Not Everything Needs to Become a Brand

Somewhere along the way, we stopped allowing ourselves to simply enjoy things.
Every hobby became a potential side hustle. Every interest became content. Every talent became something we were encouraged to monetize, optimize, or turn into a personal brand. I think that’s EXHAUSTING

I started noticing this with reading. I’ve always loved books. Reading is something I do quietly, personally, and completely for myself. It was never about performance or “how many books can I read in a year?“. It’s  just something that makes me happy. Thennnn “BookTok” exploded.

At first, I found it fun. I loved seeing people excited about books again, especially with the decline in literacy in our country. It felt like this huge online community of readers sharing recommendations, reactions, and opinions in real time. Naturally, I wanted to participate too. So I started making content around the books I was reading. I was sharing reviews, I was making recommendations, trying to keep up with the masses.

Then things started to shift. Instead of simply enjoying a book, I started thinking about whether it would make good content. I started paying attention to what was trending, what people were talking about, and what would perform well online. Reading started to feel less like an escape and more like an assignment. It felt like I wasn’t just reading anymore, but now I was producing. This realization is not limited to just books, though.

We see it everywhere now. People turn baking into businesses. Fitness into coaching brands. Journaling into content series. Photography into client work. Even rest and self-care somehow become things we need to package aesthetically for the internet.
We’ve created a culture where enjoying something privately almost feels like wasted potential. There’s a constant underlying message that if you’re good at something, or even if you just love it, you should be finding a way to turn it into income, visibility, or influence.
But what if we don’t want to? (I don’t lol) What if some things are meant to exist outside of productivity? (Some things are)

Not every hobby needs an audience and not every passion needs a business plan or to become part of your personal brand. Sometimes a hobbies are just that, HOBBIES. I think a lot of us are quietly grieving the way social media has changed the relationship we have with the things we love. The moment a hobby becomes content, it can also become performance. You stop asking yourself whether you actually enjoy something and start asking whether it’s shareable. The pressure to constantly produce can drain the joy out of the very thing that once helped you feel grounded.

That’s why I returned to reading without feeling the need to document it and enjoying experiences without immediately thinking about captions or engagement.

It’s okay to just do stuff for the vibes.