At 15, Fossil Ridge High School sophomore Calvin Guli earns more than his teachers.

Guli is the creator of the YouTube channel “CJ VR,” which has more than 430,000 subscribers and still climbing. He started the channel when he was in 6th grade and faced teasing. What many of those critics do not know is how much money he is making and his future plans.

Today, Guli plans to invest in real estate and, unlike many Fossil students, does not plan to attend college.

“I think that going to college would be useless at this point,” he said.

By the end of high school, he’ll have experience editing videos, making thumbnails, working with others and experience in the “real world”. Guli has also started to get recognized by fans in public, taking pictures and signing autographs.

Even with his success, Guli still faces challenges. His YouTube journey hasn’t earned him much respect at school, perhaps because it is aimed at a younger audience.

Fossil junior Natalie Fleener and senior Rue Allwright found out about Guli’s channel in class last year.

Fleener said they were surprised at how good Guli is, and how funny and entertaining the videos are.

“His voice is weirdly soothing,” Fleener said.

Allwright said initially they thought the channel was just for younger children.

“It’s cool that someone from our school is a YouTuber,” Allwright said.

Gul’s brother, 17-year-old Phoenix Guli, feels both jealous and proud of Calvin’s success.

“He’s always been shy, so seeing him do something like this is pretty amazing,” his brother said.

Phoenix Guli said it’s nice to have a somewhat famous sibling. Yet it has its downsides, too.

“Everyone’s always saying stuff like, ‘You’re CJ VR’s brother!’” he said. “It’s cool, but it gets old after a while.”

At first, his brother didn’t think Guli would succeed.

“Every kid wants to be a YouTuber,” he said, “and our parents didn’t even let us have YouTube back then.”

But when Calvin asked their dad to link a bank account so he could start making money, things changed.

Now, his brother sees how far Guli has come and where he’s headed. He believes the money is what kept Calvin going over the years, and he’s happy to see it pay off.

“I see a lot of potential in him, especially for the future,” his brother said. “Calvin is really living his dream.”