Abi, often known as the Mushling Mama thanks to her slate of original Mushling characters, is an illustrator and artist who has found success online by sharing her love for all things forest-related with the world.
Abi’s first Makeship Plushie creation was for her well-known Fly Agaric Mushling– at the time, February 2022, Abi had 70,000 followers on Instagram, a number which has since exploded to over 450,000. Her success on IG has also allowed Abi to launch her own Esty shop, as well as branch off on other social platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. In fact her TikTok following is quickly rivaling that of her Instagram!
Abi clearly knows something about how to become a successful content creator, and turn one’s passion into a career– she is now a full-time artist and content creator, and relies on platforms such as Makeship to help her maintain this endeavor.
We spoke with Abi for our interview series Creator Catch-Up, where she talks to us about the launch of her artistic journey online, how she was able to grow her account, transitioning to content creation full-time and more.
Hi Abi! So let’s start with the basics: tell us how you first started your account. What year was it? What was the motivation or inspiration behind starting your account?
Hi Makeship! I started posting my art around May of 2021. I wanted to tell the story of a little toad named Mort, in hopes of one day making a children’s book about him! However, I quickly moved to drawing the mushlings, and once I started doing that I did not want to draw anything else!
How were you able to grow your account? Was it a slow progression or overnight success sort of thing? Was there any particular moment or post that led to your account growth?
My following grew pretty steadily from the beginning, and I believe a lot of my followers initially came from Reddit. I would post my illustrations and paintings on r/art, and I think it is a little easier to not get lost in a sea of posts over there since a greater number of people will sort by “new” posts. The feedback was incredible, and thankfully the things I loved drawing the most gained the most attention. A lot people said wonderful things about the mushlings, and I couldn’t help but keep drawing them.
“My following grew pretty steadily from the beginning, and I believe a lot of my followers initially came from Reddit. I would post my illustrations and paintings on r/art, and I think it is a little easier to not get lost in a sea of posts over there since a greater number of people will sort by “new” posts.”
Eventually, I moved on to animating so I could make the mushling world come more to life, and the animations gained even more love! It was the most rewarding feeling seeing my first animation get the support it did, since it was such a new and difficult thing for me to learn (and I am still learning today!). The animations definitely gained the most attention, and are ultimately what grew my account to numbers I never thought possible.
Was there any specific tactic or approach you took to social media that helped grow your account, in your estimation?
I definitely think posting frequently and consistently is important to growing your account initially. For a while, I would post 3-5 times a week around the same time each morning. I also posted to both Instagram and Reddit, and having multiple social media accounts helped bring followers from one platform to the other. However, I never tried to post whatever just so I had content to push out.
At this time, I was lucky, constantly drawing, and a bit sleep-deprived because there were so many ideas in my head that I was motivated to create. It was easy to keep sharing drawings I loved and was passionate about. I think the true key here is that I was posting frequently and it was something I loved making. Forcing yourself to create something when the passion isn’t there is only going to hurt and isn’t healthy, and breaks are necessary for tired, creative brains.
“Forcing yourself to create something when the passion isn’t there is only going to hurt and isn’t healthy, and breaks are necessary for tired, creative brains.”
Do you have a day job or are you a full-time creator?
I am a full-time artist! My new current goal in life is to let my Bachelor’s in Mathematics collect dust while I draw Penny Bun blinking silly. I made the transition to being a full-time artist right around the time I hit 1,000 followers (about three months after I started my Etsy Store and sharing my art). My job at the time was transitioning into a position where I would have far less time to draw and create, so I quit and chose the mushlings! I am incredibly lucky and so thankful because my parents were fully supportive and told me the best time to go for it would be that moment, so it just made sense to take a shot at the more “risky” path.
It was the best decision I ever made, and being able to work on this full-time opened up so many new opportunities like learning to animate and reaching out to wonderful companies for collaborations (especially the plushies c; ). Being able to put all your energy into something you love is bound to give you success and/or fulfillment!!
How important do you think it is to find a “niche”? How long did it take to find your niche?
I think having a niche is pretty important, so long as you truly want to make whatever it is in that niche. It is much easier to follow an account with consistent content, rather than stuff that is all over the place. For example, if you like one thing from an account, and the rest of their content is similar to that piece you liked, you are more likely to follow them! That is not to say that people shouldn’t experiment with different styles/media however.
You can only “find your niche” once you find out what you are passionate about making. The following and account growth will come after. In order to do this, I suggest creating whatever you feel the desire to create! Don’t try to follow trends or make something because it’s popular, do it because you want to. All my most successful pieces were things I either wanted to hang up in my own room or have as a wallpaper on my phone, and plushies I wanted to give a hug to. I think it is a mix of a little luck and the result of doing what I loved that my audience found me and loved what I created just as much as I did. If you somehow built an audience doing something you didn’t care for, then what is the point in having a creative career?
“You can only “find your niche” once you find out what you are passionate about making. The following and account growth will come after. In order to do this, I suggest creating whatever you feel the desire to create!”
Experiment with making stuff you love, until you find something that you can’t help but think about and want to build upon. For me, it became a near obsession with the mushlings in how much I think about their little world, their personalities, and what I want to draw next, but I absolutely love it and couldn’t imagine a life without them!
We’d love it if you could share one final piece of advice for a creator that’s just starting out!
Pour as much of your heart into it as you can! That is the best thing you can do, because regardless of what external feedback you receive on it, you can be proud that you made something you wanted. The more you do it, the better it will get too! No one is born with innate talent to be a master of any creative field, but they can be born with the drive to become great through the countless hours of practice and hard work that is required. And through it all, make sure to have fun with it because that’s why you’re doing it in the first place :)
