YORK, Maine — Four-year-old York resident Lylah Ciampa got a bigger audience than she ever expected when she took her mother’s phone to record a makeup tutorial in her bedroom. 

“Hi guys, I’m going to show you how to do makeup today,” she said into the camera before walking viewers through eye shadow, blush and lipstick. She put a little too much lipstick on before trying to wipe it off, first with her arm, then by drizzling a little saliva out the side of her mouth, turning her head sideways. 

“Definitely need a wipe,” she concluded. 

Her mother Becky Ciampa thought the cute video would merely serve as a memento for Lylah when she’s older, and a laugh for the family on Facebook right now. The video wound up on “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” though, winning Lylah $10,000 as the top video on the May 8 episode. 

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The family held a viewing party with friends for Lylah that night. While Lylah had been told repeatedly she was going to appear on television, her mother said it did not sink in what that meant until she saw it herself that evening. 

“Her face was priceless. Pure shock,” said her mother. 

Sunday night the video was aired again when “America’s Funniest Home Videos (AFV)” pitted Lylah against eight other contestants who had taken first place in previous episodes for a grand prize of $100,000. Lylah did not come in first place, which was a little disappointing for the Ciampas. 

“We’re kind of sore losers,” Becky Ciampa said. The family is still amazed they got as far as they did and grateful for the prize money. 

“We were shocked,” she said. “Come on, we live in York, Maine. What are the chances?” 

Lylah is a preschooler whose family has deep York roots. Her father is the owner of Everetts Auto and her grandfather is the original owner of Rick’s Restaurant. In addition to doing her own makeup, Lylah enjoys her Barbies that live in a dollhouse across from her bunk beds, playing with her hamster Kathy and riding her pink four-wheeler. She’s one of four children, and she treats her 1-year-old baby sister with motherly, caring affection, according to Becky Ciampa. 

“She leads the pack,” her mother said. 

Lylah enjoys makeup, although her mother said she is not sure where she learned about makeup tutorials like the ones often found on social media. She most likely picked up her love of makeup from her older cousins, Lylah’s mother said. 

“She says she learned from me, but I sure as heck am not putting on lipstick like that,” Becky Ciampa said. 

Lylah’s mother often lets Lylah use her phone to listen to music while she is playing in her room. Usually, the phone is returned with “a trillion pictures,” her mother said, of anything from the dog’s eyeball to her daughter’s feet. She was surprised to find a complete video tutorial and thought it was a riot, worth sharing with family. 

“I was like, this is pure gold,” Becky Ciampa said. Family and friends told her to take the video further and submit it to “AFV.” The Ciampas thought it was a longshot but uploaded the video on the show’s website. Soon, they were getting texts about having Lylah featured on the show. 

“I thought, ‘OK, they do a trillion little clips right?' Twenty-four to 48 hours later, they were like, ‘She’s going to be a finalist,” Becky Ciampa said. 

Because of COVID-19, the Ciampas were not able to appear in studio, which Becky Ciampa said was fine given traveling to California with a family of six is not “ideal.” Instead, the studio mailed them equipment to turn their living room into a television studio, approved each person’s outfit and had the family sit on their couch for the taping of their episode. They got to interact with host Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” though that was more exciting for the parents than the children. 

“She’s like, ‘Who the frig is this?’” said Becky Ciampa. “Me and my husband are the only ones who have any idea who he is. He’s our era.” 

Lylah is more concerned about having fun in the moment than getting attention, meeting celebrities, or taking home big prize money. In a photoshoot for the newspaper, she abruptly turned away to climb on her bedroom drawers to play with her hamster. Her mother said Lylah does not quite grasp the gravity of her win and the amount of cash she brought to her family home. 

“She has no idea. None,” Becky Ciampa said. “A couple times now in the past week, we were like, ‘Lylah, you’re going to be on TV, you’re going to be on TV.’ Now she’s like, ‘I really don’t care, Mom. I want to play.’” 

Becky Ciampa said it is undecided what the money will go towards. She said it could help pay for her children’s future college tuition – or, a new swimming pool. Lylah knows which one she would like – “a pool,” she shouted. “Toys” would be acceptable as well, she said. 

As her daughter played at her desk with lipstick and eye shadow, her mother also speculated further: “She’d like to spend the full 10 grand on makeup.”