Burning bright

Cosmo India speaks to six creators about how they handle the grind and the toll it takes on their bodies and minds.

- Saumyaa Vohra

There is a rigour to most jobs that comes with the territory. Careers such as law, medicine, media, design, all come with a degree of 'the grunt' that is inherent in our understanding of it. It influences the way we approach it, the respect we have for it. Even careers that call on physical strength and labourconstruction, welding, wood-working have gravitas, a quiet nod to the toll it takes on the body. But there have always been professions that have fallen within a gap the ones that are taxing, without that tax being acknowledged.

The creator is the most glaring example of that ilk. It is an industry that makes big money, has an undeniable presence, and is growing on the daily. But it is still treated by the layperson with a measure of frivolity. Popular imagination can't quite reconcile taking #OOTD photos or shooting travel reels with the grind of a desk-chained nine-to-five. The average social media consumer is looking at that content constantly for outfit ideas, cooking hacks, travel tips, or relationship advice. And yet, because of the amorphous nature of the industry, that consumer can't ascribe the labour to it as their own day job.

But, in reality, creating can often be doubly draining for the creator; a lethal mixture of having to innovate and execute non-stop, for fear of losing an engaged audience. Most creators function as one-woman (or man) armies until they eventually acquire teams that help but the multiple facets of the job can be exhausting and still unaccounted for in the public spectre. We talked to six creators across the beauty, lifestyle, fashion, sex, and sexuality spaces to understand how the process can bring them to the brink of a burnout and how they pull themselves back from it.

IKISVON JAMANG | Fashion Creator

There's always been myriad pressures on a young model in the fashion industry, but adding 'creator' to that list only exacerbates them.