TORONTO 鈥� Lilly Singh is the latest YouTuber to say she鈥檚 taking a break from the platform to focus on her mental health.
The Toronto native, known by her nickname 鈥淪uperwoman,鈥� released a video on Monday telling her viewers she is 鈥渕entally, physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted鈥� by the pressures of churning out content.
鈥淚鈥檝e been doing YouTube consistently for eight years,鈥� she said, pointing to her twice weekly videos and regular blog posts. 鈥淚 love it, but that doesn鈥檛 take away from the fact that it鈥檚 been a lot.鈥�
Singh, who has nearly 14.5 million YouTube subscribers, said she isn鈥檛 鈥渟uper happy鈥� with some of the videos she has made to keep pace with expectations on YouTube.
鈥淚t kind of is a machine,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd it makes creators believe that we need to pump out content consistently, even at the cost of our life and our mental health and our happiness 鈥� because if you don鈥檛 then you鈥檒l become irrelevant.鈥�
Other creators have addressed their own mental health challenges, saying they worsened with the crush of demands that come with being a YouTuber.
Ottawa-based Elle Mills published the video Burnt Out at 19 in May, after saying the pressures of being a successful YouTuber led to panic attacks. She eventually returned to posting videos about a month after signing off.
Singh emphasized she鈥檚 not leaving YouTube, but hasn鈥檛 made any promises for when she plans to return.
Singh is chasing a successful career offline as well, publishing the book How to Be a Bawse last year, starting her own production company and speaking at public events, including the United Nations General Assembly for youth in September.
Over the summer, she expressed dismay over how difficult it was to satisfy fickle YouTube viewers who seemed to only want more.
She doubled down on those thoughts in her latest message, suggesting creators shouldn鈥檛 measure quality by the number of video views.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I need to take a little bit of a break to truly re-evaluate what I define my success as, and what I want my legacy to be,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause right now it鈥檚 not something that I鈥檓 proud of.鈥�
Singh added that she couldn鈥檛 preach about self-care and happiness on YouTube if she wasn鈥檛 practising it herself.
鈥淵ou are the biggest and most important project you will ever work on,鈥� she added.
