Where I’ve been the past 4 years: Why I almost closed down my blog and social media accounts

Remember the early blog days, where people shared personal updates and a peek into humanity? I’m going to jump in a time machine and pretend it’s 16 years ago, when I started this blog, and give a little update that I think has been a long time coming.

I almost left everything last year. Like truly walked away for a more private life and just quietly deleted my social media accounts and my website.

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I’m not an impulsive person; I had a long time to think about it. Truly, I had REALLY good reasons. In fact, I’ve noticed TONS of my favorite blogs have gone dark, many of my favorite creators have deleted social accounts, and people I thought were top of the industry are choosing to close down or just quietly walk away and quit posting.

If you’ve ever wondered WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE DO THAT? Especially those of us who have spent decades in this job, and been lucky to build big platforms, I thought I’d share my reasons that almost pulled me out. And I’d venture to say, I think at least one or two of these are the reasons you’re witnessing a lot of creators jump ship.

Here’s a breakdown of 15 reasons I almost deleted my blog and social media last year. It’s an honest look at industry changes, personal experiences, and some insight into why you might be seeing many creators jumping ship on a career they worked so hard to build.

And if you’re a skimmer, let me add a little table of contents to let you jump to specific things!

For those who have been with me following along with my blog and social media accounts, I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me and your love and support! The kind messages asking if I’m okay, notices when I pop in with some physical changes, and some emails kindly saying you miss the daily publications. Wow, this community has been the best, and I feel forever grateful for your support, even when I haven’t been around much.
And this is the very reason I feel like it’s time I pull back the curtain and give you a look into some personal things, and offer some explanations! You deserve to hear where I’ve been the last 3-4 years and why it hasn’t been very much online.

Here’s my scary confession.

Last year, I almost walked away and shut down everything online.

I think anyone who has been around these parts would be shocked to hear this! I absolutely love writing, and I’ve wanted to be an author my entire life. I have the best community online, and I’m truly convinced of that! I’ve been beyond lucky to have a lucrative career that I have really enjoyed, thanks to chronically over-sharing on the internet. And I think when you dedicate so much time to building and creating something, it’s truly amazing to see anyone choose to walk away.

Let me give the ending away right now: I didn’t walk away last year! (I hope you read that and caught the joking tone; clearly, I didn’t shut it down!)
And I’m not walking away now. In fact, I’ll share some future plans and the status at the end of this post (feel free to scroll down if the suspense is killing you).
But I still have so many good reasons that any single one would give a very valid excuse for closing it all.

Anyone I have shared even a sliver of any of these details with in person has been like “Girl! I can’t believe you pushed through that!”

I hate to ever be a victim, and I’m surely not. But I’ve learned the creator job title often comes with a lot of work, and even more luck. I’ve been lucky to grow in areas and platforms, and I’ve also learned what some truly unfortunate luck can look like, too.

So I thought I’d give a little insight into some personal things, some industry things, and why you might be watching a lot of well-established bloggers and creators pulling the plug on things right now. And I’ll give you a little happy ending, because I’m all about surviving the drudge to get to the happy weekend and making life a party again around here.

Let’s go through a few quick and wild things that happened in mostly chronological order. There are 15 big reasons I almost walked away.

Part 1: Things Out of My Control

1. The Pandemic Really Changed Things

For a girl who shares getting out, places to go, things to do, family travel, and Disneyland tips– the screeching halt of the world shutting down made things quite weird for my niche and content.
We did our best to help all of you in the same boat, desperate for ideas and fun. And your kind comments and emails let me know the need was strong! But I can only do so many at-home dates myself before I’m ready to scream and go literally anywhere. Content was tricky, and navigating going places again was also tricky.
The normal things we shared weren’t being searched, and traffic and content changes created a lot of pivots. I had to cut down my team and seriously pivot content. Truly, for about a year and a half, I wondered if things would ever go back to normal and if what I did would be needed again!

