Em Sheldon is a Quitter

Fohr
May 10, 2016
Updated Sep 28, 2023
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Em Sheldon Is A Quitter

Member Name: Em Sheldon

Occupation: Full-time Blogger

Job She Quit: Study-Abroad Program at McGill University

Em Sheldon might just be graduating from college, but this young blogger is already a member of Fohr Card’s Quitter’s Club -- ever since she decided to leave her study abroad program to focus on her passion. In the few years since starting Emtalks, Em has already partnered with brands like Adidas and Clinique while exploring fitness, beauty, fashion and all of life’s challenges that have made her who she is today.  

They Get Younger Every Year: “When I was about eight years old, I made and distributed my own magazines. I wrote each one individually in pen; I drew the most horrific pictures; I made up horoscopes. I used to do little articles about the best things to do on a weekend, and my favorite beauty products.”

Blogger Beginnings: “At the last minute, I decided to study broadcast journalism at university. So I rang the admissions tutor and I said, what can I do to enhance my application, because it was about two days before the deadline. And he said, Why don’t you write a blog? So I decided I’m going to write what I did every single day: So today I ate pizza and I really liked this pizza, and yesterday I did this. And people were reading it.”

Mean Girls Motivation: “I remember one girl, when I walked into the classroom, she was like, ha ha, “A Day In The Life Of Ems” is here. And looking back now it sounds really pathetic, but it did make me feel self-conscious back then because people were looking at me weirdly, like, ew, why is she writing a blog? But the thing is people were reading it, which is why I continued. Because people clearly did care, and I really enjoyed sharing my passion. And if anything, those people inspired me to work harder, because when someone tells me I can’t do something, it often makes me want to prove them wrong.”

It’s Go Time: “After six months’ time, I won the Cosmopolitan blog award for the best newcomer, which was crazy. I decided to rebrand my blog, and to really give this a shot. I didn’t want to be writing articles that I’d be embarrassed of with bad photography or poor grammar. This is something I really wanted to take pride in. So that’s when I rebranded the site to Emtalks, and I got a nice logo, and I made my design a bit slicker. And I finally decided to ditch the iPhone and start taking pictures on a camera.”

The Quit Decision: “When I was in my third year of university, I applied to do a year abroad. I thought it would be really cool to travel for a year. But then I got to McGill and it was really tough. And I was like, oh my gosh, I have no time to do my blog, this is crazy. So I ended up just doing one semester and then quitting, which is completely unheard of. No one gets into McGill and quits. And for me, it was so difficult to turn around to everyone who was proud of me and be like, it’s not that I can’t do this; it’s just that my passions lie elsewhere.”

Opening Up: “My most personal post came in my first year of university, about being bullied in high school. I basically wrote everything that had happened to me at school, about the girls who laughed at me for blogging, and the people who just didn’t really get it and made nasty comments all the time. And it was like a sigh of relief; I felt so good. But the encouragement that really helped came from readers who said to me they’d been through the same thing and they couldn’t believe that someone else had been through that too. And it made me want to continue sharing personal things.”

Life Lessons: “I was brought up in an abusive relationship with a family member. We’ve really struggled with it, and we’ve had to get the police involved, but having someone like that be so horrible to me every day almost made the girls at school and the trolling comments seem irrelevant. Because if I can get through my whole life being abused by someone who’s supposed to love me, then I can get through some pathetic girls who don’t even know me.”

The Family Business: “I own another business called LVNDR, which is a jewelry website. I won the university’s enterprise award, and that allowed me to get funding to set it up. And my brother was able to quit his job and he helps run LVNDR 50-50 with me, purely because I just don’t have the time. So he does the tech side and everything whilst I do the manufacturing, the buying, the PR, the marketing, that kind of thing.”

Dream Come True: “I’ve worked with Adidas, Clinique. I’ve worked with brands that I could only dream of working with; the brands that, as a young girl, I’d write about in my magazine. And brands that I turn around to my mom, and we can’t believe that they’re working with me and wanting me to talk to people about their products. It really does feel amazing to have a partnership with such epic brands, particularly when they’re ones I’ve always loved.”

Be Genuine: “I think the reason that my fitness and lifestyle content works is because I am just a normal person. I don’t have any training in it. And I share the things that work for me. I share my trials and my triumphs and I say, ‘This is what I did at the gym today, I’m feeling amazing for doing this. It works for me, it might not work for you, but this is how I eat, this is my diet. If you want to follow it, go for it.’ And I think that’s why it works, because I am just a normal girl and I’m just sharing what genuinely works for me and the things that I genuinely love.”

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