Emily is a 12-year-old girl who is dreamy, imaginative, and loves to write. Her mother died when she was younger, and she is very close to her father. Her father had raised her since her mother died until he dies at the novel’s beginning. He never sent her to school, and she did not have many friends her age before she arrived at New Moon to live with her aunts. She has dark hair and purplish gray eyes, and she can stand up for herself against her relatives, who perceive her as rude at first. Everyone discusses whether her behavior and looks are more like a Murray, her mother’s family, or a Starr—her father’s.

Emily has several unique abilities that no other characters in the novel possess. First, she experiences what she calls “the flash,” which is a jolt of inspiration she experiences when she sees something beautiful or interesting and wants to write about it. She also can make images, such as shapes in wallpaper, float in front of her by focusing her eyes in a particular way. Finally, Emily has the uncanny ability to achieve the “Murray look,” once perfected by her grandfather—Elizabeth and Laura’s father—without having met him.