Blog 10: Emma Chamberlain

Hi again, as you know this blog series is dedicated to talking about how people have changed me in small and monumental ways. If this is your first blog, this series is for a course at UNC for the Hussman Journalism School called Branding of Me. In this course, we are learning how to brand ourselves. When thinking about who I was, I often thought about how who I am has a lot to do with everyone else, or that I am a reflection of those around me.

Today, I am going to talk about something that means a lot to me: fashion. But more importantly, how I came to love fashion.

Growing up, I never had a clue about fashion. Further, I just didn’t care. If it was comfortable, I wore it. If we called my mom and asked about my fashion sense when I was younger, she would probably reflect on a specific pair of sweatpants that I wore. They were brown and velvet, and she hated them. But I did not care. I wore them any day that I could while my mom watched and cringed. Oh, but my terrible fashion sense didn’t stop there. There were other ugly jackets, I refused to wear jeans, and I didn’t care at all if something matched or not. I was the definition of carefree when it came to fashion, and not in a cool, effortless way—more in a “people probably wondered if I got dressed in the dark” kind of way.

This terrible fashion sense lasted until about 7th or 8th grade (but if we're being honest, I didn’t really find my style until late high school).

If you’re new here, you might be wondering what exactly happened in 7th grade that sparked this change. In my first blog, I talked about my dad. He passed away from a rare cancer after battling for a year. I was twelve, and my entire life changed in a matter of days. So of course, I was lost. It felt like I was kind of floating around each day, disconnected from everything around me.

My mom and I fell into routines—we would drive to school, go to school, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, and try to distract ourselves from the missing presence. I still remember right after he died, we went to Goodwill. We desperately needed a distraction, and new clothes. As we went through the racks, I found a pair of jeans. Up until this point, I refused to wear jeans. But I tried on this pair of DuckHead Jeans, and I fell in love. I thought these were the perfect jeans, and they were at the time (now looking back, I know that they were incredibly ugly, but that is beside the point). After scouring the racks for over an hour, I found my perfect thrift find, and I was hooked.

From this moment on, I begged my mom to go thrifting. I wanted to go any chance I got. Thrifting for me was more than finding new clothes—it was an escape. When I was focused on finding my next piece, I couldn’t think about anything else. So for those few moments, all the heartbreak and sadness were almost as if they didn’t exist. It became a ritual, something that grounded me when everything else felt so unsteady.

It was around this time that I discovered Emma Chamberlain. If you don’t know her, I don’t know how you don’t know her, but she started YouTube when she was fifteen and gained massive popularity. When I discovered her “thrift with me” videos or her “thrift haul” videos, this is when my passion really started. Her thrift finds were so much better than mine… and then I realized my fashion sense was still not great.

I watched as many Emma Chamberlain videos as possible, learning the principles of fashion in a relatable and stress-free way. Her content allowed me to take a moment, relax, and just enjoy what fashion is all about. She made me feel like fashion wasn’t something exclusive, reserved for the people who instinctively knew how to put together a stunning outfit. Instead, it was fun, expressive, and experimental. I started looking at clothes differently—not just as things to wear but as pieces of a story I could tell through my style.

While I don’t know Emma Chamberlain directly, she has shaped who I am in such a surprising way. I never thought that coming across a random “thrift with me” video would impact who I am. Yet it has. I have followed her in her journey across the internet as she has made a name for herself within the fashion industry. I have watched her transform from a teenage YouTuber to someone who has a fashion influence worldwide. Watching her on red carpets, at New York Fashion Week, and as a judge on the hit Netflix show “Next In Fashion” has been so inspiring.

Since discovering Emma Chamberlain, my love for fashion has only continued to grow. I regularly keep up with her on any media that she decides to put out. Another thing that I admire about Emma is her ability to be herself in the face of the media. As she grew up on the internet, she has faced relentless internet hatred for things no one should receive hate for. However, she faces this with a grace that I admire. Despite the number of followers she’s gained, she has remained loyal to who she is and expresses her style without care for the public’s opinion. This is something I deeply respect, especially in an era where social media can make it so easy to lose yourself trying to fit into a mold.

Fashion has played an integral part in my everyday life. It has shown me how to take time and relax even in life’s most unpredictable and stressful moments. But finding Emma Chamberlain’s YouTube channel when I was in high school is what really showed me my love for fashion. Her videos allowed me to take just ten minutes to relax and learn about her sense of fashion. This has pushed me to want to work in a field that shows how fashion and advertising intersect. I am excited to find opportunities that combine both of these passions, and I am forever grateful for finding my love for fashion through Emma Chamberlain.

Here are a few of my favorite thrift finds!

Thank you, Emma, for showing me how to have fun with fashion and that almost everything can be fashionable if you look at it from the right angle. And thank you to my younger self, for stepping into that Goodwill and trying on those DuckHead jeans—no matter how ugly they were, they were the beginning of something beautiful.