Sam and Nia

About

Sam and Nia (last name: Rader) are a Christian family of YouTube vloggers, who have become popular for sharing videos of their lives and the lives of their children, Symphony and Abram. Their became well-known outside of the Christian vlogging community after a series of videos they created, announcing a Nia's pregnancy followed closely by her miscarriage, were accused of being fabricated.

Online History

Sam Rader created his YouTube account, samuel8955, on March 8th, 2007,^[1] and started posting videos regularly in March of 2014. after their video "Good Looking Parents Sing Disney's Frozen (Love Is an Open Door)" went viral shortly after its posting, inspiring articles on publications as varied as Babble, Gizmodo, and Perez Hilton.^[2][3][4] The video was featured on television show Kathie Lee and Hoda, and eventually garnered more than 21 million views.^[5]

Soon, the family began posting videos more than once per day, releasing more than 500 videos between March 2014 and August 2015, many of which received more than 100,000 views. The videos often showed their intimate family moments and exhibited their Christian-American values. Their account eventually acquired over 363,000 subscribers.

Pregnancy Announcement, Miscarriage Video, and Backlash

On August 5th, 2015, Sam and Nia uploaded a video titled HUSBAND SHOCKS WIFE WITH PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT!, in which Sam, upon hearing that Nia's period is late, dips a pregnancy test in a toilet bowl filled with his wife's urine and then surprises her with the positive result. This video gained more than 1 million views in 24 hours, and was posted many entertainment blogs, including the Huffington Post, E! News, and The Daily Mail.^[6][7][8] As of August 28th, 2015, the video has more than 14 million views.

Three days later, on August 8th, 2015, after not posting to their account for 24 hours, Sam and Nia uploaded the video "Our Baby Had a Heartbeat," which detailed how Nia had miscarried the previously announced pregnancy. This video received over 4 million views as of August 28th, 2015.

Many commenters and others online voiced their skepticism at the authenticity of Sam and Nia's pregnancy; many said that it was possible to get a false positive from the testing method used by Sam, and also that it was too early in the pregnancy to have known the gender of the child, which Sam and Nia refer to in their miscarriage video as female. In addition, according to Sam Rader, the viral success of the pregnancy videos had provided the family with enough income for him to quit his job as an ER nurse and live off of vlogging alone, and many suspected that this income was the impetus for the announcement, as pregnancy announcement videos are generally very popular in the Christian vlogging community, often going viral.^[9] On August 14th, Sam and Nia uploaded a video titled "RESPONDING TO HATE COMMENTS!", in which Sam discusses the criticisms and states that the backlash they were receiving was religious persecution, since the pregnancy and miscarriage was the fate chosen by God.

Ashley Madison Controversy

On August 21st, 2015, the Daily Mail published an exclusive analysis of the Ashley Madison data breach, which showed that Sam Rader, or someone using his name, address, and credit cards, had created an Ashley Madison account in September 2013 and made two $189 payments to keep it open, purportedly to find a partner with which to cheat on his marriage during his four year wedding anniversary to Nia and the birth of their second child.^[10] After the disclosure, which was republished widely, Sam and Nia published both a video and written confession where they claim that Sam never met up with another woman using the site and that Nia had forgiven him.

Over 2 years ago I did create the Ashely Madison account. To be clear this was only an account I used to navigate the site in my sinful curiosity and any messages or data pulled from that account would be evidence of that. I absolutely did not meet up or see another woman from the site. It was clearly a bad moment in my life and I acted on a sinful desire to be with another woman but never came close to going through with it. ^[11]

This video received more than 1.1 million views, becoming their fifth most popular, but three days later, after being kicked out of the Seattle Vloggers Conference for getting in a verbal confrontation with another family vlogger, Sam and Nia announced that they were taking a short hiatus from vlogging.^[12]

Online Presence

Sam and Nia have a Facebook page with over 73,000 likes, an Instagram with 18,300 followers, and a Twitter account with 14,600 followers. ^[13][14][15]

Search Interest

External References