At just 24, Esther Fernandez has already built a powerful platform at the intersection of creativity, content, and mental health. As a copywriter and social strategist at Made of Millions – a nonprofit founded by mental health sufferers and advocates – she’s part of a team creating meaningful, myth-busting content in a space too often flooded with misinformation.
In this refreshingly honest Q&A, Esther opens up about boundary-setting as a digital native, resisting hustle culture in LA, and how small, everyday routines (and good friends with food) help her show up creatively and sustainably.
Have you ever struggled with setting boundaries in your career, and how did you handle it?
I think most people struggle with social media boundaries, and working remotely as a social media manager only exacerbates that. It can be difficult to “clock out” when your workplace is in your pocket at all times. The internet moves quickly, which can create pressure to stay vigilant. When a post does well and begins to pick up traction, when a trend is taking off that you want to participate in, when there’s a big news story circulating – so many factors make it hard to log off.
In the early days of being a content creator, I used to be online at all times. Imagine the dopamine hit of seeing a video gain a million views within a few hours, with thousands of comments spilling in? I’d spend hours scrolling through replies and seeing who was interacting. Plus, talking about mental health is deeply personal and elicits strong responses from people. It took a while for me to adjust to that intensity. It often feels like people are bearing their souls to me and sharing the most difficult experiences they’ve ever had. It can be hard to compartmentalise and not feel overly responsible for their emotions.
I quickly learned I needed to establish a lot of boundaries, especially with the added layer of being a woman online, which naturally brings out sexism or sexualisation. I had to learn how to create a safe environment for myself: filtering words, turning off comment sections, and deleting any threads that get out of hand. I learned to pay more attention to what was dysregulating my body. I have practical rules, such as not checking social media right before bed, and more internal reminders, like not taking any comments too personally. Overall, content creation is fun and exciting, but you need to create safeguards around it.
How do you protect your creative energy while managing deadlines and demands?
I’ve been really into exercising lately, and I like the analogy of weight training: You lift heavy, tear your muscles, and then give your body fuel and rest so it can rebuild your muscles even stronger. You have to have both in order to grow: hard work and recovery. So while it’s tempting as creatives to want to maximise output and never have rest days,