What's going on with Emma Chamberlain?

Arguably one of YouTube's most popular creators, Emma Chamberlain, hasn't posted a video in months. Speculation has been surfacing all over social media: is she quitting YouTube? Is she burnt out? Or, is she just taking a break?

Making her YouTube debut in 2017, Emma was only 16 when she posted her first ever video, a “lookbook” showing herself wearing city themed outfits in her hometown of San Francisco. After around two months and 40 videos later, Emma posted her first ever video to reach a million views: a dollar store haul showing the items she had recently bought. Whether it was her relatable, quirky personality or her prominent editing style, Emma was an overnight sensation.

Later she grew even more well known after collaborating with other popular creators on YouTube, Hannah Meloche and Ellie Thumann. They later formed their own group known as the “Girdies,” producing around seven videos on all three channels. Together the three took part in photoshoots, vlogs, and cheerleading challenges gaining more and more fans with every video. This marks the first era of YouTube that Emma grew her fanbase on, and where I discovered her.

Later, after growing apart from the Girdies, Emma took part in the infamous “Sister Squad,” another YouTube collaboration group, this time with the Dolan Twins and James Charles marking Emma's second era. Back to setting records with a combined 268 million views in only 11 videos, newly dark haired Emma was at her all time high.

The Sister Squad stopped making videos around 2019, but Emma didn't stop putting out content. She launched her coffee company, Chamberlian Coffee, as well as her podcast “Stupid Genius” which later won a Shorty award for ‘Best Podcaster’. In February of 2020 Emma premiered her new podcast "Anything Goes" which has found massive amounts of popularity. And of course, as all this was going on Emma was still consistently putting out YouTube videos.

Her third and most recent era started in September of 2021 when she posted a YouTube video titled “Alterations” which showcased Emma creating a different style of video. If you were to ask my opinion, I would say Emma felt more grown up, and she wanted her videos to reflect it. She was also struggling with issues such as depression which she would later speak out about. This new, slower, more mellow style of videos was in a way reflecting how she was feeling. Though they didn't get as crazy amount of views like her previous eras, she still remained popular getting around 2-3 million views per video.

This lasted until around 5 months ago when she stopped posting altogether. The most recent video she uploaded, “u totally caught me making soup”, has 3.8 million views, and beside the same slow, sad, style she has taken on, she seems normal.

Since this, she has appeared on a controversial podcast talking with host Alex Cooper about completely random stories, avoiding the fact she hasn't posted in months. Alex Cooper later came out saying Emma originally came on the podcast to announce she was quitting YouTube. Does the fact that this was avoided on the podcast signify that Emma may have changed her mind?

Emma broke silence on February 24, 2022 on her podcast episode titled “the truth about youtube” where she explains how she realized how strange her job as a creator on YouTube is and how she doesn't understand the concept of it, or why it works. She says not understanding how YouTube works, and not understanding how to continue, or what her next step should be got her to a point of wanting to step back from YouTube. She explains she wants to step back from YouTube for, “weeks, months, years if I need to to figure all this out, and so that's what I did.” She indicates that after stepping back from YouTube she's been “in a better state mentally than I've been in the last 4 years.”

Although it's sad we won't be getting any new Emma content for a while, it's important for her to take time and take care of herself. For now, we can be happy she is doing better and hope for new videos from her in the future.