YouTube channel Simple Living Alaska has been gaining fans since 2018, when Eric and Arielle started sharing videos about their self-sustained life in Alaska. The project turned out to be the best thing they could have done, as their audience is now close to one million followers across social media, all of whom they get to inspire to follow their dreams and choose a fulfilling path that goes well outside the box.
The best things about Eric and Arielle are their lighthearted personalities and sincerity while talking about their Alaskan experiences, their past, and the skills they have had to develop to live full-time in the wilderness of the Last Frontier State.
So, who exactly are Eric and Arielle from Simple Living Alaska? Why did they move there in the first place? What has happened so far to them? What about their finances and plans? Keep watching to learn all about that!
Who Are Eric and Arielle?
Eric and Arielle Illia are two outdoors people and adventurers who simply wanted to pursue what they believed to be true freedom. Their experiences adapting to an off-the-grid life in Alaska have been documented on their YouTube channel Simple Living Alaska, so their audiences are more than used to seeing them go through the highs and lows that such a lifestyle inherently brings.
Simple Living Alaska’s videos are more than just entertainment. The channel is partly educational, leading people through Eric and Arielle’s learning experiences as they figure their way through self-sustainability, and make their appliances work in their cabin with no plumbing and electricity. It’s also inspiring, as the couple is not only committed to their lifestyle but also are passionate about their choice of leaving their life in the city and the 9-to-5 work dynamic that they previously had, finding it unfitting for their concept of freedom.
As Arielle once wrote in their blog in 2018, this mindset comes from her desire to live differently than what society dictates, finding money and material things not as necessary as enjoying life doing what she loves. All of that set her and Eric’s path towards the adventure that changed their life forever.
Finances
According to online reports, Eric and Arielle have allegedly made around $490,000 from their YouTube channel. This is due to the advertisements shown on their videos, though it’s unclear how much that number could have increased thanks to any brand sponsorships they might have gotten on social media.
However, Eric and Arielle’s lifestyle isn’t anything close to luxurious or over-the-top. Their choice for an isolated life in the Alaskan wilderness also means that their income is limited to what they make through their channel, as a full-time job is out of question due to their location and self-sustainable vision.
That situation has brought many questions among their fans, who often wonder where the money to afford some appliances, such as a snowmobile, comes from. The couple addressed these inquiries during a question-and-answer session video from 2019, when they affirmed that they had cut almost all of their expenses to afford the life they have now.
As they also admitted, they weren’t interested in making more money but instead were focused on ‘living with what (they) have’, meaning that they would need less money to live than the average person.
While Simple Living Alaska’s audience exponentially grew after that video was posted, the couple has maintained the simple and off-the-grid lifestyle that they became known for.
Their Story
It’s been a while since Eric and Arielle settled in Alaska, but it took them a long time to make it there. Their lives years ago were vastly different from what it is now, as both of them come from Southern California, having met in high school around the mid-2000s and have been in a relationship ever since.
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Back during the 2010s, Eric was a full-time truck driver while Arielle had various odd jobs before deciding to go to college to become a dental hygienist. Nonetheless, the 9-to-5 routines had already gotten old for the couple, who married in 2016. They sold their California property as the real estate market had become too high to afford something they wanted, leading them to move to Oregon, where they purchased a 12-acre property, which they loved and was spacious enough to raise animals and plant food
Nevertheless, moving to Alaska was also a dream both of them had, though that wasn’t possible in the beginning. As Eric and Arielle affirmed in a 2022 video, they were still working full-time after moving to Oregon, and each of them had to commute several hours from their property to their jobs every day.
YouTube Beginnings & Rise To Fame
Eric and Arielle started sharing their journey on YouTube videos in early 2018, while they still lived in Oregon. Back then, their videos were about recipes, planting food processes, raising animals on their property, and equipment-related content.
Later that year, Eric and Arielle finally moved to Alaska and documented the entire process in a series of videos. Their first house was a dry cabin, which was a simple off-the-grid housing option as they adapted to their new life alongside their dogs.
When asked about their channel’s name, Eric and Arielle explained that it was just their goal to have a ‘simple life in Alaska’, as it was their dream. They also admitted that the main reason they moved to the Last Frontier State was that they felt they didn’t have enough time to do the things they were passionate about, and finding a life off the grid was the best option for them.
From Simple Living Alaska’s earliest videos, it was evident that Eric and Arielle had planned their move to Alaska very thoroughly. That’s how their channel sped up, slowly but surely becoming a source of inspiration for those who want to follow a similar path, and for those who simply want to learn from their techniques and methods.
Fast forward to 2025, Eric and Arielle have gained over 800,000 subscribers and 200 million views combined in their videos. Their Instagram and Facebook pages have around 70,000 followers combined, meaning that their audience has effectively surpassed the limits of YouTube.
All in all, Simple Living Alaska has become the go-to channel for everyone whose dreams are unconventional but clear.
