ST. CLOUD — When Joseph Allen was a kid living in St. Cloud, he was a bit on the nerdy side. His big, thick glasses didn’t help.

In junior high, his mom told him he had to pick at least one sport to play, if only to get him off the couch. In preparation, he swapped those thick, nerdy glasses for contacts — and his life changed.

“It just changed me in so many ways,” Allen said. “One, I got to play sports. Playing sports allowed me to make friends. Making friends boosted my self confidence. And at age 13, girls started paying attention, which was probably the biggest most important thing to me in my life at that time.”

That confidence boost set him on the career path to become an optometrist. And he’s taken it one step further, bringing education about eye health to the masses via a YouTube Channel.

As Doctor Eye Health, Allen has gained more than 1 million subscribers. He does videos on everything: how to use contacts, how to get rid of those undereye bags, what those spots in your eyes are, how to cure dry eye, whether those blue light glasses you bought are any good — and on and on. He’s posted more than 300 videos since starting in 2018.

Allen is a graduate of St. Cloud Tech High School and St. John’s University. He studied in Texas to be an optometrist.

When Allen first started practicing as an optometrist in 2016, he worked in a few different places, including a mobile unit that visited senior care homes. He saw firsthand the consequences unhealthy lifestyles can bring later in life.

“Because I saw those experiences of such ill health … I started getting really fascinated in preventative health and lifestyle medicine, and realized at the same time, there is no information for the public about eyes,” Allen said.

At the same time, Allen had bought his first house and was using YouTube instruction videos to figure out how to do household handyman tasks, like fixing a lawnmower.

Stephanie Dickrell / St. Cloud LIVE

“So I was like, What are my patients looking up? … And the results I would find would scare me because of how inaccurate they were, how boring they would be, or they would be over the top … talking over everyone’s heads,” Allen said.

He grew up in the Bill Nye the Science Guy era, where science education could be informational and entertaining.

“That’s why I was like, oh that’d be so cool if there was a show about glasses, about contacts, about vision,” Allen said.

Contributed / Doctor Eye Health

At the end of 2017, he decided he could be the one to make that show. So he started researching. He had never used a camera before and had no clue about sound editing or lighting.

“Teaching is one thing. But then teaching in a video format is another. And a big part of YouTube is keeping people’s intention,” Allen said.

YouTube prioritizes videos that keep people watching, by tracking watch time.

“So you have to learn how to not only go deep into a subject, but know how to pace it, change angles, show things on screen, visually explain things,” Allen said.

And he learned as he went.

“When first started making the videos, nobody’s really watching. I had like 16 subscribers — all my friends and family,” Allen said.

Contributed / Doctor Eye Health

He got a little discouraged, especially because of all the time and money he was investing. But he kept chugging along. One day, he posted a video about floaters, those annoying spots you sometimes see moving around in your vision.

“So I’m seeing patients that morning and you can kind of hear down the hall, just bing bing bing bing bing bing, I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Allen said. “I got back to my desk at noon for lunch and my phone was dead. It had been binging so many times it drained my battery.”

He had gained nearly 2,000 subscribers in a weekend.

“It was proof of concept. It was like, ‘Oh, this information is valuable,’” Allen said. “That really gave me a huge burst of just energy to keep going.”

Today, Allen teaches others to do what he does at YouTube conventions.

“I always try to tell young creators that if they are starting a channel, don’t get discouraged,” Allen said. It takes a few months before the YouTube algorithm even figures out how to categorize your videos and serve them to viewers.

In 2019, Allen figured out how to make videos on a more consistent basis and he was steadily gaining subscribers. He broke 100,000 in 2020. In January 2024, the channel hit 1 million subscribers. He also hit 100,000 subscribers for his Spanish-language channel this year.

Because only about 10% of viewers actually subscribe, he knows his reach is much higher.

When Allen set out to put out reliable and entertaining medical information, he entered a Wild West-like ecosystem where anyone can post anything.

“That is the scary part of social media. There are some creators out there who are in the health care space, but maybe advocate for less evidence-based health care,” Allen said.

Contributed / Doctor Eye Health

So he shows his work, posting the resources he’s citing and encouraging people to talk to their own doctors.

Allen makes it clear that he’s not trying to replace their doctor or encourage people to self diagnose to avoid eye exams.

“I’m just trying to educate and encourage people to be better advocates for their own health and to pursue the doctors in their area for an exam or get second opinions, Allen said.

Today, Allen keeps expanding. Doctor Eye Health is a business now. Allen has been able to hire help to pull research and edit videos. If he were to produce a video entirely on his own from start to finish — research, writing, shooting, editing, uploading and posting — it would take him 17 to 20 hours. And that’s on top of his clinical practice.

Contributed / Doctor Eye Health

The work never ends, including responding to viewers’ questions.

“I tried to dedicate time every morning when I wake up. I have my coffee and comments, sit there and answer people’s questions,” Allen said.

If he sees a question repeated over and over, he’ll note that and use it as a future topic for a video. He doesn’t think he’ll ever run out of ideas.

Allen has added a podcast called “Eye Give a Damn” that’s targeted more toward eye care professionals, speaking about the latest research and science with experts at an expert level.

He’s also started doing livestreams, where he’ll take questions live and he can be more conversational with his audience. He is adapting some of his content for short-form video sites such as Instagram and TikTok. He also teaches doctors how to better use video and social media to educate and as a clinical tool.

At some point, he hopes to produce two videos a week, but he’ll probably need more help.

“I keep on thinking if I can just help one person prevent their blindness or see five extra years in their life so they can see their grandchildren or something — this is all worth it,” Allen said.

For more videos by Doctor Eye Health, visit youtube.com/@DoctorEyeHealth and facebook.com/doctoreyehealth.

For more about Doctor Eye Health and to sign up for the newsletter, visit doctoreyehealth.com.

Stephanie Dickrell / St. Cloud LIVE