I started creating content in 2022, when I was 24 years old. At the time, I had big dreams. I wanted to grow on social media, build a name for myself and turn my passion into something that could open doors for me.
I was in the lifestyle and beauty niche, and I focused mainly on Facebook and Instagram. I had a business of my own, and that business helped me fund the lifestyle content I created. I believed that if I stayed consistent, invested in quality content and kept showing up, things would eventually work out.
I had no idea how difficult the journey would become or how much it would affect my life.
I Posted Almost Every Day, but Nobody Seemed to Notice
I was consistent. I posted regularly on Facebook and Instagram, sometimes spending hours planning, preparing and creating content. I wanted my pages to look good, and I wanted people to notice my work.
But the engagement was disappointing.
I would create content, post it and wait for the views, comments and reactions to come in. Sometimes, almost nothing happened.
I struggled to reach 10,000 followers on Facebook and had around 7,000 followers on Instagram. No matter how much effort I put into my content, the growth I wanted seemed so far away.
I started wondering what I was doing wrong. I saw other creators growing, getting attention and attracting opportunities, and I couldn’t understand why my own efforts weren’t producing similar results.
I tried different things because I desperately wanted a breakthrough.
At some point, I started paying people who claimed they could help me increase my engagement and grow my accounts. Whenever I paid for their services, things would improve for a few days. For about five days, I would see some activity and begin to feel hopeful.
Then everything would return to normal.
The engagement would drop, the followers would stop coming, and I would find myself back where I started.
It became a frustrating cycle. I kept spending money because I wanted things to work, but I wasn’t seeing the lasting results I expected.
A Single Content Day Could Cost Me Almost ₦500,000
One of the biggest problems was how much money I was spending to create content.
Whenever I planned a content day, I could spend close to ₦500,000. I wanted to produce lifestyle content that looked attractive and met the standard I had set for myself.
At first, my business could support these expenses. I was able to use the money I made from my business to fund my content creation.
But as time passed, the expenses started becoming too much.
My engagement was still low, yet I continued spending heavily on production. I was putting money into my online presence without seeing the growth or opportunities I had hoped would come from it.
Eventually, my business began to feel the pressure. It was becoming increasingly difficult for it to continue funding my content creation.
I knew something wasn’t right, but I was already emotionally invested in the journey. I had spent so much time, energy and money trying to make it work that giving up felt difficult.
I kept hoping that the next post would change everything.
Maybe the next video would go viral. Maybe the next picture would attract the right audience. Maybe the next investment would finally pay off.
But that breakthrough wasn’t coming the way I expected.
The Pressure Started Affecting Me
I became frustrated with everything.
Imagine putting so much effort into something, spending money you worked hard to earn, and still feeling as though you were making no progress.
That was how I felt.
Social media had become a source of pressure for me. Instead of enjoying the process of creating, I was constantly worried about my numbers and whether people were engaging with my posts.
The disappointment became difficult to manage, and I started drinking heavily and consuming substances.
Looking back, I can see how much the situation was affecting me. I was struggling with the gap between the success I wanted and the reality I was experiencing.
I wanted my content to work. I wanted my pages to grow. I wanted to feel that all the money and effort I was putting in meant something.
But the results weren’t coming, and I wasn’t coping with the frustration in a healthy way.
I had allowed the struggle to affect more than my social media accounts. It was beginning to affect my well-being, my finances and the way I felt about myself.
Then something happened that I never expected.
The Fan Who Became Someone Special to Me
During this period, I met a man on Facebook.
He was one of the people who followed me and supported my content. We started talking, and over time, our conversations became more frequent.
He showed interest in what I was doing and began sending me money to support my content creation.
At a time when I was struggling to fund my content, his support meant something to me. It felt good to have someone who seemed to believe in what I was trying to build.
We continued talking for about two months.
Gradually, the relationship moved beyond social media. We became closer, and eventually, we decided to meet physically.
I travelled from Lagos to Abuja to see him.
I stayed for about a week before returning to Lagos.
At the time, I believed I was meeting someone I could trust. He had been supportive, we had spent time talking, and I felt we had developed a connection.
I returned to Lagos and continued with my life.
I had no idea that, some months later, I would be dealing with news that would change the way I looked at that relationship forever.
The Hospital Visit That Changed Everything
Some months after I returned from Abuja, I started feeling unwell. Something didn’t feel right, and I knew I needed to find out what was happening.
I went to the hospital and underwent some medical tests.
The results revealed that I was living with HIV.
I was devastated.
I struggled to process what I had just been told. So many thoughts went through my mind, and I broke down in tears.
I was frightened, confused and overwhelmed. I kept thinking about my future and trying to understand how my life had reached that point.
