No one quite prepares you for people’s reactions to the things you make and put out into the world. Some people love it, and others… well, they hate it. And on the internet, there never seems to be a polite way for people to say they dislike something. Instead, they reach straight for words like “slop” or other unkind labels.
Lately, I’ve been creating graphics around horror icons to grow my page. Now, if you know me, you know I am not a huge horror fan. I’ve only dipped my toes into the genre over the last few years because Hubby and my kids are super into it. Left to my own devices, horror is still not my thing—Hallmark is. I love the predictability. I like knowing the exact formula and who is going to kiss under the gazebo at the end. Scary movies just make me antsy, uncomfortable, and stressed, and honestly, I have enough real-life stress without inviting a masked villain into my living room to add to it!
Still, I decided to lean into the spooky season for my page. On October 25th, I made a post for National Chucky Day, followed by one for Ghostface. Both were really well-received! Soon, people in the comments were requesting Art the Clown from Terrifier.
Wanting to give people what they asked for, I put together an Art the Clown post. Almost immediately, it brought in the highest volume of comments I’ve ever received—and a lot of them were brutal.
Because I use AI tools in Canva to help generate some of the imagery, people immediately attacked it as “AI slop.” Some commenters even claimed that the actor who portrays Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) had publicly spoken out against AI and would hate what I made. That made me pause, so I actually went and researched it. As far as I could find, it wasn’t even true—he hadn’t made any sweeping statements for or against it in my research. People were just stating rumors as facts to pile on.
What frustrated me most is that using a tool like Canva doesn’t mean I’m just pushing a button and walking away. I actually take the time to research the lore and fix things when they go wrong. For example, on my first graphic, the movie timeline generated wasn’t right. So I went back to the drawing board, recreated a totally different timeline with more of a fun coloring-page feel, and made sure to manually add All Hallows’ Eve (2013), which I thought was Art’s first appearance.
Then, a gentleman in the comments pointed out that Art actually made his very first brief appearance in a 2008 short film (The 9th Circle). See, that kind of feedback I don’t mind at all! Teaching me a piece of trivia I didn’t know—especially in a genre I’m still learning about—is helpful and cool. It’s the difference between sharing knowledge and just trying to tear someone down.
Which brings me to the hardest part of trying to build a page from scratch: How do you deal with the negativity?
Truthfully, I don’t know yet. People always say, “Just ignore the haters and let it go,” as if there’s a magical switch you can flip. For me, letting go is so hard. When someone leaves a nasty comment, I don’t just read it and move on with my day. I focus on it. I perseverate on it. It camps out in my brain for the next three days while I replay it over and over.
I’m trying to grow this space, learn new tools, and step outside my comfort zone, and I have a feeling the comment section is always going to stump me a little bit. So I want to ask you guys: when you’re dealing with criticism or unkindness—online or in real life—how do you actually let it go? What are the things you do to stop the three-day mental replay and just keep moving forward? Let me know in the comments (nicely, please!).
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