It is no secret that Emma Chamberlain is one of YouTube’s most popular personalities. Now 21, Chamberlain started her YouTube channel aged 16 posting quirky videos that enticed a young audience to fall in love with her relatability.
But, as you can imagine, as soon as YouTube mega fame hit, Chamberlain started branching out into other arenas. She recently signed a deal with Spotify, for which, as of this month, she is exclusively producing her often-philosophical “Anything Goes” podcast. She has also just become one of the global faces of Lancôme cosmetics, and that’s in addition to having started her own coffee brand, Chamberlain Coffee.
A recent interview between Chamberlain and the New York Times is even entitled “YouTube Made Emma a Star: Now She’s Leaving it Behind”. “Now that I’m older,” Chamberlain told NYTimes, “I’m more interested in things being more creative rather than just pure entertainment — things that feel more beautiful.”
Emma openly spoke about the importance of mental health for creators in the interview;
“I started YouTube during a time in my life when I was depressed, like severely depressed. It gave me distraction and something to put my energy toward. But it got to a point where my depression came back, and the reason was because my whole life was on the internet. I felt so exposed.”
The demand of the platform is also another reason why the creator is branching out; “You can’t do YouTube forever. This schedule that YouTubers put themselves on is rigorous. You have to be uploading every week. If you upload every two weeks, it has to be a long video, and if you upload once a month, you better be making a documentary.”
If anything, Chamberlain’s passion for coffee came from a need to have some time that she didn’t feel a need to share with the world. “I felt such fatigue when it came to filming my life. I was like, I make my coffee, I run errands. I’m not jumping out of aeroplanes! There’s nothing interesting. I got to a point where I was like, I physically can’t do it. It makes me depressed. On top of that, I like having sacred moments throughout my day that aren’t shared with the world, like when I wake up and make coffee” she told NY Times.
If she’s shown us anything it’s that defining your brand and posting content you’re passionate and excited about sharing, is the key to building a genuine business.
