The mother of a British toddler who’s obsessed with YouTube star Ms Rachel has revealed an unexpected side effect of her daughter watching the all-singing-all-dancing-educator’s videos...
She now has an American accent.
For the uninitiated, Rachel Griffin Accurso – or Ms Rachel, as many parents and their kids know her – is the face of Songs For Littles, a popular YouTube account with 4.7m subscribers which teaches babies and toddlers about sounds and words.
In a video that’s been viewed 5 million times, stand-up comedian Kelly Convey (@kelly_convey) took to TikTok to explain how her toddler had started to speak, but not with a British accent.
“Has anybody else got a British – and I have to stress, British – toddler, who watches Ms Rachel and, as they’ve started to speak, you realise that they’ve actually got an American accent?” the mum said in a video.
She then filmed her toddler saying words like ‘car’ and ‘more’ with what is undeniably an American accent.
Lots of parents in the US were quick to remind the mum that this is “pay back” for Peppa Pig, who is British, and has inflicted British accents onto American kids.
One parent said: “My very American toddler developed a British accent from Peppa Pig and it’s turned Australian from Bluey.”
“My American kids have an Aussie accent after watching Bluey,” said another parent.
“That’s nothing,” added one parent, “my daughter’s nursery teacher called me and asked which part of America my baby was from... She’s British.”
One commenter joked that the solution to her daughter’s accent was to administer two cups of tea every day for four weeks. “Hopefully that will fix the issue,” they added.
YouTube star Ms Rachel spotted the video and shared it on her own TikTok page, with a heartwarming reaction to the toddler’s accent reveal.
“I’m sorry Kelly,” wrote the YouTuber. “Flashing back to when I thought a little girl’s parents were British because of her accent... they were American. It was Peppa [Pig]!”
Ms Rachel started making children’s videos after her son Thomas experienced a speech delay. “His first word was at 2 years and 8 months – and it was mama,” she previously told Today.
“I had waited for that for so long and, as a parent, you want to do anything you can to help them – and it’s not our fault when our child has a speech delay.”
At the time, Ms Rachel searched online for ways she could help him, but swiftly realised there were very few resources out there.
“A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son,” she added.
Her videos have clearly struck a chord with parents and children alike, as the YouTube sensation now has more than a billion views across her videos, which she creates with the help of her husband Aron Accurso, who has worked on Broadway.