A YouTube personality known to her fans as IISuperwomanII announced in a video Tuesday that she is stepping away from the platform to focus on her mental health.
Lilly Singh, who has more than 14 million subscribers, said after eight years of consistently posting content to her channel she is "mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted."
"This is not clickbait. I'm not trying to get on the trending page. I'm not trying to make a dramatic thumbnail to get views. The title is not a lie. I am planning to take a break from YouTube," Singh said in a video titled "I'll see you soon."
While Singh told her fans that she enjoys sharing her content with them, the pressure to be consistent is a lot.
"I know I'm always about hustling and hustling harder and making to-do lists and being productive, but I'm also about happiness. And I always preach that you should be happy, you should take care of yourself. And what kind of person would I be if I preached that but didn't actually practice it myself,” she said.
The YouTuber went on to say that there are "many reasons" she wants to temporarily stop posting videos, but the main one is because she needs a little self-love.
"I want to be honest with you, I could be happier. I'm not my optimal happiness right now, I could be mentally healthier," she said. "I don't feel like I'm completely mentally healthy. There's a lot going on up here that I need to address and I'm not able to constantly pump out content."
Singh assured her fans that she is not leaving YouTube for good and said her break could last a week — or a month. She said her break will also give her time to focus on her other projects like her merchandise and #GirlLove, an online movement to empower girls.
The hiatus will also allow Singh to "get some of (her) creative energy back" and decide what direction she wants to take her YouTube career in.
"YouTube has changed so much. I don't completely understand it. I feel like I've just been trying to put out content, put out content, will this work, will this work, and I'm not particularly proud or happy with all of it,” she said. “There's some things I'm definitely proud of, but there's others where I'm just like, I'm just doing it because I think I have to on this platform that demands constant content."
Since posting her video, it has garnered over one million views and an outpouring of love and support from fans on social media.
Singh is the latest YouTube star to step away from the platform to focus on mental health. In May, Spanish gamer Rubén Gundersen, known to his fans as El Rubius, said he had "hit the wall" and needed to "disconnect" after revealing that he had sought out a doctor to help him deal with his anxiety.
Erik Phillips, known as M3RKMUS1C, Jake Paul, Benjamin Dreyer Vestergaard, known online as Crainer, and Alisha Marie have also stepped away from their popular YouTube channels are expressing to fans that they needed a break.