 She may be turning 29 this week, but Em Clarkson knows only too well that life can be tough. She was aged just 17 when she was publicly trolled – a monstrous torrent of online bullying – after pictures of her going about her everyday life were published. She still physically recoils at the memory. 'It's been 12 years and I can still see these comments. They've stuck with me. I was 17, and reading comments like, 'She's got a face like a slapped arse'; 'a face only a mother could love', or 'someone needs to shoehorn her into her car'.' Em shakes her head in disbelief. 'Just mean s***. I was so upset by it. I'm a kid and you're an adult. What are you doing? 'I wanted to defend myself. I wanted to prove to myself and to everybody else that it wasn't OK. So, yeah, I guess that was the start of it.' By 'it', Em means a blog, which grew into an Instagram account with more than 300,000 followers (which you can follow here), and status as a straight-talking influencer who tells it as it is – joyously oversharing, from self-love to laughing through life's uglier sides. She's warm, kind and lovably chaotic and her DMs are filled with people asking for advice, on everything from friends who suddenly decide to ghost you, to the hideous reality of walking into work after drinking too much at the team-building night out. Our Metro columnist is here to be your sounding board (Picture: Natasha Pszenicki) Now, in her weekly column for Metro and Metro.co.uk, Em's new agony page offers her sage insight, a sympathetic take or simply the chance to make someone feel a bit better. She's drawing on her own instincts and experience as a successful writer, content creator and podcaster with the chart-topping series Should I Delete That? alongside Alex Light. Oversharing is the modus operandi, and on social media covers everything from feminism to postnatal fitness (Em welcomed her baby daughter five months ago). 'I'm not){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
She may be turning 29 this week, but Em Clarkson knows only too well that life can be tough. She was aged just 17 when she was publicly trolled – a monstrous torrent of online bullying – after pictures of her going about her everyday life were published. She still physically recoils at the memory.
‘It’s been 12 years and I can still see these comments. They’ve stuck with me. I was 17, and reading comments like, “She’s got a face like a slapped arse”; “a face only a mother could love”, or “someone needs to shoehorn her into her car”.’
Em shakes her head in disbelief. ‘Just mean s***. I was so upset by it. I’m a kid and you’re an adult. What are you doing?
‘I wanted to defend myself. I wanted to prove to myself and to everybody else that it wasn’t OK. So, yeah, I guess that was the start of it.’