You may or may not know Emma Chamberlain, but you'd definitely know the Emma Chamberlain style of vlogging. The content-Emma reviews vegan fast food; Emma preps for Coachella; Emma gets a nose piercing-is almost beside the point. The style is the key; the appeal is in the authenticity. In her videos, she speaks directly to her audience, delivering her monologues in a fast-paced, stream-of-consciousness, and unvarnished manner. Bloopers not only make the cut, but are also played big for laughs; her timing is impeccable and her camerawork, unpretentious; she zooms in close on her (usually makeup-free) face or some other easily missed detail to emphasise a point; she curses, she belches; she adds irreverent bits of text and audio, and she distorts her voice and features all for comic effect. It's a winning formula. Since launching her YouTube channel in 2017, Chamberlain now has some 11 million subscribers on the platform and more than 15 million followers on Instagram. In two months, she will turn 21.
A true digital and social media native, Chamberlain started watching YouTube videos when she was six and soon graduated to making them. At 16, she dropped out of high school to make a full-time career out of YouTube. I enjoy sharing vulnerable sides of myself as well as the fun, light-hearted ones, to hopefully make people smile and to make them feel comfortable. I want people to feel understood when they hear me talk, or comforted by it in one way or another, says Chamberlain on what drove her to start making videos and, more recently, podcasts. As for her decision to leave school, she says: It's not like I wanted to succeed at school because I had a heartfelt goal. I wanted to be good at school and to go to a good school because I wanted to brag about it. When I really thought about it, that's what a lot of people did-it's not about their passion in life or a means to making money.
This story is from the March 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR Singapore.
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This story is from the March 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR Singapore.
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