Let me also add that our nanny left us right when the pandemic started, and we didn’t have childcare while trying to be two working adults with toddlers. Oh, it was a wild time! And I think that’s when I started to feel some of the first signs of burnout in a stressful time. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I ever quite found my groove again before the proceeding things happened.

And let me share perhaps my biggest one that I may go back and delete someday…

2. Kids with Big Needs

I hate when people share big, dramatic, yet vague things on the internet. But out of respect for my kids, whom I greatly try to limit and protect the privacy of, I’m going to ask for forgiveness for being vague here.

One of my kids has had significant health needs. Lots of doctors, lots of appointments, and the kind of hands-on, all-hours attention that meant I had to start saying no to contracts I couldn’t commit to. I couldn’t leave home, couldn’t guarantee timelines, couldn’t control something very out of my control. Kids typically outgrow what we were dealing with — and after five very hard years, they really are so much better. But when I say I cried myself to sleep more nights than not, I mean it.

To any parent quietly carrying something hard and doing it mostly alone — I see you. You can’t share it, but you desperately need community. I’m so grateful for a husband who has been right there with me.

Honestly, people take leave of absence for family emergencies. This was ours. And I genuinely believe this season is going to be a blessing for us as parents and both my kids in the long run. We’re mostly pulling out of it — though there are still days I have to drop everything and go full all-hands-on-deck. It’s far less, but there were years I never thought this day would come.

3. My Own Health Problems

I’ve shared my struggle with infertility, hormone imbalances, and blood sugar issues before. But they all felt manageable for so long. That is, until my health really took a sharp nose-dive.
I will fully admit that this is mostly due to the second reason on this list. Life got beyond stressful for so long. Then, two years ago, I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. My doctor let me know in no uncertain terms that the amount of stress in my life had just about hijacked all my hormones, my sleep patterns, and my health.
I was not in a good place! We’re talking, I lost about half my hair as clumps fell out, both rapid weight gain and rapid weight loss, inflammation, I was constantly sick, and I was chronically exhausted and spent the first time in my life sleeping long stretches, while also needing a nap to function.
Migraines are unfortunately a big part of my life, and the frequency has been tough!
Also, I had a septoplasty and sinus surgery just a few months ago to deal with the chronic sinusitis and struggle of constantly feeling drained and sick. I’m pleased to report that even though the surgery was tough, it was a complete success, and I have a different life from this alone! Plus, it produced this viral moment, so there’s that!

I also had to face the music; I’m a type II diabetic. Which I know, and manage pretty well with diet and exercise. But all the health things have a way of setting each other off, and I truly had the worst symptoms and a pancreas that was in protest mode. It takes changes and time to see things heal. We have changed my already restricted diet even more, tweaked medications, and finally pulled me out of chronic fatigue and adrenal fatigue.
For everyone who lives with a chronic condition and carries on, I see you. I think I never fully understood how challenging just doing basic tasks can be! And I truly have a different outlook on the saying, “If you have your health, you have everything!”

But it was a real struggle to get through mom life, and work life. And I’ve had to give myself some grace the past few years.

4. My Own Strange Social Media Experience

This is weird to talk about, and I’ll probably never say it on the actual platform — but bear with me.

On one of my biggest platforms, where I was earning most of my sponsored income, something beyond wild happened. I was on my first girls’ trip to Disneyland, so excited to share lots of fun content and collab videos with friends, when my account froze on day one. I could log in, but couldn’t post, comment, or reply. Basically useless.

Turns out, a video of mine had gone viral — more viral than a brand’s own post featuring their product. So they reported me for brand infringement. I’m not an attorney, but I’d literally sold their product (with affiliate links to show it) by sharing a fun way to use it. Didn’t matter. They filed the claim, then turned around and made similar content themselves. (Sidebar: this brand has a well-known reputation for doing this to creators. Not an isolated case.)

