hey. you. yes you. you, content-creator-lurking-on-the-internet. listen up. +

your worth is not in numbers. be it comment numbers. kudos numbers. whatever. i get that we all know this to be factually true, but sometimes you need to hear it again and again, yknow? +

and i know that this space means different things to different people, and for many, this might be their primary happy space, and that validation in this sphere might therefore be more important than validation from anywhere else. +

and like, i’m not impervious to my own moments of doubt either, or my episodes of wanting validation (read: me being so excited about pygmalion!vmin i dm’ed it to all my friends). +

and that’s all super ok! normal! valid! but à la namjoon, i strongly believe that if even one person was touched/amused/made h word by a work, then you've impacted another life and that's worth celebrating! +

in a day and age where everyone is fixated on shouting their message as loudly as possible so the maximum number of people can hear it, i think there's something beautiful about a whisper shared between a few. maybe even a whisper shared with only yourself. +

ok this has been: unsolicited advice from mono but truly i am so tired and frustrated by having to watch my friends in this space wrestle with their self-worth. +

it's exhausting even if i know it's not anyone’s fault - we all work on this compulsive comparing-ourselves-to-others in our own time. i just want to! reach into their brains! and smack the gray matter there for them!!!!!!! +

consider this a loving smack cam for your self-loathing, self-doubting mind. xoxo, angry-at-you-on-your-own-behalf mono

addendum: yes, i know john green’s work is now like a basic teenaged white girl’s cliché, but i love him and his stuff unrepentantly. so allow me to just:

“she treads lightly, old man.” aka a life can be meaningful and impactful without trying to leave a mark on the world.