Creative Control

Since starting her channel in 2017, Emma Chamberlain has amassed more than 11 million YouTube subscribers, in large part because of her wry comedic tone and signature lo-fi editing style. Not being overproduced in both the look and content of her vlogs made Emma more relatable to an audience that increasingly has favored content creators removing the literal and proverbial filters from their lives. And part of Chamberlain being so candid has been admitting to her audience (and herself) that she needed a break from YouTube. She’s shifted her focus to building out her podcast Anything Goes and her coffee company Chamberlain Coffee. I wanted to talk to Emma to see how she’s redefining her relationship with YouTube and how she’s finding her place in the coffee industry—potential haters and all.