Emily Graslie

Emily Graslie (born 1989) is an American YouTuber.
==Personal life==
Emily grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota. She has three siblings. Her father was a rancher, and they owned cattle. As a child, she wanted to be a rancher, and then a vet. In middle school, Emily loved science. In high school, she lost her interest in science, and became interested in art. She studied art at the university of Missoula, Montana. Her senior thesis work was a painting of a thundercloud over the South Dakota prairie. It was eight feet tall and 13 feet long. After getting her BFA, Emily “had no idea what [she] was going to do,” having never sold a painting.
===Museum work===
Emily was inspired by a friend to create educational art. This friend suggested that Emily visit her university campus’ natural history museum, where she was offered the chance to skin a mouse for the collection. Emily then contacted the museum’s curator, and asked if she could draw specimens in the museum to fill three credits. After moving some specimens to clear table space, Emily began facilitating museum tours. She continued volunteering there after graduation, and pushed the administration to give the museum more funding and space. To get people interested, she started a Tumblr, and posted photographs of the museum’s work.
After around a year, Emily got into the Johns Hopkins Master of Art in Museum Studies program, which was distance learning. Hank Green, known for channels such as SciShow and CrashCourse, emailed Emily as a point of contact for the museum, where he filmed a series on vertebrate skeletons. Hank suggested that Emily could work with him in the future. In late 2011, Hank and Michael Aranda went to the museum, where Emily and Hank filmed a tour, which was uploaded to Vlogbrothers. Commenters suggested that Emily start her own channel, so Hank bought her a camera, and reassigned Michael to help her film. Emily and Michael launched thebrainscoop in 2013.
When Emily had to leave the Montana museum, a fan suggested that she visit the . Emily and Michael filmed there for three days. Emily was then offered the opportunity to move the show to the Field Museum. She became their Chief Curiosity Officer. At the end of 2020, Emily resigned from her job at the museum after a production assistant and a producer left.
==YouTube==
As well as hosting thebrainscoop, Emily has her own YouTube series, Art Lab. This series is one of the first on YouTube to implement audio tracks, an accessibility feature added to YouTube in 2021. Art Lab is produced in partnership with the , which provides accessible and educational videos for disabled people.
==Achievements==
On April 22, 2017, Emily was the keynote speaker at the Chicago March for Science Rally. Emily was named Best Celebrity Nerd in 2014 by Chicago Magazine, and is the 2017 recipient of the Nancy Hanks Memorial Award for Professional Excellence, presented by the American Alliance of Museums.
In 2018, , a species of butterfly, was named after Emily.
In summer 2020, Emily made her broadcast television debut on PBS in “Prehistoric Road Trip,” an original three-part series exploring the palaeontology and natural history of the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming.
On May 22, 2021, Emily accepted an honorary degree from Allegheny College.
==References==
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2013