Emily McDonald

McDonald holds a BSc and an MSc in neuroscience and has more than four years of research experience. She began studying neuroscience in college and worked in a lab that scanned children’s brains to study learning and memory.⁠[1][2][3]

Known online as “Em on the Brain,” she shares mood and mindset tips as @emonthebrain on Instagram and TikTok, where she has millions of followers. She works as a neuroscientist, manifestation expert and transformational coach and created MindCraft, a method combining neuroscience, manifestation and subconscious reprogramming.⁠[1][4][3]

She has been featured by outlets including Poosh and the New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is a daily newspaper in New York City, published by New York Post Media Group, a News Corp company.Open the full entry, has appeared as a guest on Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose, and hosts her own podcast, Planet Em.⁠[1][4]

She appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show, answering questions from the studio audience in “Stacks of Love,” a mental-health segment produced with Denny’s. She said, “Without mental health, there’s no enjoyment in life.” Hudson surprised her with $10,000 from Denny’s, which she said she would donate to the Aoki Foundation, a brain science and research organization.⁠[3]

She was interviewed on the street in Austin, Texas, by Hard Knocks Business in a video titled “She built a $2.5M/year brand teaching people how to rewire their brain.” In the video she said the most she had made in a single year was around $2.5 million and that she made her first million at 26.⁠[5]

She recalled that she had been in a neuroscience PhD program hoping to cure drug addiction, began working on herself and sharing it online, and that a video reaching 13.2 million views launched her career; she said she appeared on 16 news channels and worked with Steve Aoki the first summer out of school. She said she had worked in a color vision lab, where she saw that color is the brain’s interpretation of different wavelengths of light, leading her to believe that changing the brain changes one’s experience of reality.⁠[5]

To get unstuck, start with your self-concept: the brain uses its model of who you are to predict your thoughts, behaviors, feelings and motivations (video at 01:21).⁠[5]

Changing that model of who you are changes the subconscious choices, motivations and behaviors that run daily life, and with them one’s reality (video at 01:45).⁠[5]

Authenticity is the most magnetic quality a person has (video at 01:58).⁠[5]

Nonchalance will not get you where you want to go; you have to be all in (video at 02:03).⁠[5]

Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has scheduled her book MindCraft: Rewire Your Brain, Level Up, and Manifest Your Dream Reality (320 pages) for publication on January 26, 2027. She is represented by the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management.⁠[1][2]

Instagram: Public account: https://www.instagram.com/emonthebrain (opens in a new window).⁠[4][3]