TheQuartering [3/22/2023]
Is a DM from Emma Chamberlain worth $10,000? Someone somewhere seemed to think so.
Over the weekend, screenshots of the YouTube star’s online store appeared to show that fans could buy a “personal thank you note from Emma in Instagram DM” for $10,000. The tax on that? $1,025. For those who can’t drop a few months’ worth of rent at once, the site appeared to offer a payment plan of just over $900 per month. Naturally, the internet had a lot to say to Chamberlain and any chumps interested in paying that price for a DM.
Chamberlain, 21, became a YouTube sensation in 2018 when she began posting chaotic, underedited videos of herself cooking, shopping, and talking about her obsession with coffee. She’s since expanded into merch, a coffee company, and a podcast. By Tuesday, Chamberlain’s site, which sold tees and hoodies with Chamberlain’s name, the phrase “anything goes” (named after the podcast), and sketches of animals, had been taken down for “internal review,” according to a statement posted on the site. A representative for Chamberlain told BuzzFeed that the allegations that the YouTuber was selling DMs were “false and inaccurate,” and claimed that the “products” had been put on her site several years ago for internal site-testing purposes only. They also said that Chamberlain had never known about the testing.
Chamberlain told E! News that when she started getting comments asking why she was charging so much for DMs, she assumed it was a scam. “People were saying this was for sale on my merch site, so I checked the site to see if it had been hacked and couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary,” she said to E!.
If you have paid or are interested in paying $10,000 for a DM from Chamberlain, please let me know. I have a lot of questions.