Image: Reuters
YouTuber and podcaster Emma Chamberlain announced on Instagram that she has finally graduated from high school.
In her Friday, May 31 post, 23-year-old Chamberlain beamed in a white graduation gown and cap, proudly displaying her diploma from Notre Dame High School in Belmont, California.
“Got my high school diploma,” she captioned, celebrating her educational achievement.
The influencer also posed in front of a flag that read "Titans 2019," the year she was originally supposed to graduate.
Chamberlain started her YouTube channel in the summer of 2016, midway through high school. She left during her junior year to prioritize her mental health.
In a 2017 YouTube video, she shared that she was “depressed as hell” during that period, describing the second semester of her sophomore year as “probably one of the worst times I've had.”
“I didn't even come to the last day of school,” she continued.
Chamberlain mentioned she had always been “super into school,” but found the workload overwhelming.
“During this year, I was taking a lot of honors and it was a lot. I quickly fell back into a very, very depressed state,” she said, making it difficult for her to stay motivated with her YouTube channel.
Ultimately, the influencer left school to pursue vlogging full-time. Her parents, Michael and Sophia Chamberlain, supported her decision to leave school and focus on her YouTube career. In 2018, she relocated from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.
In her 2017 YouTube video, she advised followers struggling with school, "there are so many other opportunities and ways you can get your diploma... that does not require sitting in a classroom." This approach is precisely what the influencer ended up taking herself.