United States
Susan David is a Harvard Medical School psychologist and organizational researcher whose core intellectual contribution — the concept of emotional agility — has made her one of the more recognizable figures at the intersection of academic psychology and mainstream self-development.
Total Followers -0.1%
211K
Across YouTube, Instagram
Primary Platform
YouTube
7K followers · 3% of audience
Engagement
4.0%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Mid
Est. $4.1K–$10K / IG post
| Window | YouTube | Combined | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +10 +0.1% | -61 -0.0% | +0 +0.0% | -51 |
| Last 30 days | +40 +0.5% | -285 -0.1% | +0 +0.0% | -245 |
| Last 90 days | +112 +1.5% | +265 +0.1% | +0 +0.0% | +377 |
| Last 365 days | +112 +1.5% | +265 +0.1% | +0 +0.0% | +377 |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
Susan David is a Harvard Medical School psychologist and organizational researcher whose core intellectual contribution — the concept of emotional agility — has made her one of the more recognizable figures at the intersection of academic psychology and mainstream self-development. Born in South Africa, she is faculty at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and co-founded the Institute of Coaching there. Her 2016 book, Emotional Agility, became a Wall Street Journal number-one bestseller, and a TED Talk on the same subject crossed ten million views, establishing her in a rare category of credentialed academics who have successfully crossed over to large public audiences. She contributes regularly to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, which anchors her credibility in professional and managerial circles alongside general wellness audiences.
Her social presence skews heavily toward Instagram, where a mid-six-figure following engages at rates meaningfully above platform norms — a signal that her audience is self-selecting and attentive rather than passively accumulated. The demographic leans young-adult and female, consistent with emotional intelligence content that resonates with career-building and personal-development audiences in their twenties and thirties. YouTube functions more as an archive and credibility anchor than a growth engine, with posting gaps suggesting prioritization of longer editorial cycles. Her positioning sits squarely in the premium human-potential space — the overlap of leadership development, clinical psychology, and modern wellness — making her a natural fit for corporate learning platforms, mental-health adjacent brands, and professional development publishers rather than mass consumer goods.
Susandavid_Phd reaches an audience concentrated in United States primarily through YouTube, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories. As an education creator they map naturally to brands targeting that space. With no brand deals logged yet, they read as an available, category-aligned partner for advertisers building early presence in the space. Engagement on YouTube runs around 4.0%, which points to an audience better suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel campaigns than to pure-reach buys. The channel's mix of long-form YouTube integrations and Instagram Reels and Stories lets a sponsor choose between short awareness placements and longer, more detailed integrations. Because the audience follows education content rather than arriving through untargeted reach, sponsorships that match the channel's subject matter tend to convert more efficiently than broad placements. A consistent, on-topic posting focus gives sponsors a predictable, brand-safe environment, lowering placement risk compared with broad, general-interest channels. Campaigns here are best measured on qualified engagement and consideration within the niche rather than on raw impression volume. For United States-focused brands in education and related categories, Susandavid_Phd offers a defined, creative-fit audience rather than broad, low-intent impressions.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at Susandavid_Phd's tier (Mid, 211K combined followers, United States). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
The CreatorDB Agency runs end-to-end influencer campaigns globally — shortlisting, outreach, contracting, and performance reporting. Talk to our team about building a campaign around creators in this niche.
Emotional agility is Susan David's research-based framework for developing a flexible, non-judgmental relationship with your inner thoughts and feelings rather than suppressing them or being controlled by them. The core insight from her Harvard Medical School research is that psychological health is not about always being positive — it is about being able to acknowledge difficult emotions and still act in line with your values.
Susan David's TED Talk on emotional agility has been watched by more than 10 million people, placing it among the most-viewed TED Talks in the psychology and mental health category. It was the moment that brought her academic research to a mainstream global audience far beyond the business and clinical psychology worlds she had previously worked in.
Susan David is a psychologist based at Harvard Medical School, where she conducts research on emotions, resilience, and human behavior. Her Harvard Medical School credentials are central to how she presents her work publicly and provide the scientific foundation behind the emotional agility framework.
Her book Emotional Agility reached number one on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and expands on the ideas from her TED Talk, offering a practical guide to unhooking from unhelpful thought patterns, accepting emotions with curiosity, and making values-driven choices even under pressure. It is aimed at both personal development readers and business leaders navigating uncertainty and change.
Yes, Susan David offers a free emotional agility quiz that she promotes directly in her Instagram bio and across her social content. The quiz is designed to help you identify your own patterns around emotions — such as whether you tend to bottle feelings, over-analyze them, or avoid them — and is a key part of how she engages her online audience.
Susan David is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, writing on topics including emotions, resilience, leadership, and well-being. These high-profile outlets regularly feature her perspective as a research-backed counterpoint to oversimplified positive-thinking advice.
Beyond her clinical research, Susan David has applied the emotional agility framework directly to organizational leadership, helping executives and teams handle change, ambiguity, and workplace stress. This crossover between psychology and management has earned her recognition as a top-tier business thinker, not just a mental health or self-help voice.
Susan David teaches that naming and acknowledging difficult emotions with curiosity — rather than suppressing them or letting them run on autopilot — is the first step toward emotional agility. Her research-backed position is that emotional suppression tends to backfire over time, increasing stress and undermining decision-making, while acceptance creates the space needed to act according to your values.
Emotional intelligence, widely associated with Daniel Goleman, focuses on recognizing and managing emotions effectively in social and professional contexts. Susan David's emotional agility concept goes a step further by emphasizing how you relate to your own internal emotional world — specifically your capacity to not be "hooked" by difficult thoughts and feelings, and to keep moving toward what genuinely matters to you regardless of what you are feeling.
Susan David is most consistently active on Instagram, where she has built her largest following and posts regularly on psychology, emotions, and everyday well-being. She also maintains a YouTube presence, but her Instagram is where she publishes new content most frequently and engages with her audience in real time.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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@susandavid_phd · YouTube
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