your Art is not meant to be graded.

I’ve always hated the prospect of my art being judged, wow well stating such an obvious, duh, no one likes for their art to be scrutinised. Artists and creatives put their vision, soul and life into the things they create, and I feel like a part of me dies whenever I post something on social media, be it an article, a carousel post, a picture of something I made myself, a reel or a youtube vlog and it goes under-appreciated.

My relationship with creativity has always been a sort of tug-and-war, sometimes it feels as if am trying to grasp the inspirations and enclose them, in a container. It is however inevitable, your art will be judged by people, some might appreciate it and others might be an absolute bitch towards it, or worse yet, they’d be ignorant.

The social media platforms suck when it comes to truly helping your art reach the audience meant for it. Instagram especially feels like a graveyard of all the beautiful and artistic expressions of life that goes unnoticed by many, 2-3 hours worth of efforts down the drain.

Over time we start judging our capabilities based on the number of likes and views our art gets, we keep checking the numbers shown in the metrics under each post as if its gonna magically change to 100k or 1M the next time we check it.

At one point the artist dies and all there remains is the eternal desire to be appreciated, the validation seeking void that consumes the creator whole. I’ve been battling with the dilemma that is it even worth putting so much effort into your art if no one’s ever gonna see it, not 100k people anyway?

I remember starting my studygram account back in 2021 with the sole purpose of wanting to document my study journey, not views, not likes, not PR packages or paid collaborations, just my inner urge to document things in photodumps. It evolved into posting helpful study tips, vlogs and motivational things and trust me back in 2021 ‘content creation’ wasn’t really a trendy thing like it is in the big 2026, people did things because they loved it or got struck with an inspiration.

These days I see a lot of people wanting to get into content creation especially on Instagram to have the benefits of a “successful creator” life, PR packages, fame, millions of views, paid collaborations, red carpet moments, creator events, fully sponsored trips and what not. It really makes me wonder, is this truly the goal or just the illusion built around the influencer bubble to keep attracting more and more consumer base to their platforms. Hmm, probably the latter.

Starting a Substack was probably one of the best decisions of my life, it lets me write here without the pressure to go viral in one go. I kept writing what truly resonated with me, what I wanted to express, not experimenting with strategies or having a posting schedule. Substack is my haven of comfort where I can be myself and put out articles that one day might reach people it’s truly meant for. Maybe not having any expectations out of it plays the biggest role here.

And recently I had this realisation that we are repeating exactly what we despise, the grading system, the marks, the numbers. By judging our creativity based on views and likes, we are resorting to judge our potential via grades, like our education system does, evaluating every student based on their memory power and rote-learning skills through a written exam and not using different methods to test the varying capabilities of students.

Perhaps we still keep this mindset in adulthood because having great numbers on our creations probably makes us feel more safe, we feel like we fit-in, in this world of social media, where a lot of people who go viral just sound like ChatGPT. I especially hate to encounter any person who claims that they only use AI to ‘enhance’ their writing, I draw the line at googling a synonym sir.

We are repeating the patterns by constantly critiquing ourselves over the amount of likes our article got, amount of followers we harbour, or the number of views our reel or youtube video gets. In the end what truly matters though is the way you feel making that piece of art. The way your eyes light up when you get an inspiration, the way you get lost in the process of creating, the beauty of hours passing without you having a clue.

I was talking to a friend of mine and I got this idea that maybe I should just start treating creating content like I treat my air dry clay projects, like yes am hella competitive with a terrible perfectionist attitude, but I kinda just let things be chill instead of obsessing over the imperfections in the things I make with clay or even on paper. The pink trinket dish, the pastel purple polka dots ring tray, the sky blue miffy specks holder are some of my best creations.

I think the purpose shall always be joy, if creating something brings you joy then I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t engage in the process of it. That also leads me to the point that a good mindset won’t bring about changes unless followed by actions.

So all I want you to do is that keep creating, and if you haven’t started yet because you’ve been in a slump like me, then I urge you to journal about what all things were blocking you, following are some journal prompts that helped me:

1. What am I trying to avoid by not doing this? What am I scared to face?

2. What’s the bare minimum first step that will take me less than 5 minutes in order to get started?

3. How did I feel when I last created something out of love and not under the pressure to go viral?

I have always faced slumps and blockages, hell I even went through this sort of phase in middle school feeling like everything I create is just not good enough and that someone else’s art is always gonna be better than mine. The inferiority complex wasn’t so easy to counter, but I healed, I created more, on Instagram, Youtube, on paper, and even Substack since last year.

And you know what, maybe that’s what we need to truly get out of this self-inflicting cage we’ve built for ourselves. Creating more. Putting out all the things that we truly feel like creating, like why are we suppressing our own thoughts and eating up our own ideas?

Our brain is meant to come up with ideas, get inspired, think and articulate our thoughts & ideas, not hold them for us. Get a pocket diary or as I like to call it, the everything notebook or hell even the notes app on your phone will do you good, but RECORD YOUR IDEAS. Write them down and truly I mean truly, sit down with it and work on those ideas, bring them to life. Brainstorm, plan, create & publish.

Sometimes creating will feel mindless, absolutely no inspiration strikes on some days, but in a world of hustlers be a mindful zen ojichan, instead of wracking your brain for more & more ideas, just take a break. A rest day, a week even. Because it is in our slow and mundane days when the most revolutionary ideas make an appearance. A relaxed nervous system can do wonders.

I hope reading this piece gave you a modified perspective, and something that encourages you to keep going, despite everything. Thank you so much for being here loves.

xoxo

Shreya