Words From The Wise: Emma Pritchard reminds us to ALWAYS be ourselves

Photo credit: Chase McCann

From 2017, Emma Pritchard has been posting on YouTube for all to see - truly an OG! Not realizing where her videos could take her, the 24-year-old is now a full-time content creator across more platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok. Pritchard posts daily videos on what goes on throughout her life, and she simply has a blast with it! In this conversation, the born and raised Cape-Cod creator reflects on her career, what inspired her to get in front of a camera in the first place, and how to balance it all swimmingly!

I heard you say on a Podcast once, referring to vlogging, that you have always had it in you. Was there anyone on YouTube or on screen who inspired you to start posting?

Actually, yes, I wasn't one to watch TV shows growing up, which may sound funny - I always watched YouTube videos, and I had my favorite creators as a kid, one who sticks out the most to me was Bethany Mota, she was like my favorite girl. She came out with Aeropostale stuff, and I was first in line, and I loved her so much! Just watching her videos growing up, those literally formed me, and it made me fall in love with YouTube and posting videos! She would do the fun little back to school videos and I love that type of stuff - So when I started - I was a freshman in high school, and she really inspired me by posting little tutorials and things - and then I deleted all those videos and restarted my junior year and my sister (Maggie MacDonald, who is also a content creator) actually sparked that inspiration again - both my sister and my mom. My sister started her channel, I think, three months before I started mine, and my mom was the one who bought me my camera, and she was like, “I want you to post for twenty-one days straight, create a habit out of it”, and that's how it turned into my lifestyle!

How do you find ways to be in the moment and give yourself a break from vlogging?

That is kind of a hard thing to navigate, especially when your content is lifestyle. A lot of my content is what I do day-to-day - I find I’m always taking my camera and recording everything, but I don’t want to feel like I’m forcing it and having to do things to record, and just feeling I have to record every little second of my life. So for me, it's taking the special moments and more intimate things when I’m hanging out with my family, friends, and my husband and were doing date nights, I keep all that to myself, I keep a lot of family hangouts to myself, I keep my relationships to myself because I feel like nowadays it’s hard to figure out what you wanna- like you can post all that stuff for sure, but, I don’t know its nice having things that are only for me when I post a lot of my life. So it's been kind of a challenging topic to navigate, I guess, like figuring out what I want to share and what I want to keep for me, but I feel like I’ve been doing it for so long, I’ve really figured out what I can keep for me and what I can post; it’s all well-balanced.

Katie: Yes! It’s all about balance.

So, as you mentioned, you’ve been posting on YouTube since you were a teenager, and you’ve had a prominent following since then - do you think there’s a greater force in using social media?

Totally! I think social media holds a lot of power, especially when you grow up with an audience watching. It's made me really aware of the responsibilities that come with influence and using your platform intentionally and authentically.

Speaking of your videos, I always see you’re on the go - I know you must be a busy bee! But what’s a typical day for you?

This is so hard because every day is so very different! If I’m at home and I have a day to myself, my perfect day looks like waking up in the morning, pretty early too - I like to have that time where you're up before the world and taking time to sit with myself, my thoughts, my coffee, relax - normally this is when my husband and I just chill and drink our coffee together. My mornings always start off the same - I do that, and I go on to a workout and make sure I give myself time to put something into me since I feel like I’m always running around doing a million different things. I feel like that's how all my days start, and it makes me start on a good note, and it sets me up for the rest of my day, with who knows what’s to come!

Katie: Totally - it’s always good to start your day by putting yourself first, and also just starting on a good note.

Emma: Definitely.

You are on the go a lot, and ironically enough, tonight there is a game! So, when you are planning a game day outfit, where do you draw inspiration from besides the fabulous Kelly Green color?

Well, obviously, like you said, the Kelly Green color! I try to draw inspiration from the team, and I try to have a little team spirit in my outfits - again, we have eighty-two games in a season, which is a ton, like think about football, they have one game a week, so it’s easier really to go out with outfits. For an NBA game, I tend to plan my outfit around comfort and the weather in Boston, it is freezing nowadays so I’m going for warmth not necessary fashion, but I always start with a basic simple - just a classic outfit, something I’m going to feel like myself in since we are sitting in seats that are uncomfy for at least four hours.

