ZANE’s STORY

Zane Everett Anderson was the first born to his father, Thomas Anderson, and second to his mother, Sarah Anderson-Norwell. He has an older half-sister named Veda who is seven years his senior. His entire childhood, Zane never got super close with his half-sister, the age gap contributed to this, as well as Veda spending 50% of her time at her biological father’s house.

Zane grew up in Roscoe Village, Chicago. His family never had a lot of money, but they were comfortable. He has very fond memories of his childhood and would consider his upbringing very average.

Zane’s mother, Sarah, is a perfectionist, and always made sure her children were well dressed and orderly. She wanted to set them up with good habits that would benefit their well being as adults in society. As a kid, Zane was always in nice pants, button up shirts, and sweaters. The only time she allowed him to get dirty was if he was wearing his baseball attire, so, as a child he wore his jersey and pants more often than necessary.

The Anderson’s are a baseball family, living only a thirty minute walk from Wrigley Field. He was put on a little league team the second he could stand. Although seemingly forced into it, Zane actually really enjoyed baseball. He and his dad would go to the batting cages almost every weekend as well as practice catching in the street. The family attended Cubs games as often as possible as well, a common pastime.

Also living nearby Montrose harbor, Zane would go out fishing with his grandpa a lot. His grandpa owned an old small sailboat and the two would spend long afternoons on Lake Michigan. He learned a lot about boats from hanging around his grandfather’s other boating companions. Zane still loves fishing, and often goes by himself to this day.

Another hobby Zane became passionate about early in life was guitar. The music teacher at his elementary school offered lessons for kids after school and he absolutely begged his parents to let him join. They agreed, bought him a pretty cheap guitar, and he became enamored.

Zane was always one of those kids who picked up on hobbies really quickly, and those he wasn’t good at instantly, he would frustratingly give up. Luckily for him, guitar was one of those hobbies that he excelled at at an alarming rate to his music teacher, who told his parents he should get more advanced lessons. Thomas was hesitant, really wanting Zane to focus on baseball, but Zane promised he’d practice both with the same passion.

Zane often times felt like an only child when Veda was away, but he found a brother in his best friend Milo, a close family friend and nearby neighbor. Between practically birth to age 10, Zane and Milo were attached at the hip. Milo’s mom babysat Zane everyday as a toddler, and come elementary school, would pick them up afterschool to spend the afternoon at Milo’s house until Sarah was off work. The two continued their friendship throughout middle school, and come high school, they were practically related.

In high school, a new passion arose for Zane: making YouTube videos. He had always had a channel; he and Milo would upload little videos throughout middle school, but it wasn’t until the new adventure that is high school that Zane rekindled the channel. He decided he wanted to document all four years of high school, so he renamed his channel: Zane’s World and started to film.

The videos were short vlogs, usually edited out of context, showing him and his friends having fun at school, during after school activities, and hanging out on the weekends. They were quick paced, goofy, with fun editing and silly music. And to Zane’s surprise, his channel actually started to grow, slowly at first, but by sophomore year, he had amassed around 55,000 subscribers with regular viewership.