrument accompaniment.
Max’s musical talent was not lost on the people strolling past him in Spain one day when he carried on the old minstrel tradition of performing outside. They showed their appreciation throwing cash into his guitar case.
“They donated a significant amount of money,” Max said.
Max walks by a field in Carcassonne, France.
He prioritizes values in everything he does. Max said discipline, including maintaining a schedule, is crucial. Possessing a work ethic also is important to him. He said people can’t just improve their work compared to their own past efforts, they should first discover what hard work actually is, then build their life around that. Patience is another value.
“It is more like a marathon, not a sprint,” Max said.
He also adheres to kindness and fairness.
Max does not have set long-term plans beyond his education. He said beginning now as a content creator leaves plenty of time to shift gears down the road.
“I think the fact I’m starting now is amazing,” Max said. “If I keep creating content for 10 years straight, which is the amount of time it takes to build something worthwhile, I’ll only be 25. The amount of time I have absolutely astonishes me.”