Keith Lee Says He Would Let His Kids Be Influencers — Under This One Condition (Exclusive)

Keith Lee boasts 20 million followers for his viral food content and family values. He tells PEOPLE if his daughter, 5, has any interest in following in her dad's footsteps

NEED TO KNOW

• Keith Lee’s kids are social media stars in the making
• The content creator shares kids Karter, 5, Riley, 3, and Kardigan Marcus, 6 months, with his wife Ronni Lee
• He talks with PEOPLE about whether his kids are interested in following in his social media creating footsteps

Keith Lee's viral capabilities might be genetic.

While chatting with PEOPLE ahead of his Familee Day Festival on May 16 in New Orleans, the content creator, who has amassed a large following on the internet for his viral food reviews, shares that his social media career has rubbed off on his kids — particularly his daughter, Karter, 5.

Even though Lee insists he doesn't talk to his kids all that much about what his online career entails, somehow Karter "knows everything."

"She calls me Keith Lee sometimes," he laughs.

Lee describes his eldest child as an "extremely intelligent girl."

"She's exactly how I was as a kid, very inquisitive, very question-oriented," he adds. "So she will never do anything without being explained or communicated to."

Lee often leaves home to go on trips out of town. Nine times out of 10, his kids come with him, he says. But, if they don't, "they won't let me leave without getting an actual full detailed answer."

Lee also reveals that Karter has expressed an interest in her dad's life in front of the camera.

"I'll sit down and eat and she'll be like, 'Hey, can we turn the camera on and can we eat together?'"

Lee is adamant that they'll only do so when she asks, but as Karter and his other two children, Riley, 3, and Kardigan Marcus, 6 months, get older, Lee knows there's a real possibility they might want to follow in their dad's footsteps.

"I think it's important to know how to work social media," Lee says of how he feels about the potential that his kids might pursue a career like his own.

"I think that, at this day and age, it's one of those things that if you hide from it or you run from it, it's obvious once you get on social media, and I think a lot of the troubles lay in not necessarily knowing how to work it."

As parents, Lee says that he and his wife Ronni's approach is making sure their children have the tools to be able to understand things before they try them out.

"If [Karter] was to come to me and say that she wants to do it full-time, as long as she has a backing and something else that she's extremely passionate in, then I wouldn't have a problem with it," he says.

Despite Lee's own viral fame, that's allowed him to go on a U.S. and international food tour and start his own festival, he's always been acutely aware of the need for a fallback.

"If all this fails, I can go back to punching people in the face," he says. Before he rose to internet acclaim, Lee was an MMA fighter.

"I have a real trade that I can fall back on. I have something that I'm extremely passionate about and something that I was willing to do for no money. I did it for almost 10 years and was barely getting paid," he says.

"Sometimes I actually took fights for absolutely nothing. So as long as you have something that you can fall back on that you are truly passionate about that doesn't go away at the snap of a finger, then absolutely I wouldn't have anything to say about it."

As a parent, Lee's only goal, he says, is to make sure his daughter (and his other two children) can do "everything she feels like she's supposed to do."

"As long as she has something that can't be taken away from her, then I wouldn't say anything about it," he adds of her pursuing a social media career.

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