I cleared it up relatively quickly with legal proof — their own team confirmed it. But here’s the kicker: the brand openly told me they never remove their filings and love watching accounts struggle. (Alexa, play Karma by Taylor Swift.) The platform told me the claim would tank my reach, keep me out of recommendations, and basically put me in social media jail for about a year and a half.

This happened to be the year video content exploded, people grew massive followings overnight, and nearly all brand deals shifted to that platform. But for me, posting felt almost pointless. And I was stuck this way for about two years until I literally saw the claim gone and everything magically get reach again.

At the time, I took it as the universe nudging me toward other priorities — namely, my family. It was infuriating and felt deeply unfair, and there was nothing I could do. But if you’ve noticed me quieter on social media, now you know where it started. And once you take a step back, you start to notice a few other things like…

5. Social Media Changed

Remember when social media was about following people you actually liked? Their life stories, fun ideas, original creations? Then the algorithm shifted to prioritize scroll addiction over community — not entirely bad, just a big change. And then short-form video arrived, and honestly? Trends can be so delightful! Seeing original takes on a sound or concept is genuinely fun, and early TikTok was really doing it.

But as it spread to every platform, something else crept in: oh my plagiarism. I went on a brand-hosted Disney trip and watched creators scroll through saved videos and recreate them frame-by-frame — same sound, same scenes, same outfits, same gestures. Zero original take. And I think it’s becoming the norm. We’ve landed in an era where fighting the algorithm has left creativity itself in a drought.

As someone who watched blog copyright lawsuits happen in real time and used to read the most original takes on everyday life daily, I’ve been scratching my head for two years wondering what happened. It shifted from “inspired by” to straight-up “they went viral doing this, so I’ll do exactly that.”

So to my long-time creator friends still making their own OG content: standing ovation. 👏 Long live actual creativity! I think we’re starting to circle back — but wow, it’s been hard to want to jump into daily creation when every scroll looks the same.

6. Social Media Ethics

I also need to add that social media platforms have evolved in ways that should alarm users. From data collection to diminishing communities and connection, we’re in a different landscape than we were in even five years ago!
I just read the book Enshittification, which does an economic breakdown of how platforms are making user experiences worse to make more money for themselves. I saw the class action lawsuit recently lost by two major players, finding them guilty of trying to harm children.
It’s really hard not to stop and ethically ask ourselves how we feel about propping up these platforms and making them more money.

But on the other hand, I’ve personally experienced so much of the community, goodness, finacial benefits, and connection that happen.

It’s a tricky thing I’m still trying to work through.

7. Social Media Etiquette has Changed

Remember when social media started, and it felt a lot more…social? Now that we mostly see people we don’t follow, it’s turned into a very different user experience! I love a good meme video share as much as the next, but I’ve been pretty floored at the attacks and bullying I see online.
I feel really lucky to have such a kind community, and I’m actually so grateful I’ve never made it that big on social media! But I see it in almost every viral post the moment I go the comments. People and also bots unleash some of the wildest comments and negativity online that I swear wasn’t there a few years ago.
It’s a very strange thing to watch social media turn into just media with much social. Also, isn’t wild that people openly criticize any and everything, right down to the choice of what color spatula a creator is holding in a cooking video?

8. Copyright Infringement

Aside from AI concerns (which I address more later) I actually have had a few legit copycats I had to get attorneys involved in. Some were legit full legal issues, some other creators stealing content or products I’ve created as their own as their business strategy. Some were the hackers you’d expect. However, some were publishers I personally know, and made the call not to pursue legal action even after my legal advisor really thought I should.
It’s such a wild thing to just be a girl on the internet sharing fun ideas, and to have people try to actually steal your livelihood. Things got weird, and it made me turn into the bearing teeth emoji often.
I do have a business degree, and I do understand a competitive market. However, there’s quite a difference between sharing your own list of ideas and taking 95%-100% of someone else’s and writing it as your own. I think I’ve never quite understood how websites and social platforms can claim to be creators when they don’t have their own content, feel comfortable sharing their unique personality, and stories to share.
There was a year or two I wondered why I was writing something I knew would appear on a handful of specific websites within a week. The amount of copyright infringement takedowns I was filing weekly (and luckily winning!) was truly amazing!

