With the recent flow of Met Gala fanatics and the not-so-subtle appearance of Emma Chamberlain in Louis Vuitton on the red carpet, it dawned on me just how much Emma has grown and evolved over the past few years of her Youtube career.
In 2017, I was scrolling through Youtube when I was suggested a video titled, “these songs are life changing” from a young Youtuber by the name of Emma Chamberlain – a 16-year-old with about 50,000 subscribers. I had never heard of this creator, but I was intrigued. What started as an innocent first viewing of a brand new Youtuber, turned into full blown, four-year support for a fellow young woman. I found myself watching her videos in the mornings as I was getting ready for school, when I was supposed to be doing homework and whenever I just needed to cheer up. Emma became the friend who wasn’t actually a friend, despite relating an immense amount to her and finding comfort in her videos.
For the past four years, Emma has gone from doing car vlogs and applying insane amounts of chapstick to attending Paris Fashion Week and working with Vanity Fair. Her evolution and continued relevancy is something of a phenomenon. What’s interesting is what exactly made her the Gen Z icon; it isn’t narrowed down to just one thing, but a multitude of aspects that have led her to the fame she has acquired.
It was clear from Emma’s first video, titled “Summer City Lookbook” that she enjoyed trying new things, especially with editing. Throughout the video, you can see some effects that she really liked. Even the original motivation behind creating these videos was evident from then. It was later stated that she decided to film it with her dad in order to cheer herself up after failing her driver’s test. It was obvious that uploading her videos was a way of coping with any depression or anxiety that she was experiencing at the time.
Her first real explosion of success was when she uploaded a video called “we all owe the dollar store an apology” in which she selected random items from her nearest dollar store, tried them on and mixed a plethora of edits and music choices, ultimately creating hilarious content any other 16-year-old would enjoy. And that is what made Emma’s content so popular. She represented what many 16-year-olds were. She drove around in her car jamming to music, sometimes narrowly avoiding car accidents or getting lost on the freeway. She drank way too much coffee, was perpetually tired and enjoyed the simplicities of going shopping: all things many young teenage girls could find relatable and entertaining.
Emma began to establish her brand as an “anti vlogger”, in the sense that she did things many influencers did (morning routines, vacation videos, hauls etc…), but with comedic satire. While many influencers at the time were pushing for expensive brand deals and unrealistic lifestyles, Emma was making content that was relatable for teens who did not sit in the same economic boat. There was no real need for her to cater herself towards her audience as she was their age; she simply just WAS. She was relatable in the sense that her viewers had the same life as her.
By 2018, she had the fastest growing Youtube channel in which she popularized the Ken Burns effect (a type of panning and zooming) with funny subtitles, distortion features and practically revolutionizing this “unofficial” style of vlogging. Emma had decided to leave school, finish her high school diploma online and move to LA where she began to collaborate with other Youtubers, like James Charles and the Dolan Twins. This period of transition was the time that many of her fans began to fear that she was changing, but it really was just a natural reaction to her success. What began as relatability to her life was now a desire to be living her life––and even moreso, be her. Emma had hopped onto trends before they really took off, creating a wave of popularity towards things like thrifting, iced coffee and indie pop music. She inspired a generation of Gen Zers: when she wore something, everyone wore it; when she bought something, everyone bought it.
Unfortunately, this level of stardom came with great demand. Emma faced a long period of exhaustion from spending hours attempting to perfect the style of editing she had so beautifully popularized. She was lonely a lot of the time and explained that she was burnt out. The occurrence of these events was natural considering the fact that she was growing up (except with a million pairs of eyes on her and immense pressure). No longer was she the 16-year-old girl driving around listening to Rex Orange County and drinking Philz Coffee.
Once 2019 hit, Emma had finally landed on her feet, surrounded herself with a better friend group and began to work with brands that were good for her image. She worked on keeping her private life private while still giving off the transparent, down-to-earth vibe that had made her so relatable in the first place. She came out with her own brand of coffee, Chamberlain Coffee, which fit really well with her entire personality and catered towards her coffee-loving audience. Emma went on to work with Louis Vuitton, even appearing at Paris Fashion Week in sponsorship with them. Altogether, things were working out for her and she was heading in the direction of establishing herself as a successful teen star.
So, what made Emma Chamberlain such a success? It started with the personality that attracted many, her down-to-earth humour and overall lovable demeanour is what pulled people in. What followed was her eye-catching, unique and creative content. Sometimes it was something as simple as rating different coffee shops around LA, but Emma never failed to entertain with her on-camera character. It never felt like she was performing, rather, this was Emma in-and-out of the spotlight and we were lucky enough to witness it. The way in which she has been able to (practically) navigate her young adulthood amidst the Youtube chaos without any career crushing drama is proof of her natural ability to make the right decisions for her brand and for herself. In spite of being one of the richest 20-year-olds in the world, watching her videos, you might not be able to notice. It’s her personality that has stayed true all along and that is what keeps us coming back for more.