Before Emma Chamberlain would take the YouTube world by storm with W Magazine even calling
her “The Most Interesting Girl On YouTube”
Before she would be flown out to Paris for Fashion Week:
Before she would have over 2.2 million followers on Twitter, 7.7 million followers on Instagram,
and Before she would have over 8 million subscribers on YouTube with more than 760 million channel
views
Before The Sister Squad Would Face Some Troubles After The James Charles Tati Westbrook Drama.
OOO…
It’s hard to follow all of the drama.
But speaking of follows, it appears that Emma and James don’t follow each other anymore,
so could the sister squad be done forever???
Within just two years on the platform Emma Chamberlain has become one of the biggest
names on YouTube.
Her on-camera presence is undeniable and her relatability to her audience is unmatched.
But before all of the views, she was going through a rough period in her life battling
depression and struggling in school.
How did she get from that point to here?
Well, we’re going to take you through her journey in this video.
What's going on guys?
It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Emma Chamberlain prior
to internet fame here for you on Before They Were Famous.
We’ve done tons of bio's on YouTubers including some recent drops on Tana Mongue and Mr.Beast.
You guys gotta let us know who’s up next in the comments below.
And before we start, I’ve got a trivia question for all of the Emma fans out there:
“If Emma ever had her own Yacht, what would she name it?”
Alright, now let’s get into the show!
Emma Francis Chamberlain was born on May 22nd, 2001 in the Bay Area.
She is an only child and became very close with her parents.
Her father Michael Chamberlain actually has his own YouTube channel that now has
over 100k subscribers.
From an early age her parents always knew that she would be an entertainer.
And while Emma didn’t always know what she wanted to do with her life, she told Forbes:
“When I was younger I had a gut feeling that I was going to use my personality in
some way”
“but I didn’t know how.
But I always had an outgoing personality.”
“That was the one thing that I was known for.”
Growing up, Emma’s family struggled financially.
Her parents divorced when she was still young and while they both worked hard, there wasn’t
always a lot of extra money to spend.
Her father was an artist and at one point he got sick and was unable to paint.
She told Forbes that there were times that her family couldn’t even go to the movies
because money was so tight.
But when she was able to watch movies, her favorites were Napolean Dynamite, Coroline,
Moonrise Kingdom and Wallace and Grommet.
Her hobbies included playing with Polly Pockets, Lego and swimming in the ocean.
In terms of music, she grew up listening to different kinds from all different generations.
She was a fan of Doris Day, Elton John, The Beatles, Mac demarco and Tame Empala.
She was also inspired by YouTubers like Casey Neistat, Tana Mongeau, Olivia Jade, Shane
Dawson and
Emma actually started her first YouTube channel when she was in the fourth grade.
In the fifth grade, Emma played the Chello…
Well she sort
of played!
She also took Karate, Ice Skating and Gymnastics lessons before she found cheerleading.
Emma was a competitive cheerleader for five years as a member of the California All Stars
Pink cheer team.
She joined her high school cheer team but was only on the squad for that first year.
She also ran track for her school.
During middle school, her and her friends would film choreographed dance routines in
the school gym during lunch.
Emma learned how to edit through the process of zooming in and adding text onto the screen
during these dances.
But eventually, school got busy and the group of friends stopped making videos.
Emma attended high school at Notre Dame, Belmont where she was really struggling with being
at school and did not want to be there at all.
Emma has had struggles with mental health issues throughout her life but in her sophomore
year of high school, things began to get worse and her depression took over her life.
Emma cut off all of her friends and didn’t leave the house on weekends.
Her depression continued to get worse, but after speaking with her dad, she decided to
start a YouTube channel to give her something to do in the house and help her stay motivated
every day.
Her father said in an interview that since that time period, Emma has gotten much better
at dealing with everything and is in a clearer headspace:
“I would say as her dad, and someone that cares about her, that she’s healthier mentally
since moving to L.A. since I’ve seen her for years.”
