If you don’t know who Emma Chamberlain is, you are probably not an avid user of YouTube. Emma Chamberlain has been one of the most influential Youtube creators for the past four years, creating content every week and creating a brand that is extremely honest, relatable and comfortable.
She is one of Gen Z’s “it girls” and has probably started more trends than she realizes. Because of her Youtube career, she has been able to release several different merch lines, created a podcast and has her own coffee company.
I started watching Emma on Youtube when I was a junior in high school. Her personality was fascinating to me and her videos were always entertaining.
I recently went to her channel to watch her latest videos but realized she has not posted in two months. This seemed out of character for her brand so I was curious as to why she had not posted.
At the beginning of this month, there was a podcast interview that Emma did with Alex Cooper on “Call Her Daddy”. During this two-part interview, Emma and Alex talked about several topics pertaining to Emma’s childhood, why she started YouTube, her experience in the industry, why she is taking a break from the platform and, of course, sex.
Emma also very recently released a podcast episode of her own talking about her burnout from YouTube and why she is taking a break.
Emma is known for her honesty and transparency on the internet. During her interview with Alex, she discussed how when she first started YouTube she was not expecting it to be anything big.
She was feeling very depressed in school and life, so her dad suggested that she should find a hobby. Emma was an avid watcher of YouTube and was interested in editing videos, so she started filming and editing videos as a creative outlet.
She was posting weekly videos that highlighted her personality through both the content and the editing style. Once she went viral and started gaining lots of traction, she had to learn to navigate the content creator landscape on her own. She was a 16-year-old girl in new and unfamiliar territory.
The content creator career is not as easy as it seems, especially when you are a Youtuber. Emma said she had to create and edit content every week for four years straight without missing a beat. There is a pressure that many creators feel to keep up with or ahead of trends.
There is no room for breaks because their day-to-day life consists of, “I should get out my camera and record this.” They are constantly thinking about content ideas and documenting every little thing instead of having a separation of life and work.
Emma is not the only star in the public eye that feels this struggle. In the same interview on “Call Her Daddy”, Alex Cooper expressed that she felt the same way as Emma, wanting to constantly pick up the microphone to record every time she had an idea. Many content creators have a hard time separating work and life, and it often leads to burnout and mental stress or depression.
Both Emma and Alex also expressed a shared mistrust of other content creators in the industry. They shared stories of being burned by other creators and being a part of friendships that only lasted on the camera.
In reference to these relationships with other creators in L.A., Emma said that “I don’t feel, number one, like it’s having a positive impact on me and number two, I don’t think that they actually care about me.”
Emma constantly says throughout the interview that she has been “on this hamster wheel” of creating content every week for four years straight and she would never allow herself to take a break. Her subscribers have watched her evolve from a 16-year-old high school girl who vlogs, has many cooking fails, and does crazy obnoxious editing to a more mature and relaxed creator. Her recent videos have used relaxing music and just watching Emma do day-to-day things like learning how to cook or just having a conversation with the camera in a park.
I had gotten to a point where I felt like I was trapped.
Emma Chamberlain on “Call Her Daddy”
The reason Emma Chamberlain has not posted a YouTube video in two months is because she needed a break to find her own identity outside of Youtube.
In the episode titled “the truth about youtube” on her own podcast “Anything Goes”, she mentioned how “No one really knows what’s going on behind the scenes, and I feel weirdly like a liar, even though I’m not a liar. But I felt like that. I had gotten to a point where I felt like I was trapped.”
Because of the pressure and burnout from her career in YouTube, Emma has decided to take a break from creating content for the platform. She said that she is not sure if or when she will return to making videos, but she can’t see herself completely leaving the platform.
In the meantime, Emma is focusing on her personal coffee company Chamberlain Coffee Co. and her podcast “Anything Goes”. She says that both are things that she is very passionate about, and she feels safe and connected to.
Both the episode of “Call Her Daddy” and her own podcast are very eye-opening and are must-listens for anyone that is starting a career in YouTube or really any popular type of influencer. If it is one thing that Emma is known for it is being very honest about her experiences, so it is no surprise that she was so open to finally talking about the behind-the-scenes of her YouTube career.
Emma deciding to take a break from YouTube is a very risky move for her career, but it is also an extremely important one. Emma’s break opens up a door for more open conversations about content creation and the community surrounding it, as well as the mental needs of those creators. People often forget the amount of pressure that YouTube stars as well as other similar influencers feel to keep up their image for the public.
It is great to see someone as influential as Emma Chamberlain take a step back and take time for herself as a person. She is setting an example and paving the way for all other content creators to be able to do the same.