With close to 9 million YouTube subscribers and over 9 million Instagram followers, 19-year-old Emma Chamberlain is definitely a social media success story.  At the age of only 16, she managed to have a signature “Emma Chamberlain” style of editing, using Final Cut Pro and Ken Burns, that is recognizable to all YouTube content creators today. Even though she did not create the style of editing, she was just talented enough to make it mainstream. 

Emma became famous simply because she was different. She had a personality that was real and consistent. All of her videos were quirky, non-traditional, and were solely made to entertain herself and her viewers. She had a unique Indie music taste that was different than the majority of her followers, but as she shared her music, the music became more popular to the mainstream audience watching her. Although Emma gets credit for influencing masses of people with her editing style and even with her music, Emma does not get credit for how she completely shifted the fashion industry. 

When she was 16, Chamberlain dressed like only a handful of 16-year-olds. She had a really fresh look, something that can be described as the 80s,  the 90s, and a hint of fashion from the 2000s all combined. The main commercial stores that she shopped at were Urban Outfitters and Brandy Melville, however, the majority of her clothes were thrifted from eclectic shops in San Francisco. Her outfit bottoms consisted of high-waisted mom jeans (or shorts depending on the season) that were either Levi’s or any cool brand she found thrifting or high-waisted sweatpants that were either from the stores stated before or thrifted as well. Her tops all had one thing in common, they were cropped, and she cut and cropped anything from sweaters, to sweatshirts, to polo shirts, to anything that can be labeled as a top. She mostly wore her white Air Force Ones, which were not normally worn by teen girls at the time or simple black Dr. Martens. Oh, and let’s not forget her classic scrunchie that was always in her hair or on her wrist. 

Wait a second. This sounds eerily familiar. It’s almost as if every teen girl to young adult is wearing this exact style right now. Once Emma’s YouTube videos gained a platform, so did her fashion and everyone wanted to dress like the girl who made dressing different hip. It’s not just average American people who wear this style, celebrities from both sexes, models from all around the world, and basically, the whole globe has been influenced by Emma’s style that was once one of a kind. No one gives this girl credit who started as a normal 16-year-old girl and turned into a fashion icon. Who knew that someone who needed something to fill her time by making videos would influence the entire globe.