Emma and I briefly spoke about the seats when watching games, and how you can feel it in your knees. However, I had to bring up one of my favorite looks of hers recently, which is an emerald jacket with “Pritchard” on the back, repping it for her husband, Celtics’ point guard Payton Pritchard. Emma made sure to shoutout the wicked creative MVPBae, who has created iconic pieces for her and a bunch of WAGS (wives and girlfriends) in the sports world! Pritchard told me exclusively that she will be “pulling out some more looks soon”, so keep an eye out, everyone!

What advice do you have for creatives who want to be creating content like you?

The advice I have for creatives who want to be creating content like me is to find your niche that people who follow you like what they want to see. For me, I feel like a lot of my followers like to see my outfits for games, and they like to see my makeup routine, like get ready with me videos - but that’s not all that I post, I do post everything else too. I cover everything, but I do find that when you find something that your followers love and enjoy watching, it really makes them almost get excited for that next video, like “Oh your feeding me with that outfit content and stuff!”

Definitely that and be yourself, I tell everyone this, be yourself - Just being so authentic to you and what you post, what you wear, the makeup you do, makes people kind of think of you as a little more unique as just the rest of the world, if that makes sense.

Katie: That definitely makes sense. It's always so important to stay to your most authentic self.

Emma: Yeah, it’s really refreshing too.

Katie: Exactly!

You talked about people getting excited for videos; this question I’m so excited to ask! You have collaborated with fellow WAGS, especially outside of the NBA! How fun was that editing process and the experience connecting with fellow WAGS outside of the Celtics?

It is so much fun! First off, I love all the girls in the basketball community! Finding friends in your city, even in other sports like NFL, NHL, MLB, and things like that - it’s so cool because we all have very similar but very different lifestyles, and we all can connect on the same level, like where we just get each other. Like the hectic schedules of our husbands, or being like “Okay, we are lonely sometimes because they are gone half the time.” It’s a really nice connection, especially if you're in a city where you don't have family. I’m very lucky because my family does live in Boston, but meeting all these other girls is great because you just have this community of girls who just get it, they really, really, really get it. And it’s really fun, and I feel like for us in Boston - I’ve been making a lot of content with my friend Ann Michael (Maye), and her husband is the quarterback for the Patriots, and people love, love, LOVE Boston sports, so when they see us two together, they are like “This is amazing!” I think it's really funny how people just love the content that we make together - it makes it really fun too! It’s been so fun doing all the videos we do and the editing process, seeing all - even me seeing what we do on a game day, I actually just posted an NFL WAG vs NBA WAG Game Day in The Life, and our days were pretty similar. We both started our morning with pilates and had things throughout the day that we did, and then you get ready for the game and go to the game with all the girls. So it’s funny seeing how similar those days actually are when we have very similar, but different lives!

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Emma was recently on Ann Michael Maye’s baking show, Bakemas. We spoke briefly about this, and as Pritchard said above, it was a fun experience for her to collaborate with Maye (Definitely need to try that cookie recipe hehe)!

What’s your motto for this year and why?

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately - and this doesn’t even go for me, but this is something I’m always telling my friends or people around me, is, I guess, my motto could be “self-doubt is out.” Because we always have to have this voice in the back of our heads, where we're just like - and I don’t know if this is everyone, I’m more talking about myself, and I’m very critical on everything I do and things I post, and I’m like “Will people even like this?” I just need to not think about that and just be me, always. Like I said earlier, be you, do you, do everything that is true to you, and if you shut that voice off, that’s when I feel like you start to grow, and you can show up for other people in your life, you can show up for the people who follow you, and the content you create for them. And just make it more authentic and genuine.

Overall, Emma Pritchard has reminded us all that when creating content or just in general, to always be ourselves. Remember that people want to see the real you!