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Life as a YouTube creator was great, but 12 years in, I felt like I was trapped on a hamster wheel | Hannah Witton | The Guardian

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The never-ending commitment took its toll on my creativity and my mental health. Having a baby was the last straw I was one of the first people in the UK to make YouTube videos about sex and relationships. I started in 2011 when I was 19 years old. But at the end of last year, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life. After 12 years as a creator, I quit. This decision was something that had been building up for years but it wasn’t until I had my baby in 2022 that things really changed for me, and I knew I could no longer just sit and wait for either burnout or social media “irrelevance” to take me. I wanted to be in the driver’s seat for any major changes to my life and career rather than just feeling like things were happening to me. Deciding to quit the thing I was known for was a gruelling and soul-searching process, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. For the past decade I had been in what I call constant “output mode”. Creating regular YouTube videos, podcast episod

‘There is no blueprint for creators for what to do about parental leave, so I made it up.’ Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy View image in fullscreen ‘There is no blueprint for creators for what to do about parental leave, so I made it up.’ Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy Why I quit YouTube This article is more than 2 years old Life as a YouTube creator was great, but 12 years in, I felt like I was trapped on a hamster wheel This article is more than 2 years old Hannah Witton The never-ending commitment took its toll on my creativity and my mental health. Having a baby was the last str

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