“She was struggling for sure.
The YouTube thing and moving to L.A. has been really good”
“because she is surrounded by people who are doing the same thing and has friends that
are doing YouTube and stuff like that.”
As someone on this platform who is creating every day, I know how hard it is to put on
a smile for the camera when you’re having an off day.
I even made a video about mental health the other day, so if you want you can watch that
after.
But to all of the creators out there who are going through their own personal battles,
it’s okay to have off days and its okay not to be okay all the time.
It was after a bad day at school that she decided to do something to cheer her up.
And it wasn’t cheer-leading…
It was actually creating a video.
Emma’s first video was posted on YouTube in May of 2017.
It was a fashion lookbook, and most of her early videos were fashion-focused DIY videos
that helped her fans create new looks.
Her dad was the one who filmed her first video
for her.
What a supportive dad!
She told W Magazine:
“I literally started from zero; I had zero subscribers.
I remember my first subscriber”
“I was so excited, and then I looked, and it was my dad.”
By the end of the summer, Emma had rekindled her friendships and was feeling much better
about everything as she continued her YouTube journey.
When she wasn’t making videos, you could find Emma at the gym, or editing videos with
an iced vanilla almond milk latte in her hand, or taking naps.
While her videos continued to grow at a solid pace of around a thousand views per video,
one of her earliest videos went viral with a video called “we all owe the dollar store
an apology” where she realized the magical place that is the dollar store and shared
her new found love for the wonders that you can buy there with her fans online.
That video began to get heavily recommended by YouTube’s algorithm and her audience
began to grow rapidly.
At one point, the video was gaining 500 thousand views at a time.
She decided to stick with making videos that showed off more of her personality, because
that’s what her audience seemed to gravitate towards.
The next year at school, she was struggling to balance school and YouTube.
But the balance began to shift toward making videos.
At first she was vlogging while at school but
later had to stop because the school didn’t like the light that they were being portrayed
in.
But eventually she left school altogether.
She told her parents that she was done with school and would figure the rest out later.
She ended up getting her GED and the decision payed off not only for her mental health but
for her business because in 2018 Emma moved to her own apartment in Los Angeles, and Emma
signed with United Talent Agency.
The agency helped her grow her brand beyond YouTube, securing her partnerships with Curology,
Hollister and helping her create her own clothing brand “High Key.”
It was out in LA that she made friends with some of her former YouTube idols, including
her one-time crushes - the Dolan Twins!
Some have even speculated that she is dating one of the twins, which would make her manifestation
skills quite impressive:
But anytime anyone rises to the top, there will be detractors.
There were some people upset with how she rolled out her merch line and the prices were
a lot higher than most fans expected.
Some people online started to call her a sellout, going from Dollar store Hauls to trips to
Gucci.
And according to a recent interview for W Magazine, even some of her own friends from
the YouTube community have stabbed her in the back:
“Just because somebody has a following does not mean that they are a good person or a
good friend.”
“And I should have known that…
I’ve been backstabbed multiple times”
“literally, at least 10, just off the top of my head—by other YouTubers, and it’s
awful.”
But Emma has been able to stay pretty much drama free and has avoided any major controversies.
She continues to bring quality content to her fans and her star continues to rise.
And like Emma herself said:
“I like the way I’m evolving and growing.”
“Where I am now is where I’m supposed to be and the content and the way I behave
is the way it’s supposed to be for right now.”
“If I was staying the same, then I wouldn’t be evolving and changing and that would be
boring and that would be unhealthy.”
In terms of her early goals for herself, all that she really wanted was:
So we hope that she’s found that.
And we hope that one day she gets to buy her own Yacht just so that she can name it:
There you have the answer to your question from the beginning of the video.
That’s all I have for you, my name’s Michael McCrudden.
As always let us know who to document next in the comments down below and I’ll see
you in another video.