About Me — Lauren Bartleson

For me, writing is a form of therapy; it’s my creative outlet, my escape, my safe place.

Trigger warning: this article discusses mental health issues and suicide. If these are triggering for you, please avoid reading. Take care of yourself. 💛

I have an overwhelming passion for social media.

It’s been a huge part of my life every day for 18 years and has even become a major part of my career.

While I’ve loved most platforms at one time or another, Instagram was hands-down my thing. What started in 2013 as a journey to keep myself accountable on a weight loss journey organically turned into an award-winning blog with readers from 105 countries. It was an exciting endeavor — until it suddenly wasn’t.

Negative comments started coming in on a regular basis, ranging from an anonymous account critiquing my eyebrows to a stranger telling me to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. In no uncertain terms, these comments threw me into a deep depression, making me question everything about who I was.

In time, I ended up deleting every public platform I spent so long creating. In the span of a few months, I said goodbye to nearly 200,000 views/month and over 20,000 followers, resorting to a life without writing. Without a means…