Madison reads in the comments. She scrolls on and on through thousands of hate comments, just as each one gets worse.

This is Madison Cashmere, a popular influencer, she posted relatable and get ready with me content, everyone followed and loved to watch. But when this year began everything changed. Her dad passed away, and she shared her struggles and grief on social media. Suddenly, she was getting ten times the views she had before.

Negativity? Maybe if Madison surrounded her page with negativity, she could become even more famous. Maybe all the hate would make her more relevant. But Madison was already struggling with loneliness and depression.

She’d been turning to things she thought would help her cope, drugs and alcohol. Now, she was beginning to wonder if the attention she craved was worth what she was losing in the process.

Madison keeps posting increasingly negative content because the views keep climbing, so the more they do the more she gets paid. Eventually she can’t justify whether people genuinely care about her or are simply waiting for her to break.

She posted, video after video, and honestly people were getting concerned for her. She was getting so much negativity. But she was getting views. As her views were getting better, her addiction was getting worse.

Day after day, her health worsened. Her videos began to be posted slower, people were nervous for her. Madison couldn’t do it anymore, she couldn’t control herself.

One late evening Madison was slumped over on her couch, when all of the sudden, *BANG BANG BANG* on her door. Someone outside was screaming “OPEN UP”. Madison didn’t move an inch. They busted the door down. It was the sunny side mental estate team, medics, and Madison’s lawyer.

The medics rushed to see the state of Madison and get her onto stabilizers, they were dressed in blue suits and wearing protective gear. While sunny side mental estate workers and her lawyer, gather information upon the hole and around Madison. They take her from her home to the sunny side mental estate, while she is still completely out of it. Her phone, laptop, and other things not able to have in the estate were being held by the sunny side coordinator so this would better help her heal.

Madison finally awakens in the facility and immediately asks for her phone. The coordinator explains that she won’t be able to have access to it for now, Madison panics, not because she misses her followers, but because she is terrified they’ll forget her. She is faced with a question of reality. Does Madison know who she is without an audience? She had no comments to read, no videos to make.

For Madison, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. But Madison was doing better, working on addiction withdrawals, she started therapy, faced grief, and learned that her worth wasn’t measured by views and money.

One day she received an unexpected letter from a fan, who wrote, “I hope you get better, not because I want more videos, but because you deserve to be happy.”

Madison cried. For the first time, someone reminded her that she was more than her content.
Maybe negativity did get more attention, but Madison finally understood that attention wasn’t the same as love and respect.