9. The World Changed

I’ve always been a creator who paused my content out of respect for big events, hard historical moments, and big news days. Those used to feel like a maybe once a year thing. But lately it feels like an at least once a week thing. I have a hard time sharing the happy, fluffy, fun things of life when things are heavy. There has surely been a lot of heavy!

10. Search Engine Core Update

For those who may not know, most bloggers make a big chunk of their income from their websites, and specifically from search traffic. But you may have seen some of your favorite bloggers who, at some points, were bringing in millions of pageviews a month, completely close down their site. RIP, my favorite niche holiday recipe blog.

And that’s because there have been some major search algorithm updates that were handed over to AI to run. These are regular, and search updates and algorithm changes happen all the time! But there were two updates that were known to literally change search overnight. And you may have even noticed about two years ago that search results were often quite…strange.

One update left Google engineers scratching their heads, with no idea why some terrible spam sites were in the top search positions, and some of the best-established experts no longer even ranked.
They even invited many site owners to come to a conference to try to figure things out. Guess who got an invite? Narrator: But she would not go due to the mom conditions that kept her on call 24/7 in a hard health period.

But I literally watched my site lose about 95% of traffic and earnings overnight in one update.

I know a fair amount about SEO, but I do know an expert considered top of my field, whom I reached out to. He confirmed this was industry-wide, with so many established and verified site owners in the same boat.

Watching everything you worked for, literally change overnight, is a wild thing! And I had SEO experts confirm that it was truly no fault of my own and just a time search engines needed to figure themselves out.

I have a happy ending here, after almost two years, I had an update bring back most of my traffic, and some categories back better than ever!

But this happened not long after the social media stuff, and I had a while to ponder if the universe was telling me it was time to leave.

This was actually the thing that made me stop and realize how little control we have over all things online! Things can change in an instant in your favor or to your demise. And I thought I’d wait it out a year and see at this point.

Nine months later, everything would almost magically fix in a month, leaving me to evaluate my own desires.

But let me warn you, Googling as we know it is dying this month, and being replaced with AI results only. So we’ll see what happens in the wake of another huge internet shift!

11. The Rise of AI Search

In my former life (AKA corporate job), I was a technical project manager without any shyness to new tech! I like to learn and try to stay on top of everything. But something I could not anticipate was how quickly AI would hit the scene, and how they’d train off blogs and content creators. Oh, the stolen content built on years of hard work!

I refuse to be left behind and not utilize what I do think is a part of the future. I do try to ethically use it to help with organization and data sorting. But I’m pretty committed to being a Camille-written site, and trying to hold companies accountable.
So many bloggers have left the industry deflated that this ended things for blogs and site owners when all their content is scraped and stolen.
I’ve gone from doom and gloom to cautious optimism as so many people are still looking for real people’s voices. And I’m here making the promise, it’s my writing and voice that will appear on this site!
I’ve had to sort out how much I wanted to put any more out there after this massive technical revolution that’s been completely out of my control!

Which has led to…

Part 2: Industry Changes and Life Changes

Let’s start with a few big shifts in this job and industry that have left me the upside-down emoji thinking through where I fit in, and also some personal changes that led to stepping back.

12. My Husband’s Job Took Off

Right as mine seemed to be starting to struggle for any or all of the reasons above, I watched my husband’s job really level up. He had more responsibility, bigger projects, bigger clients, bigger opportunities, and a lot more stress that comes with leveling up.
He’s always been supportive of me, but I could feel the need to step in and give him his time to really focus even more on his career.
It’s like as things went down for me, they went way up for him. It has been a season of putting our time and effort into me doing more for the home and family, and him spending more time at work.


We also could throw in church. He does a lot of volunteer time for our church with his current leadership calling. We choose this, but it should also be noted that my normal support system has been strained due to his opportunities and our family’s support of them.

