Emily McDowell is a writer, illustrator, speaker, teacher, and entrepreneur who is fiercely committed to not all of those things at the same time. After spending a decade working in advertising, Emily launched Em & Friends, originally called Emily McDowell Studio. For five years, she served as its chief executive officer, as well as the author and illustrator of its products. In 2018, the brand joined forces with fellow female-founded publisher Knock Knock, and in 2022, both companies joined Union Square & Co., the publishing division of Barnes & Noble.
Emily and her work have been featured by the New York Times, Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, BBC News, and NPR's All Things Considered, and she was named one of Slate's 10 Designers Who Are Changing the World. She is also the coauthor and illustrator of the book, There is No Good Card For This: What to Say and Do When Life Gets Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love. She co-hosts the Quitted podcast with Holly Whitaker, and cofounded the nonprofit The Long Table Foundation, offering professional mentoring and grants to artists of color.