Help Ana Valens Recover From Burnout & Pay Her Bills

Heya! My name is Ana Valens, I'm a journalist, VTuber, and audio content creator who recently left the games media industry. And I am very, very burnt out.

If I'm being honest, I've been struggling with burn out since well before 2021. I went hard -- really hard -- as a journalist at Daily Dot, and as a freelancer before that. When I made the switch over to GAMURS as a managing editor for We Got This Covered, I burnt out within my first few months. Even in my last job as an editorial strategist, fatigue, anxiety, depression, they were all knocking at the door day by day.

Things increasingly deteriorated at GAMURS (you can read about this at Aftermath here , which describes the company as "hell" and "a race to the bottom"), where I was switched over to an SEO/news writer. There, I couldn't hit my 4x article per day quota, and no job to stave off burn out existed for me as an alternative. No extended or medical leave was an option, either, as I was told time off would ultimately lead to the same path: Being put on a performance improvement plan. I was given an option to end up on a PIP without severance, or quit and take severance.

So I quit.

And I've been grinding out my content creation career ever since, creating video essays and audio content for my fans, putting all my energy toward the only job I can bear to have while carrying half a decade's worth of burn out on my back.

I've been blessed with early success (and a growing income), but I still need support. I'm not making enough yet to actually, sustainably pay my bills. Which are expensive, living in NYC! I'm close to depleting my savings. I haven't been able to take time to rest and recover, which gets in the way of working. Due to the state of the larger media landscape, freelance media jobs are particularly difficult to acquire and low paying. And taking them is often robbing Peter to pay Paul, hurting long-term income.

These days, I wake up every morning frightened the money won't be there in time, that I'll lose everything once my savings are gone. I have no additional safety net, nowhere else to go. There won't be a future left for me once that happens. I literally have no idea what I will do.

I could really use some help just as things come together. A dollar goes a long way to pay the bills, provide some remaining safety net, and just make sure I can get an occasional day off or two. As my VTuber income begins to become a full-time, sustainable income, anything extra from my GoFundMe will go to time to rest and recover from burn out.

Thank you all for the support and for shares. ILU <3