ORLANDO, Fla. — For the past 10 years, Ricky Dillon, 27, has documented every major moment of his life on YouTube.

He started posting videos when he was a junior in high school — funny music parodies at first, then more personal stuff. The concept of a YouTube star was still in its infancy; his peers who knew about his channel bullied him.

“Back then you made videos for no one,” Mr. Dillon said. “People didn’t get it.”

By the end of 2010, he had amassed 50,000 followers; in 2012, the count was up to about 200,000. That year, he and six of his internet friends started Our Second Life (O2L), a collaborative YouTube channel. They had watched each other’s videos from afar — Minnesota, Texas, California, Alabama — and thought that together they could build a much bigger following.

The boys moved into a sprawling home in Los Angeles in 2013, paving the way for collab houses like the Team 10 house, 1600 Vine and Hype House, and embarked on a 19-city tour across America the following year. Thousands of fans came out to meet them. The group won a Teen Choice Award. Their subscriber count spiked to 2.5 million.