Emma Johnson (Emma's Rectangle)

[justbecasual]

My pettiness paid off and she didn't reach her 200k limit. Do I feel bad? No.

Maybe she will actually start to address the problems with her channel now she realises she is LOSING subscribers, namely...

• Inconsistent uploading
• Doesn't interact or engage with commenters/subscribers at all
• Obsessive exercising and extremely triggering content
• Boring and repetitive recipe videos/what I eat in a days
• Not relatable - super privileged, middle class white girl who works from home as an influencer yet complains about being so busy that she can't stick to a schedule or come up with anything unique
• THE BABY VOICE

Am I missing anything?

And on a constructive note, what could she do to up her subscriber numbers?

I liked the renovation content but the house has now just come to a standstill and looks really messy and cluttered. I also found her fashion and style a bit better a couple of years ago before the weight loss. I'm not saying she should put weight on, but I think her style was more well put together.

 

[jjeett]

Nothing has shocked me more in that video than the amount she chops off the fine beans

My god

You only need to chop off from one end

 

[Gia2903]

she just gets right under my skin and I can’t put my finger on it. Things like putting a haul up and putting in the title ‘SIZE 8-10’ it just puts me off .. she’s done great losing the weight but it makes me feel like she’s just like any other influencer/you tuber now, obsessed with the size on her clothes.

 

[SkinkaareFan]

I don't think anyone should be guilted into going vegan. I do my bit for the planet in other ways, sure I'm not perfect but I'm trying but I won't go vegan, it's not for me and alot of other people and that should be OK as long as they're doing other things to help

 

[pennylondon]

I’m sorry you’ve struggled with disordered eating, I really am.

However I do think you’ve pointed out what the problem is in a way. People with histories like yours are stumbling on to a “weight loss” video for advice or inspiration and not recognising the disordered habits that are there within Emma’s videos. Her journey is thinly veiled as healthy but what I think lots of us here are seeing is it’s clearly not:

• Working out excessively
• ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ food speak
• Poor nutritional advice
• Constant talk of calorie content

The problem then is the audience who is interpreting that to be healthy when it’s packaged as ‘fitness’ and ‘what I eat in a day.’


I took a look at Sian Gelman and you’re right, she’s extremely unhealthy and it’s dangerous the messaging she’s putting out on the internet too. But maybe the problem is that weight loss content shouldn’t be out there for people to search for when it’s not created by trained fitness instructors, nutritionists or doctors because ultimately the messaging is not safe.

Many people also came to Emma’s content for renovation, beauty and make up, so they’re allowed to criticise the change in tone of her videos.

You are welcome to rave about her, and I would too if I was impressed by her content at the moment, but I also think people should be allowed to call out influencers too.

 

[RobinsNest]

Little annoys me more than influencers claiming having a bath and a face mask is "self care". Sure, look after your body, but that's more maintenance, it's so shallow (and not in a way that you shouldn't do it, you should, you should do those things if you enjoy them). Real self-care is a good sleep routine, a healthy diet, exercise, talking to your friends. The way influencers dress it up implies you need to buy this and it minimises the stuff we should be doing to look after ourselves.

 

[Bluelipstick]

cabbage spaghetti sounds fucking disgusting

I said to my husband last night, babe shall I make you some cabbage spaghetti?’ He said something along the lines of preferring to eat his own shite.

 

[113980]

Honestly I think she's blurred the line between becoming a 'health and fitness queen' and disordered behaviour her holiday vlog was draining as anything listening to her moan about how much food she wanted but wasn't going to have and saying Tim wasn't letting her have a doughnut? She's definitely been watching Emily canham, complaining about feeling stodgy? Obviously you have to restrict yourself to some extent to get results but I don't think filming those moments and behaviours for YouTube really fits with her 'positive vibes' persona she's trying to portray, especially if young girls watch her videos

 

[Daisypraises]

I've been subscribed to Emma for years now and I always find it odd that she complains that her channel never grows/grows slowly, but she is never consistent with her channel? So it probably won't grow lol.
Her privilege has been shining through recently, any excuse to not do her job!

 

[Lola123]

Of ALL the things announced in this lockdown thing, she mentioned the gym only. The gym and nightclubs, which I’ve never seen her mention she enjoys.
Sis.

Because she hasn’t lost anything else, she’s seen her friends, she’s seen her dad, let’s not forget she went on a girls holiday to Cornwall with her two pals in September

 

[Ladya31]

i can't believe this girl had the AUDACITY to claim she didn't get a day off on saturday because she baked a fucking cake. get a grip

And it took her all day to make it bless her. What a tough Saturday shift that was

But seriously don’t sit and complain about having to stand in your kitchen and bake a friggin’ chocolate cake on a Saturday for your “job” while there’s people in proper jobs who are physically and mentally exhausted working through the pandemic. Not the “exhausted” she claims to be.

