Emma Chamberlain
Emma Frances Chamberlain is an American YouTuber. She won the 2018 Streamy Award for Breakout Creator. In April 2019, she launched her first weekly podcast series, Stupid Genius. In 2019, Time Magazine included her on its TIME 100 Next list, and its list of The 25 Most Influential People On The Internet, writing that "Chamberlain pioneered an approach to vlogging that shook up YouTube’s unofficial style guide." She lives in Los Angeles.
Early life and education
Chamberlain was born to Michael and Sophia Chamberlain in San Bruno, California, and raised in San Mateo County. She is an only child. Her parents divorced when she was five years old.She attended Central Middle School in San Carlos, California and Notre Dame High School, Belmont, an all-girl Catholic preparatory school where she was on the cheerleading and track teams. She performed competitive cheer for five years and was a member of the California All Stars Pink cheer team. She left high school during the first semester of her junior year and graduated after passing the California High School Exit Exam.
Career
Chamberlain uploaded the first video to her YouTube channel on June 2, 2017. She posted videos almost daily during the summer of 2017. Despite her frequent upload schedule, she had just 50 subscribers after her first twenty videos. On July 27, 2017, she posted the video We All Owe The Dollar Store An Apology. It became the first video of hers to go viral, and in August her channel rapidly gained subscribers, increasing from 4,000 on August 1 to 150,000 on August 30. Her channel then continued to gain approximately 100,000 new subscribers monthly through June 2018. In December 2017, she had her first collaboration with an established YouTuber when she appeared in a ninety-minute interview on Cody Ko's podcast channel Insanely Chill.In March 2018, Chamberlain began an association with the shopping app Dote. During 2018 Dote sent her to Austin, Texas, to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and to Fiji with numerous other female YouTubers. In July 2018, Dote released a clothing line designed by Chamberlain, Low Key / High Key by Emma. Because of controversies related to Dote, Chamberlain cut ties with them in late 2018.
In June 2018, Chamberlain moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles and formed The Sister Squad with fellow teenage YouTubers James Charles and the comedy duo The Dolan Twins. The four uploaded simultaneous videos on their respective YouTube channels on June 19, August 28, October 31, and December 25, 2018, and were featured prominently in YouTube Rewind 2018, with Chamberlain's face at the center of the YouTube Rewind 2018 thumbnail. The Sister Squad was nominated for a 2019 YouTube Ensemble Shorty Award.
In addition to the collaboration videos with the members of the Sister Squad, throughout 2018 Chamberlain and fellow Dote-associated female YouTubers Ellie Thumann and Hannah Meloche posted videos featuring each other on their respective channels, calling their group of three The Girdies.
On June 22, 2018, Tana Mongeau invited Chamberlain to be a Featured Creator at Tanacon in Anaheim, Mongeau's & talent manager Michael Weist's alternative to VidCon that took place at the same time at a nearby convention center. Chamberlain's one-on-one onstage interview with Mongeau was the last event before the convention was canceled due to overcrowding and security concerns. In July, Chamberlain was signed by United Talent Agency. In September, Forbes became the first mainstream media publication to feature her in an article, with writer Tom Ward also posting a half hour interview with her on his YouTube channel, Under The Influence.
Chamberlain's appearances with Mongeau, in several videos on David Dobrik's channel with The Vlog Squad, and her own Sister Squad collaborations triggered a rapid increase in subscriptions to her channel. On June 19, the date of the first three Sister Squad videos, she gained 112,000 subscribers. She then hit two million in June, three million in July, four million in August, five million in October, and six million subscribers on Christmas Day 2018. She was nominated for four 2018 Streamy awards, the most of any female creator: Creator of the Year, Editing, First Person, and won Breakout Creator.
Chamberlain attended Paris Fashion Week in March 2019 in a co-sponsorship between YouTube and Louis Vuitton, which was brokered by Derek Blasberg, the head of fashion and beauty partnerships at YouTube. She was paired with model / YouTuber Karlie Kloss at the event. On April 11, Chamberlain launched the first episode of her podcast, Stupid Genius, a half hour weekly series in which she attempts to answer commonly asked science questions, the program produced by Ramble Official in a partnership with Cadence13 and United Talent Agency, which also produces podcasts for YouTubers Rhett & Link and Smosh. On June 4, 2019, Chamberlain and The Dolan Twins uploaded videos featuring each other on their respective channels. This was their first video collaboration since the last Sister Squad videos posted in December. The absence of James Charles contributed to the belief that the Sister Squad had broken up.
By mid-2019, several mainstream news and entertainment organizations published feature articles about Chamberlain. The Atlantic wrote that Chamberlain was "the most talked about influencer in the world" in an article titled Emma Chamberlain Is the Most Important YouTuber Today. The New York Times wrote, "Emma Chamberlain, 18, is the funniest person on YouTube." W Magazine wrote that she is "the most interesting girl on YouTube." Time included her in its 2019 list of The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet.
At Vidcon 2019, Snapchat announced that Chamberlain would be one of several celebrities from various entertainment platforms to premiere a Creator Show later in the year. At the 2019 Teen Choice Awards Chamberlain won Choice Female Web Star. During the September New York Fashion Week, Chamberlain hosted the Teen Vogue event Generation Next attended by Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour. For the 45th People's Choice Awards she was nominated for The Social Star of 2019. She collaborated with eyewear company Crapeyewear for a line of sunglasses she helped design. In late September she appeared alongside other young social media celebrities in the first episode of the MTV / SnapChat collaboration Teen Code.
On October 1, Chamberlain posted a video to her YouTube channel of visiting the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, which featured a cameo with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. She attended her second YouTube / Louis Vuitton sponsored Paris Fashion Week, collaborating with Vogue Magazine for a preparation video about the process. She collaborated with Calvin Klein for a series of videos and photo shoots. For the 2019 Streamy awards, Chamberlain was nominated for Creator of the Year, Editing, and First Person. She appeared in a series of videos on the Target YouTube channel, being paired with The Office star Angela Kinsey and Fashion Police host Brad Goreski. Her Snapchat Creator Show, Adulting With Emma Chamberlain, premiered on November 4. On November 13, she was named in the Phenoms category to the TIME 100 Next Most Influential People in the World, noting that Chamberlain's "editing style spawned a subgenre of young creators following her lead." On December 12, she was featured in a segment broadcast on ABC News Nightline, being interviewed about her career by Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon. On December 22, she launched her own online mail order coffee company, Chamberlain Coffee.
Cosmopolitan featured Chamberlain on the cover of its February 2020 issue, writing the caption below her name, The most popular girl in the world. In the interview she revealed details of dealing with body dysmorphia and struggling with eating disorders, and she posted a video about the photo shoot to her YouTube channel, My First American Magazine Cover. A few months later, she appeared on the cover of the Italian edition of Cosmopolitan, and the Dutch version, Cosmo Girl. For the 2020 Shorty Awards, she won Best Podcaster for her work on Stupid Genius. Still partnering with Ramble Official, on February 20 Chamberlain premiered her newly formatted and named podcast, Anything Goes. On March 21, Variety reported that she had purchased a house in West Hollywood. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chamberlain was one of the creators participating in YouTube's "Stay Home #WithMe" PSA campaign. Recorded prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, on April 16 she appeared in an episode of Kevin Hart's YouTube series What The Fit, playing soccer with the LA Galaxy. Allure featured her on the cover of its June / July 2020 issue.
Chamberlain has an association with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.