Homeschooling Hero: Emerson Spartz

by Christina Yeager

​Emerson Spartz is a University of Notre Dame graduate that founded the popular and successful Harry Potter fansite Muggle.Net when he was a 12-year-old homeschooler! He married his college girlfriend and went on to become an aggressive young entrepreneur launching other sites and raising money for admiral causes.
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Emerson Spartz: Book series fan with an impressive entrepreneurial website resume.

​Together with his wife, at the time, they founded GivesMeHope -- a website devoted to contributors that post what gives them hope. Mr. Spartz has to date launched over thirty sites under the Spartz Media brand. Dose and OMG Facts are among those sites. 

Homeschooling
Emerson convinced his parents to withdraw him from public school and be homeschooled after launching his website. Emerson's parents stood back and let him take an unschooling approach to education. He was able to learn things that public schools don't necessarily teach and at the same time, grow his website to its full potential.

“I founded MuggleNet 10 years ago. I was 12. I was bored. And homeschooled. I figured I could always go back to school if I don’t like it, but it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. I had way too much free time on my hands, so I started [the website] a few months after I began homeschooling. I never expected it to get so big. Now I’m 22. I graduated from Notre Dame. I have two brothers, Dylan (20) and Drew (10). They are awesome. I play lots of sports. I am a HUGE nerd. I read between 100-200 non-fiction books a year. I’m a pathological optimist.”
--Emerson Spartz

​He taught himself. Yes, you read that correctly. He developed a unique, but effective curriculum that was right for him. However, his parents did encourage him to read four brief biographies of successful people every single day. In doing so, he started to think big.

​"I learned a ton from that experience, how to code, how to write, how to edit, how to lead, how to manage, how to design, and as far as my curriculum my parents pretty much stayed out of my way, but they let me study whatever I wanted." --Emerson Spartz

Accomplishments
Mr. Spartz not only succeeded in creating an enormous fansite, but he also created other various sites before going to college. This site just wasn't a parking spot for Potter fans, it eventually became a network of sites linking to numerous fan resources. Mr. Spartz also, at one time, has the biggest podcast in the world. Just for the J.K Rowling series fans? Nope. Worldwide. Above all other podcasts. 
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He became fascinated and obsessed with the ability to make media go viral. He set his sights on perfecting a system of virility that would be used later to generate millions of dollars for charity. Spartz Media was created and all of his websites and projects are managed through his company. 

Emerson Spartz has a pretty impressive portfolio of accomplishments to date. With over three dozen sites and his company nearly launching a new one every month, the number one podcast spot, being named "King of Viral Media" by Forbes, "The Virologist" by The New Yorker, being featured on CBS and CNN and landing on both Forbes and Inc Magazine's "30 Under 30" lists he certainly has been busy since the age of twelve. 

Let's not forget that before the age of nineteen, he became a New York Times bestselling author. His website Dose prompted a TV broadcast aptly named Morning Dose which airs on CW nationwide.

Today
CEO of Spartz Media, Emerson Spartz, still has his fingers in all the viral pies. He still works closely with his company, tracking down new interests and pushing them out to the virtual world. He also attends various speaking engagements to influence others to get out there and get it done. There may be many more viral years for this website tycoon!