After I got home, I contacted the man I had travelled to Abuja to see.
I told him about my diagnosis.
His response was something I never expected to hear from someone I had trusted.
According to my account of that conversation, he apologized and told me that someone else had given him HIV. He then allegedly told me to give it to another person so that we could all die together.
I was already struggling to come to terms with my diagnosis. Hearing those words made an incredibly painful situation even more distressing.
I had travelled to see someone I believed I could trust. We had spent months talking, and he had supported me when I was struggling with my content creation.
Now, I was left trying to process my diagnosis alongside the hurt and confusion surrounding that relationship.
I cannot adequately describe how that moment made me feel.
I was dealing with a life-changing diagnosis, and the person I had trusted had responded in a way that left me deeply hurt.
It is important to say that my diagnosis alone cannot establish exactly when I acquired HIV or who transmitted it. That is something that requires appropriate medical assessment and evidence. But the experience, the conversation and the emotional impact have stayed with me.
I Am Living With HIV, but My Life Is Not Over
Today, I am living with HIV.
It is something I have had to come to terms with, and it has changed the way I think about my life and my future.
But living with HIV does not mean my life is over. With appropriate medical care and antiretroviral treatment, people living with HIV can live long, healthy lives. Treatment can also reduce the virus to an undetectable level, at which point HIV is not sexually transmitted.
I am sharing this part of my experience because HIV should not be treated as a reason to shame, reject or dehumanize anyone. People living with HIV deserve healthcare, respect, support and the opportunity to live fulfilling lives.
My diagnosis is part of my story, but it does not define everything I am or everything I can become.
I am still a human being with hopes, fears and a future.
And My Social Media Pages?
One of the things I find difficult to reflect on is how much I spent trying to make my social media pages grow.
I invested heavily in content production. I paid people who promised to help me increase my engagement. I kept posting, hoping that consistency and money would eventually produce the results I wanted.
Yet the growth remained slow.
Now, my pages are gradually receiving some engagement, but it has been a long and painful journey to get here.
Sometimes, I think about the money I spent, the pressure I put myself under and the effect everything had on my business and personal life.
I wish I had understood earlier that spending more money does not guarantee better engagement. I wish I had been more careful about how much I invested in content production and more attentive to what the pressure was doing to me.
I cannot change what has happened, but I can reflect on it and learn from the experience.
What I Wish I Had Understood Earlier
If there is one thing I wish I had understood when I started creating content, it is that social media growth should not come at the expense of my well-being.
I thought that if I kept investing in my content, paid the right people and maintained a certain lifestyle, I would eventually get the engagement I wanted.
But content creation is not that simple.
You can spend a lot of money producing content and still struggle to reach people. You can have thousands of followers and still find it difficult to build a sustainable income. You can post every day and still need to rethink your strategy.
I wish I had paid more attention to my finances and set a budget that my business could comfortably sustain.
I wish I had understood that I didn’t need to spend close to ₦500,000 on a content day to prove that I was serious about my career.
I also wish I had taken my emotional well-being more seriously instead of allowing the disappointment to push me towards unhealthy coping habits.
And when it comes to relationships, I have learned that someone supporting your work does not automatically mean that you know everything about them or can safely place your trust in them.
Meeting someone from the internet requires caution. Personal safety, honest conversations about sexual health, HIV testing and appropriate prevention measures are important. These conversations should not be avoided because of embarrassment or fear.
Most importantly, I wish I had understood that my worth was never supposed to depend on how many people liked, commented on or viewed my posts.
My Story Is Not a Reason to Give Up on Content Creation
I am not telling my story because I believe content creation is bad or that nobody should pursue it.
I know that social media can create opportunities, help people build businesses and connect creators with audiences they might never have reached otherwise.
But I also know that there is a side of content creation people rarely talk about.
Behind the pictures and videos, some creators are struggling financially. Some are battling the pressure to grow. Some are spending money they cannot afford to lose. Others are dealing with personal problems that their followers know nothing about.
When people see a creator online, they often see only what has been posted. They may not know what it cost to produce the content, what the creator is going through or how much pressure exists behind the scenes.
My experience has taught me that success should not be measured by appearances alone.
I still have a life beyond social media. I still deserve peace, good health, genuine relationships and a future I can look forward to.
And no matter how slowly my pages grow, I have to remember that there is more to my life than engagement.
If my story teaches another creator to protect their finances, take their mental and physical health seriously, be cautious about online relationships and stop measuring their worth by social media numbers, then I hope sharing it will have meaning.
Because creating content should be an opportunity to express yourself and build something meaningful. It should never require you to lose sight of your own well-being.
