These days, everyone has a website. From blogs to wikis, hundreds of new people join the worldwide network every day. What truly sets one apart now is having a successful website.
And when you're doing that at seventeen -- like the founder of popular blog Disney Dose's Gavin Doyle -- that's truly a class of its own.
In 2012, then thirteen-year old Gavin Doyle started Disney Dose--a fresh website that includes news about everything Disney (including more than a few secrets on the parks). To date, the beloved blog has 2,000 Twitter followers and a combined 12,190 Facebook fans for the two Disney Secrets and Disney Dose pages Gavin operates. The weekly newsletter--which compiles all the latest news on Disney--boasts an additional 6,000 subscribers.
Having fallen in love with Main Street, U.S.A when he was merely four, Gavin knew from early on that he would have to be a part of Disney's magic. Of course, like the theme park conglomerate we know today, Gavin's success story has a humble beginning: a year prior to founding Disney Dose, Gavin started his journey with a different website called Disney Apprentice. Originally the blog cut information from other sites and repackaged press releases.
You won't find that on Disney Dose today. Gavin's entrepreneurial spirit quickly allowed him to make a website as unique as Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoon. Now Gavin writes all his own articles, and posts only original videos and interviews. Living in the San Francisco Bay area, Gavin is able to visit the Disneyland grounds at least twice a year for new content. When he isn't inside the famed theme park, he has a park reporter visit new attraction openings for him.
One of the most distinguished parts of Disney Dose is the podcasts Gavin hosts. Through telephone interviews (or sometimes in person at the Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters), Gavin has interviewed numerous legendary Mouseketeers for his podcasts, among them Joe Rodhe (the prodigious mind behind Animal Kingdom), Terri Hardin (one of the skilled sculptors for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain), and Sayre Wiseman (producer for several of Disney's renowned firework shows).
More recently Gavin has expanded his entrepreneurship beyond the web and is offering a collection of his secret knowledge on Disneyland in the form of a book. From insight on purchasing the land where Sleeping Beauty's castle now rests to the upside-down trees bordering Jungle Cruise, Gavin has enough Disney mystery to fill an entire other novel.
As Disney Dose continues to grow for its eager fans, I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing--that it was all started by an ambitious young man with a dream.