Jewells Chambers doesn't love everything about living in Iceland.

Even after living in Reykjavik for eight years, she's still not crazy about the days with four hours of sunlight or the rain, which tends to come down sideways. And as a vegetarian, she occasionally misses the much wider array of available options at American supermarkets and the diversity of American restaurants.

Overall, though, the 38-year-old Brooklyn native isn't complaining.

Chambers founded All Things Iceland, a podcast, YouTube channel and social media brand, in 2018. But even before she became a professional evangelist for Iceland's nature, history and culture, she had developed a deep affinity for the land she now calls home.

"Living in Iceland has 1,000% had an amazing impact on my mental health," she says. "The nature aspect has helped me in so many ways. Shedding this idea that it always has to be about my skin color has helped."

A home away from home

For a Black woman living in a country where 94% of the populace identifies as native Icelandic, it could have been easy to feel like an outsider. But Chambers says she felt at ease pretty much immediately.

It helped that Chambers moved over with an Icelandic husband, whose family embraced her with open arms — and continues to do so, even after Chambers and her husband divorced in 2023.

"When I first moved over, a big part of being in an Icelandic family or marrying into one is that you spend a lot of time together. So it was great that my ex's family were so welcoming," she says. "His mom still watches my Instagram stories and hearts them, and I've seen her a few times. His sister is a good friend of mine that I see.

"So there are aspects of those individuals that have been so loving, so kind and a part of my life for nine years."

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Chambers has felt similar warmth from Icelandic coworkers and friends, who she says were more interested in learning about where she was from than getting hung up on her identity.

"The biggest weight off of my shoulders was that I didn't feel like my color was the thing that was most part of my identity," she says. "It felt like being from New York was what people were so interested in most of the time when we talked, and I loved that. I loved being just Jewells from New York."

That's not to say Chambers is blind to the fact that racism exists in Iceland.

"There have been people who have unfortunately been subjected to things, terrible things that have been said to them or done to them," she says. "I just have not been one of those people, and I hope that that doesn't ever happen and that it continues to get better as we all gain awareness."

In the meantime, Chambers says she goes about her life in Reykjavik without feeling the burden of systematic oppression that she might feel at home.

And that makes her feel, well, at home.

"It's just I have a different ability to disconnect from some of the weight that has been happening to me when I'm in the U.S., and definitely many of the stories of things that are happening to people that look like me, just purely based off of their skin color," Chambers says. "So being here, I feel safe. I feel at home. I'm really happy. And that has transformed into something that continues to keep me here."

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