Today, Youtube looks, feels, and works MUCH differently from what it looked when it first started out as a video site where anyone could upload any kind of video content. As discussed in Versailles’ article “Unruly Media: Youtube, Music, and the new digital”(2013); Youtube used to behave much differently than it does today and that fundamentally lies with its shift to a more professional, highly edited, and stylized content upload platform through content creators. One such creator that forever changed the way many people edited and interacted with Youtube was a creator by the name of Emma Chamberlain.

Emma Chamberlain started out as normal person uploading fun and honest videos on her high school life, thoughts, thrift hauls, etc. One thing in particular audiences on Youtube loved about her, was her personal style of editing. Despite it not being very high budget or even well edited, the way she strung together her videos, the edits to her voice, inclusion of media references and transparency, grew her a very large and committed following. Since that boom in popularity, Emma has garnered over 12 million follower over a 7 year period, in which completely changed her life as well as many other creators’ life’s on the platform. Today her video content and style have changed from the more naive and completely honest videos to more long form professional vlog and showcase content. She has also since moved away from being a very open and public figure to being more private and “celebrity” like.

This shift also represents YouTube’s shift from more normal people editing and uploading amateur videos to highly stylized, edited, and produced content. Today, Youtube hosts a plethora of different forms of media and entertainment, from TV shows, official movie trailers, interview content, celebrity focus content, food, and much more. Emma’s impact on youtube inspired many creators to start editing their videos in different formats and sparked a trend of relatable and vlog content. Today its one of the most saturated type of content on the platform, showcasing her influence and mark on the genre.

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Bibliography

Vernallis, Carol. Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema. Oxford University Press, 2013.

Chamberlain, Emma. “TRY ON THRIFT HAUL.” YouTube, 2017, youtu.be/JNYEgrZT-2s.

IEditingX. “How to Edit like Emma Chamberlain 2020 | Intro, Music, Effects, and More!” YouTube, YouTube, 2020, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeib7dGMs58.