About
The Schoeller Family: The Travel Vloggers Who Built a Dual-Brand Media Business
From their home base in West Virginia, Jon and Rhianna Schoeller, along with their daughter Tyanna, project an image of idyllic family adventure. As "The Schoeller Family," they've built a digital media brand with over 1.1 million YouTube subscribers and 632 million views, anchored by a powerful core narrative: their journey of adopting Tyanna through the U.S. foster care system in 2019. Behind the polished travel vlogs sits a deliberately bifurcated business architecture — one that segments their audience to maximize revenue from both mainstream family content and a high-value financial consulting niche.
How The Schoeller Family Started: Financial Independence to Full-Time Travel Vlogging
The YouTube channel was created on March 6, 2017, but the family's public story begins later. Before content creation, Jon, self-employed since age 20 and a former moving company owner, focused on real estate investing and entrepreneurship. Rhianna built a career as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Through aggressive saving and multiple jobs, the couple achieved financial independence around 2018. A late 2022 CNET article titled "The Only Millennial Millionaires Anyone Likes Anymore" profiled them, listing Jon's age as 36 and Rhianna's as 33.
The pivotal moment for their public brand was the 2019 adoption of Tyanna. The family explicitly frames this as their true beginning. Any earlier content has been de-emphasized or removed, replaced by a narrative centered on their life as a transracial adoptive family. This shift transformed the channel from a likely niche finance blog into a mainstream lifestyle brand resonating with audiences drawn to "relatable, unscripted vlogs."
The Schoeller Family's Travel and Lifestyle Content
Content mixes long-form travelogues documenting journeys through Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand with intimate "day in the life" vlogs from West Virginia. Videos cover family activities from Tyanna's summer tutoring, speech therapy, and swim practice to her first ice skating show. A central theme is their transracial adoption experience. They've produced dedicated content on natural hair care for Tyanna's 4B hair, transparently crediting creators they follow for guidance, such as @lil_raspberrry and @kelsgorgeous.
The Schoeller Family's Dual-Brand Business Model
The primary brand, "The Schoeller Family," serves as a marketing funnel, attracting wide audiences with emotional content. Monetization is diversified: prominent partnerships with travel company Viator (custom affiliate link) and plant-based resort Palmaïa The House of AïA (code: "SCHOELLER10"). Product integrations include iGarden Pool Cleaner (code: IGARDENK), mobile game Cookie Jam, and BetterHelp.
Direct-to-consumer: their website theschoellerfamily.com hosts a merchandise store. In late 2024, they released a self-published children's book, Tyanna Travels (ISBN: 979-8300750978), authored by Rhianna Schoeller, slated for availability around December 15, 2024.
The secondary brand: "The Frugal Investor," built around Jon's identity. Cross-promoted through the family channel, it targets finance, real estate, and entrepreneurship audiences with higher-value offerings: coaching, consulting, and credit card referral links for Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture X. They attempted a paid subscription, the "More Than Money Community," though its website was inaccessible during research.
The Schoeller Family's Media Appearances
Rather than vlogger collaborations, they've engaged with media in their professional fields. Rhianna appeared on the That Twin Mama Podcast discussing multiracial adoption. Jon has appeared on the Best Ever CRE podcast, a Sachs Realty stream on house flipping, and The Weekly Juice podcast on private money lending.
The Schoeller Family's Public Image
No major controversies found. Public sentiment appears overwhelmingly positive. But the family shows acute awareness of ethical criticisms common to family vloggers. In a video titled "The Truth About Family Vlogging…," they addressed dealing with online hate, methods for protecting Tyanna's privacy, contingency plans if she no longer consents to filming, and the broader child exploitation debate. This transparent, preemptive communication builds audience trust.
The Schoeller Family's Philanthropy
Their philanthropic focus is local: animal welfare. They're active partners with the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association (KCHA) in West Virginia. Their TikTok content frequently documents fostering puppies and kittens, publicly thanking KCHA for medical care provided to injured fosters.
The Schoeller Family Today
The Schoeller Family has built more than a YouTube channel — it's a resilient, multi-faceted media business. Their adoption journey served as the catalyst for explosive growth. By pairing that emotionally resonant core with a dual-brand architecture catering to both a broad lifestyle audience and a financial niche, they've created a diversified and defensible business.