Andrea Russett’s middle school principal told her she would a be a high school dropout.

“I’m actually a high school dropout,” Russett says.

Then she explains:

She went to a private Catholic high school up until her junior year. When she moved to California, she did online school for a year and, "I had a half of a year left when I stopped. Just because I feel like everybody learns differently and I don’t learn by reading and writing a report. I need to be doing something to learn.”

Russett, who is now 20, is still learning how to talk about this comfortably.

“I’ve been thinking I want to make a video about this,” the YouTube star says.

That's always a good idea for the native of Fort Wayne, Ind. Because while that principal might have been technically right, he was so wrong about the young woman herself.

Russett is still a student, and you might argue already a teacher, of a phenomenon that is changing entertainment and more. She is fluent in the mass friendship, with millions of deeply engaged followers on multiple social media, and she is doing it with a balance of intelligence, style and talent.

Let’s back up.

Around the same time her principal made that prediction, Russett asked her mom, “How do I make a video?” There was a contest to meet Justin Bieber and she had to upload a video to enter. Her mom had a little better sense on how Andrea learns than that principal. She handed her the MacBook and said “There’s iMovie on there, figure it out.”

For the next three weeks, Russett figured it out alright. Using Photo Booth, a sharpie on her hands and arms, iMovie and her already keen eye and wit, the 14-year-old created a stop-motion master class in viral video making titled, “JUSTIN BIEBER ONE TIME MUSIC VIDEO.”

“I remember the first day I checked and it was already at 1,000 views,” Russett says. “I said, ‘Mom! I’m going to meet Justin Bieber.’”

The next day the video hit 10,000 views.

“Mom! I’m going to marry Justin Bieber!”

She didn’t win the contest. She kind of won the Internet instead.

Forward four years, when Russett’s homespun, music and lifestyle oriented videos pushed her toward teenage stardom. Russett moved to California when she signed with Fullscreen. She had been on Twitter since the beginning, though she erased her early tweets and started over in 2009. She was quick to Vine and early on Instagram. Now she is learning to hone those good digital instincts into a professional knowhow.

“People think it’s like, ‘Dude, how do you have that following?” referring to her 2.8 million followers on Instagram. “'You just take photos.'

"No-no-no-no-no."

And it’s when she talks about Instagram that you see Russett’s beautiful mind. Beautiful in the sense of what she sees (her parents are both graphic designers) and how she sees.

“I take 80 photos until I like it and it looks perfect” Russett says. “And then I put a filter on it until it matches the rest of my photos. It takes time.”

Russett realized that if you apply a similar light quality to each photo—in her case it was high color and positive images—a recognition emerges. She jumped from 1,000 new followers per day to 10,000. She was mastering the art of visual connectivity, whether it’s a picture of her staring out to the sea in Hawaii (we’ll get to that) or balancing herself on a glider board, with 6-inch heels and her luggage, a tone holds. Color, happiness, life being lived fast, at times, and relaxed, at others, usually in a balance that almost seems rhythmic. It’s a performance that …

“It’s not performance,” she corrects me. “It’s not a performance to show the happy parts of your life. It’s just knowing what to share and what not to.”

Same with YouTube. It's one thing to have a viral video. It's another to build a community. The first is lightning in a bottle, the second is persistent, genuine and creative work.

Joining Fullscreen "helped me realize that this could be a career if I do it right” she says. But it can't be just a career, it turns out. Russett says she lost her motivation for a few months when she started to think about this as work. She says you can see it in the videos from that time.

“I got back to where I was doing this for fun, but I’m also creating a business for myself,” she says. “I think you have to find the balance.”

Balance is the key in all of it. Finding the fulcrum of social media presence where staying fresh, and thus growing, but remaining consistent and relatable -- this is the obsession of major brands. It is the syllabus of advanced college classes. I know. I teach one. But by the middle of the interview, Russett was teaching me lessons about digital inspiration—it must be captured, but also crafted. The right touch can keep the spirit of a moment while avoiding haphazard posting. The way she explained it made me think of painters who work meticulously to create spontaneity. She keeps notebooks of Vine ideas, for example, but almost never does them right away. She lets them germinate, take on shape and color, and then will create them in one take … or 60 ... whenever it’s right.

Her mastery of social media, along with her earthy but wired personality, are leading to other opportunities. Last week she flew in for VidCon from Hawaii, where she shot scenes for the upcoming film “Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates” starring Adam DeVine, Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza.

“I like when I can be somebody else,” she says about acting. But she understands that other part, herself, is the standard now and always will be. She doesn’t call her audience an "audience." They are friends. When they mob rush her at places like VidCon, she hates to hustle past them, even if a deadline looms. They know her and it’s a little frustrating to Russett that she can not know them all back.

“I want to hear about their life,” she says.

But what if she really does become a classic Hollywood movie star? We rarely see someone balance that deep connection to digital community with the demands of living in rarefied air.

“Well maybe I could be the first,” she says in joking voice. “That would be kind of cool.”

We do know she won’t be leaving her growing mass friendship any time soon: 2 million subscribers on YouTube, 1.8 million followers on Twitter, 2.7 million on Instagram and more than a million followers on Vine.

Yes, her mom wants her to at least get a GED, though right now Russett doesn’t see the point of a piece of paper. The mass education of Andrea Russett is still session.

“I’ve thought that when I make my first big movie, I would invite that principal to the premiere,” she says.

That could be a teachable moment.