'I became careless about what I did to myself.' Emma Chamberlain on her 5-year addiction to vaping.

Emma Chamberlain is considered one of Gen Z's most popular celebrities. 

Finding fame via YouTube, and now the owner of her own coffee beans company, hosting a Spotify podcast, and working as a model and influencer, Chamberlain has often appeared to 'have it all'. 

Of course, we know deep down, like with any human being, that's rarely the case. But Chamberlain herself has said she's a very private person who chooses to focus on the lighter side of things via her public profile.

Then this week, Chamberlain opened up.

She spoke about an addiction she's had for the past five years, saying it became a "very severe" habit and one she's trying to kerb. 

Watch: the seriousness of vaping. Post continues below.

"This is a topic that I have avoided forever, because I never wanted to have to admit to my own addiction publicly," she said, confirming she has a nicotine addiction. 

"I have had a constant stream of nicotine in my system for the past five years. Not a day has gone by in the last five years where I haven't consumed nicotine in some form," she said in a recent episode of her Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain podcast.

She said she was first introduced to vaping when she was 15 years old.

"My group of friends at the time all had vapes. At the time I had a really strong conscience, especially around using substances. I felt really guilty at that age about drinking alcohol, smoking vapes or smoking cigarettes." 

Fast-forward two years, 17-year-old Chamberlain had relocated from San Francisco to Los Angeles as her star was rising. She said that when she came to LA, even more people were using vapes or smoking cigarettes - particularly those in the public eye or who had a following online. And she felt the peer pressure grow.

"I became more careless about what I did to myself, after struggling with depression," she explained, adding that soon her addiction to vaping grew. 

Chamberlain recounted how when she would lose her vape, it would send her into a poor mental health spiral, desperate to get a hold of the device that fueled her addiction.

Reflecting on it all, Chamberlain said she thinks being surrounded by famous people doing the same thing, certainly didn't help. 

"It was normal, we're all using vapes and consuming nicotine on a daily basis. I got addicted around the time when I became a public figure. This is not a coincidence. I moved to LA at 17, there's no way to be ready for that. It's overwhelming," Chamberlain said.

"It's not something I ever want to promote. I was always ashamed of my nicotine addiction."

Now 22, Chamberlain said that recently she decided she wanted to try and quit, and is still on the path to permanently quitting today. She said it's being in this headspace now that made her feel comfortable to talk about her addiction publicly. 

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Recently, more and more celebrities have been speaking about how they managed to quit their nicotine habits.

Brad Pitt said in a 2022 interview with GQ that he has quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.

"I don't have that ability to do just one or two a day," he explained. "It's not in my makeup. I'm all in. And I'm going to drive into the ground. I've lost my privileges. I'm just at that age when nothing good comes from it."

For Adele, she said her decision to quit smoking after a long addiction was down to fears over her mortality.

"If I'd carried on smoking, I'd probably have died from a smoking-related illness, and I think that's really bad," Adele told The Mirror. "If I was dying from lung cancer I would have potentially given it to myself and that wouldn't be something I'd be proud of."

Supermodel Christy Turlington also had a similar experience, saying there was a moment in particular when she realised she had to quit. 

"By the time I was 18, I knew it was gross to get up in the morning and have a cigarette and coffee. And to walk up stairs and feel winded when you're 18, that's just stupid. For a couple years, I'd quit for a year and went back. At 25, I quit for good," she said to New York Magazine.

More and more recently among younger generations, there has been an uptake in vaping use.

According to Australia's Alcohol and Drug Foundation, around 14 per cent of Aussie 12 to 17-year-olds have tried an e-cigarette. Around 32 per cent of these students have used one in the past month.

As Emily Jenkinson, Cancer Council NSW Lead of Tobacco Control, told Mamamia: "Vaping has very quickly transitioned from a social behaviour or something you do while out with friends, to an addictive behaviour, which is quite frightening."

In an interview with Mamamia, leading nicotine addiction specialist Professor Renee Bittoun said there is an incredible amount of misinformation surrounding vapes, including the effects they can have long-term.

While it's meant to be less lethal than cigarettes, research proves that it has the same - if not worse - effects on your health.

"Vapes are created to be addictive because [they] ensure customers are coming back for more. Not because they want to, but because they're addicted," Professor Bittoun said.

For Chamberlain, she said that for a long time, she found vaping soothed her anxiety - until the point where she began to experience health anxiety over the impact nicotine was having on her.

"It was actually making my anxiety worse, and that was a huge wake-up call for me. I don't take my health for granted anymore."

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.

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