Every Thursday night I listen to Emma’s podcast, Anything Goes, while I workout. It’s become such a weekly thing that I actually look forward to listening to the new episode and I’ll find reasons to be alone just so I can finish it. It’s almost like I’m on the phone with her, getting personal advice on anything from relationships to mental health to confidence. It’s like Emma and I are just two best friends having a conversation in my bedroom. She has a habit of making you feel that way.

Through the superabundant, superficial mess of Tik Tok stars, Emma is everything social media isn’t: raw, unfiltered, and honest. Something that has always set her apart from the rest, even though they got their start the same way, is she has and always will be brutally humble. Embracing this non-egotistical mindset has allowed her to connect with her 12.1 million followers on a deeper level, never failing to express that she’s one of us.

As a depressed sophomore in high school, Emma desperately needed to find an outlet to compensate for this unknown source of emptiness. In an interview with Marie Claire, Emma said, “I don’t want to upset or trigger anyone, but I had no will to live.” In an attempt to inspire his daughter again, her dad told her to “f**king figure something out.”

So she did. Emma officially launched her YouTube channel in 2017, and her video “we all owe the dollar store an apology” instantly went viral. Her channel has slowly evolved into vlogs of everyday life, always starting off with making her signature iced coffee in sweatpants and a hoodie. “AM I BORING?” and “I HAVE A SHOPPING PROBLEM” being her most recent uploads. While every video differs in subject, only one thing remains consistent: her down-to-earth relatability. Especially in times like these, people crave normalcy, and Emma’s rare self-awareness is a breath of fresh air from the uber-perfect influencer culture. The constant self-deprecating jokes, lack of made-up appearance, and vulnerability with everyday struggles is what her audience engages with and appreciates the most. “I think people connect with me because I’m somebody that they can relate to,” she told to Who What Wear. “I’m real. Every single thing that I do is real. There’s no lie in any of it.”

Expanding her self-made empire at just 19-years-old, Emma has endeavored on several passion projects like partnering with Louis Vuitton, creating a merch line, founding Chamberlain Coffee, and becoming the creative director for skin care brand Bad Habit. She’s even unintentionally spearheaded a new wave of millennial fashion, this quirky “cool girl” style that has taken the mainstream and Pinterest by storm. Because when Emma wears flared yoga pants, everyone wears flared yoga pants.

Through her authenticity and known fondness for hoodies and ponytails, she’s naturally curated “The Emma Chamberlain Effect”. Embracing your insecurities rather than trying to conceal them. Normalizing, not covering your acne, and wearing sweats and no makeup in public just because you can, doing so with beaming pride too. Emma’s crucial “I don’t give a f**k” attitude is reaching millions of teens across the world, myself included, emphasizing that you should never apologize for how you look or what you think. And I’d like to say that it’s working.

So now I’m going to go watch Emma’s new video where she tells her 9.8 million subscribers that she hasn’t showered in two days and watches Tik Toks in bed. That’s something I can relate to.