Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney goes viral because of her Boston accent and track suits: "I don't put on any airs"

Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney has become an online sensation and it's not for anything she's written or said. It's because of how she said it, in her distinctive Boston accent.

Sweeney recently posted a social media video for the newspaper about a home invasion at a mansion in Beverly, Massachusetts. It began as a juicy crime story, but her accent and track suit blew up on social media. Sweeney's done videos before. She's been a veteran Globe reporter for 25 years. But this one hit differently.

"People ask, like, did I plan what I was wearing that day? I was like, 'No that's how I dress,' you know what I mean? It was just another video, just another day," she told WBZ-TV.

It wasn't just another day for long. The video got 900,000 views overnight and it's now closing in on six million.

"I don't put on any airs, ya know what I mean? I'm just me," Sweeney said.

That seems to be the point. Sweeney's a local kid from Dorchester and a graduate of Boston Latin School and Northeastern. Her Boston credentials are impeccable.

"Boston has that kind of towny undercurrent that has never gone away and so ya know when I go out into neighborhoods and (I'm) interviewing people often, some of them, some people might not want to talk, will open up a little bit more to me because they hear and they know that I'm from the neighborhood," Sweeney said.

"Emily is such a people-first journalist. I think that that's so great," said Sweeney's social media producer, Maria Pemberton. "And the way that she's so authentic it's been super inspiring."

Pemberton, a junior at Boston University, said Sweeney is the realest of the real and this viral video is the future for newsrooms.

"There's definitely an interest there from veteran journalists and I'm happy that I'm able to kind of teach them what I know, because to me it just feels natural," she said.

"I think a lot of people don't realize all the work that goes into producing a very well-sourced, accurate story," Sweeney said.

Sweeney is now hearing from people as far away as Australia. A media star has been born - after 25 years of hard work.

"Better late than never, ya know?" Sweeney said.