13. Kids Growing Up and Personal Privacy

I like to think that I’ve been pretty aware of internet dangers from the time I gave birth. But two years into parenthood, we had a breach of privacy from someone online that made me feel the need to scrub my kids’ names from the internet. It made me realize we would likely pivot even more as kids grew up and the narrative naturally changes from my life as a mom to their own personal lives as kids.

For the record, we’ve always paid our kids and have set up college and IRA accounts for any money we’ve made that involved content they’ve helped create.

I’ve tried hard not to use my kids as content, while still being a family blog. It’s a wild think to try to honor real family activities and travel and still be protective. My kids would LOVE to be more involved, and would also love to make more money.
I’ve tried to explain to them why we try to choose images that don’t show much of them, or at least show less of their faces. Also, 10 years ago, the internet wasn’t clocking and storing so much info, AI wasn’t scanning faces (and even fingerprints), and sharing family pictures online wasn’t the same as it is now. So it’s hard to judge past me for standards now.
There’s no way for kids to fully comprehend and consent. So we’re riding a tricky balance of helping them with a better future and keeping their personal lives more sheltered.

I know people have strong opinions both ways. But trust me, we’re doing our best, navigating it carefully and doing what we think is right for our family.

14. Monetizing Content Changes

I’ll be super frank, I do believe content creators work a hard, never-ending job, and making an actual living doing it full-time is exactly what they should do! It’s so much work, and people absolutely should be making money!

But in 16 years of running this website, I’ve watched the revenue streams change significantly. What started as product placement in stories that one was already writing evolved and quickly turned into far more commercial-sounding sponsorships. These evolved to actual commercials, sales pitches, and much more aggressive sales tactics.
Many creators sign a creed that they won’t talk politics or religion, which I do think is fair for brands to ask! And personally, I talk about both very little these days. But that’s a choice each creator had to make and will continue to make.

A few years ago, most advertisers shifted to one platform, and with that came more marketing copy and less creativity. Creators realized they could control their own content and make more money through affiliate links — and I’ve watched that make a lot of people genuinely wealthy. I share affiliate links myself!

But every time I log into the biggest social platform these days, I feel like I’ve walked into a home shopping network with less storytelling. The marketing pressure to buy now, grab the deal, and participate in mass consumerism is relentless — and I say that as someone who loves a good shopping moment. I also can’t ignore the financial debt crisis and landfill problem my country is drowning in. I have real ethical concerns about sharing anything I don’t genuinely love.

We’ve become the “Digests of digests” Ray Bradbury warned about in Fahrenheit 451 — all links, no stories, no connection. And that shift has been genuinely hard for me.

Do I make good money from affiliate links? Yes. Do I share them? Yes. But I’ve had to draw my own lines and hold a mirror up to myself about where I stand. Honestly, I’m still sorting through it — I shift on this one weekly.

15. Old Fashioned Burn Out

After a lot of years of working every second my kids were asleep, during babysitter hours and school hours, and often literally burning the midnight oil, working until 2:00 a.m. after I put kids to bed, something physically and mentally changed. I think my health problems finally gave me the excuse to admit I was burnt out and not feeling the same motivation to work. I hadn’t had a vacation for more than one week at Christmas in about 10 years. I was working on vacation, working whenever I sat down, and couldn’t turn my brain off to ever relax.

Sometimes owning your own business is a dream. Sometimes, it’s a never-ending thought process you have to work to turn off and lose sight of how to do that.

I think after about 10 years of documenting everything, always having a professional camera with me, and inviting anyone who wanted to join through pictures and video on every date and family activity, I had a moment where I just didn’t. Honestly, it felt like a much-needed break. While I still love documenting and sharing, spending a few years not taking pictures and having date night be just the two of us without any pressure to share felt like a needed break.
We needed some date nights to just do something less exciting and talk about hard things. We needed family outings without telling the story. And we also did a few Disneyland trips without ever even sharing. It felt like a little breath of fresh air to just enjoy life and heal from burnout.