I work in mental health so I’m not undermining how she feels but she is lives in such a privileged position that most aren’t. I just can’t stand hearing these youtubers complain when every other person has no choice but to carry on even when times are tough because their lifestyle or work doesn’t allow them to just not go to work or randomly pick a day to take off and watch Netflix.

 

[barryjones]

I understand 'fast fashion' is typically boohoo, missguided etc but her buying an almost £600 jumper that is SO in your face means that this will just be fast fashion too? Just really expensive fast fashion. She can't wear it loads and loads cos it's such a stand out item. It's not an investment piece like a good quality handbag etc.
I've articulated this badly! But you know what I mean. It's expensive and not a wardrobe staple or an investment.

 

[jjeett]

Emma hun you might wanna make it a bit less blatant that you read here. Whatever we discuss is immediately mentioned in your stories

 

[beccabccampbell]

She's lucky she's rich -- she's sitting pretty during a global pandemic, while some of us are really struggling to make ends meet. She comes across so disingenuous now and doesn't seem to be at all grateful -- her lifestyle has hardly been disrupted by the pandemic, if anything it's made it easier for her because a lot of people are stuck at home and are looking for new things to watch!

 

[jjeett]

Right so now I'm on my lunch I've had a chance to articulate my thoughts a bit better. Not sure if they're wanted though!

Basically, when you think about it, an influencer is fundamentally a marketer. They have to market themselves in a way that amasses following, engagement and trust. They also have to do some kind of B2B marketing to make themselves desirable from a brand's perspective as well.

Emma just seems to kind of wander through life accepting random brand deals that insinuate she doesn't think about whether it's in line with her platform or not, she occasionally strikes gold with certain videos but that's entirely down to luck and there never seems to be any logic behind why she's doing something.

I always used to think influencers who talk about their work were just more transparent than others but I think it's genuinely a reflection of how they approach work. Take for example all the Benefit events Emma's been to. When you watch her at one, it's clear she's there because it's 'fun time' whereas really, they're networking events where she needs to advertise whatever new product they have out. But she just thinks 'oh I have a following, it's just enough for me to vlog it and I'm sure someone will buy it and use my discount code'

 

[Bilbo16]

I feel weird about her Project 10 Pan update. It’s not like she hasn’t received loads of makeup in PR, so for her too be like ‘I’m so proud of myself for not buying any makeup’ is a bit weird. Like you’ve received tons anyway? Of course you wouldn’t have felt the urge so much because you were receiving new things constantly?

This is my issue. Emma doing project 10 pan is totally different to someone who’s not an influencer doing project 10 pan. She’s got a pretty much constant stream of new makeup coming in. Having said that, good on her for doing it, I just feel like she’s missing the point of it, which is to use what you have and minimise your collection.

also, that video of her taking pictures for Insta...how self absorbed, I haven’t even bothered watching it. There’s more and more of her videos recently that just don’t appeal to me

 

[hrh89]

I can kind of relate to her it’s difficult when you lose a of weight to step back and regain some normality on your eating habits. It can easily lead to disordered eating because you so desperately don’t want to end up back where you started. However I do think she has a responsibility as someone with a big platform to not promote this on camera. It’s bloody dangerous tbh when you’ve got probably a lot of teens watching. Maybe she can’t see it.

 

[ejej123]

Emma legit used to be one of my fave youtubers and I used to watch pretty much everything that she posted. Recently I just feel like she’s reaaaaaaally milking this whole fitness/dieting thing and it’s becoming boring Everytime she posts ANOTHER ‘what I eat in a day’ a part of me dies a bit inside. Just really not a fan anymore

 

[Bgbgbg986]

This turning my bedroom into a cinema video is ridiculous. She said she was going to "bite the bullet" and get the new iPad as if it's hard to say yes to Very sending you a free one

 

[justbecasual]

Okay, I gave in and watched the fitness journey anniversary, and by gosh this is diet culture gone wild.

First things first because I'm petty AF (and I see this everywhere, its not just Emma), STOP calling it a "global pandemic" - pandemic means global epidemic.

Secondly, she is massively overexercising. There are no rest days in her plan. What coach would recommend that? The amount of cortisol her body must be producing when she is putting it under that much stress everyday is extremely worrying. Rest days are part of healthy exercise routines and do not let Emma tell you otherwise.

Thirdly, she uses the term intuitive eating but so clearly does the opposite. She calorie counts and she eats low-calorie, alternative versions of the food she actually intuitively wants. Diet foods do not fall into intuitive eating, don't let that fool you into a falsehood.

Telling your audience what you weigh, totally unnecessary. Weight is totally based on a person's own frame and distribution of fat and muscle. The only thing this does is cause comparison and I think that's wrong when your audience are young women and people who've found your video from searching "FITNESS JOURNEY".

I could honestly go on and on. I think she has got a lot of mental work to do to really figure out her motivations