JacksGap is a British inactive YouTube channel which is owned by identical twins Jackson Frayn "Jack" Harries and Finnegan Charles Frayn "Finn" Harries (born 13 May 1993). Originally created by Jack Harries to document his
gap year
A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...
in mid-2011, the channel experienced a rapid increase in popularity after the addition of Finn Harries as a regular contributor. In February 2017 the Twitter and Instagram accounts for JacksGap were deleted, followed by the dissolution of the JacksGap brand.
Background
Jackson and Finnegan Harries are sons of
Andy Harries
Andrew Harries''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. Volume 15, page 1493, reg # 792. (born 7 April 1954) is chief executive and co-founder of Left Bank Pictures, a UK based production company formed in 2007. ...
, a film and television director and producer, and filmmaker and writer
Rebecca Frayn. Their maternal grandfather is the playwright and novelist
Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce '' Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the M ...
(now married to biographer
Claire Tomalin
Claire Tomalin (née Delavenay; born 20 June 1933) is an English journalist and biographer, known for her biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft.
Early life
Tomalin was born Claire Dela ...
).
They attended
The Harrodian School at Barnes, south-west London.
JacksGap was originally launched in July 2011 by Jack Harries during his gap year after he had left school.
The main purpose of the channel was to document Jack's gap year. By September 2012 the site had 190,000 subscribers and the
pay-per-click
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked.
Pay-per-click is usually ...
advertising revenue was enough to entirely finance the Harries' travels in
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
.
After Finn joined the channel, the views nearly doubled. Jack Harries attended
Bristol University
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
, studying Drama, but dropped out in 2013 after the first year to focus on YouTube.
[
JacksGap attracts teenage girls in particular, with 88% of subscribers in this demographic.]India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
, funding the venture with £20,000 from Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debi ...
, Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
and MyDestination.The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' in which he addresses the importance of starting an open conversation about mental health in order to reduce the stigma attached to it.
In April 2015, JacksGap posted a video called "What Do You Believe In?" that announced Finn had moved to New York City earlier that year to study Design and Architecture for three and a half years at the Parsons School of Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
, though he was still a part of JacksGap.
As of 2018, the JacksGap name has been replaced across all social media platforms in favour of "Jack Harries". The official Twitter account has also been deleted and the handle relinquished, now owned by a member of the public with no affiliation to JacksGap.
In May 2018, after two and a half years, the channel has uploaded a new video called "Jack Harries - The Stories We Tell", which talked about depression and the relationship between his mental health and social media.
In February 2019, Jack Harries was arrested during a protest at International Petroleum Week.
Jack follows a vegan diet, citing the documentary ''Cowspiracy
''Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret'' is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns as ...
'' and the environmental impacts of animal product consumption. Can You Be a Non-Vegan Environmentalist? In Conversation w/ Jack Harries (The Disclosure Podcast) - YouTube
/ref>
References
{{Reflist
British travel websites
YouTube channels