Phew, that’s a lot to get off my chest!

And let me tell you why, after all of this, I’m sharing it now and my plans for the future.

Why I didn’t close things down, and where I’m going from here.

I know that’s A LOT of good reasons to step away. In fact, I think most people have mad respect for creators who step down for any of the above reasons.

But let’s talk about why I didn’t.

This Community

I mentioned above, but I truly believe the readers of this blog and my social community are tops! We’ve raised thousands of dollars to help with charitable causes. Most are well-educated moms and dads who truly want to create a family culture of fun and memories. They care about their marriages. They care about their kids. And we all find moments of connection in such a busy world that I just can’t even fathom the good I’ve seen through the internet!
I’ve had people actually reach out and ask where I am online and tell me this content makes for a bright spot in an often dark and harsh online world. There has been no greater compliment or more humbling thing to hear!

Thank you for being patient. Thank you for encouraging me. And thank you for commenting and sharing, and keeping all the conversations going to help support each other. There are real people online, and I’m so lucky to have met and get to facilitate conversations for some of the best of the best!

Plus, the email list community has grown far past my social accounts, and it’s been so fun to get to connect with you in a different way! Thanks for keeping the lights on and the bills paid, email community, you’ve been a fun gem in a hard moment of my life!

Spiritual Guidance

For someone who just said they don’t talk relgion or politics a lot, let me bend that rule here right off the bat. First of all, I am a fairly spiritual person, and I definitely took some thoughts and concerns to God. I figured the signs were there; it was time for a different path.
I ultimately felt like I should leave things be, and spend some time taking a step back and focus on the needs of my kids and my own health, support my husband in his growing career opportunities, and NOT close things.

It’s miraculous how the moment I decided to go in a different career direction, everything seemed to work out and come back.

I guess I’m supposed to keep trying to help couples have a better marriage, families make more memories, and moms know they have a safe community to be a part of.

I Actually Love This

I think it’s the coolest job in the world to get to share fun ideas. I love helping others find ideas. I love helping alleviate the mental load for moms. There are few more rewarding things than the emails and in-person thank yous from couples and families who have had something improve or a core memory made because of something we’ve shared.

I am a chronic over-sharer, and I think writing and talking to a camera about things I’m excited about (spoiler alert, most things!), is truly where my heart lies.

So friends, there’s one of the longest life update posts I’ll ever write. And something I felt the need to get off my chest in full honesty and transparency before you start seeing new posts on the blog and on social media a lot more regularly.

What to Expect Moving Forward

I’ve been slowly overhauling the blog in the background for about a year now! I’ve removed a lot of less helpful content and fixed a lot of issues.
As of today, I’m planning on at least one new article a week, but hopefully more! This is a big improvement since I haven’t published in over eight months. But I already have a bunch scheduled and tons of drafts coming while I fall in love with writing again.
We’ll see how things go with search continuing to evolve, but I know I have a great community here who finds me through email, readers, and direct search. I’m lucky to have you guys!
This is a good time to plug that you should totally join my RSS feed so you get notified by email when new posts are live!

Also, I plan to walk back into social media even with my reserves. The blog will come first, but social is a place I’ve missed and hid away from sharing, mostly only Disney trip content. I’m still sharing that, but you’ll see some regular publishing and series pop back up.

I’ve been filming for years and just not posting. I’ve written and innovated a lot of series. It’s just time to actually get over this hump and start publishing all the fun! And it’s going to be a regular thing like it was before.

Thank you again for being here! Thank you for the kindness. Thanks for reminding me small voices and blog posts and videos truly can be helpful. I don’t take your time or presence for granted, and I’m very excited for the Friday We’re in Love comeback tour (which will be blog posts and social media posts without any naivety that I don’t have any actualy go on tour skills).

And from here on, we’ll commence with content and helpful ideas for moms, marriages, and family fun!