My Essay on Local Love: “My Clap-Back at Online Bullies Inspired a Global Self-Love Movement”

“My clap-back at online bullies inspired a global self-love movement…”

Ahh, I never thought that I’d see words like ‘clap-back‘ and ‘self-love movement’ used to describe me, but that’s exactly where I found myself last week with my newest byline!

In fact, my first piece for Canada’s Local Love was actually inspired by YOU — all my new friends on social media!!! As dark and disheartening as it was to encounter those internet trolls, the response to my viral tweet showed me that there’s still light shining in this world. Thank you for being my light, friends!!! And thank you to Valerie Howes for being such a caring editor!!

Here’s an excerpt of the piece, in which I talk about the need to make social media — and the internet in general — a less toxic place…

I’d go as far as to say that the outpouring of support was life-changing for me. My confidence has grown, especially with regards to my disability, because however much I’ve put myself out there as a writer over the years, I’ve always struggled internally with feeling and looking different. Since my Twitter following multiplied tenfold, to 72,000 followers, I’ve felt the warmth and acceptance of my newly expanded community every single day.

There will always be dark corners of the internet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all play our part in making it a brighter and safer space. That could mean something as simple as giving someone a positive shout-out on Twitter, sharing a good-news story or sparking a respectful conversation around an issue that matters to you.

You can read the full piece here and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me anytime at mellow1422@aol.com and let’s chat! And of course, feel free to share my essay on Facebook, Twitter or even your local refrigerator. If you share on Twitter, be sure to tag me @melissablake so I see your tweet and we can connect! I can’t wait to hear from you! Love you all… xoxo