what would you say to louis fans who can’t help but stress over charts and numbers and etc? like i really wish i didn’t care but it’s just so annoying seeing harry fans calling him a “flop” and making fun of his voice or w/e and then there were those awful reviews from the guardian and whynow too. i think i wouldn’t stress as much if louis hadn’t said he would love for fitf to be commercially successful bc i really really want him to have that bc he deserves it so much but i don’t think he will and that makes me really sad :(

okay well first of all, I'm sorry you're feeling stressed! That's no fun :( For starters- while Louis did let slip that sure, he wouldn't object to FITF being commercially successful (like once) he's said many, MANY more times that it is NOT his priority. He seems to have a very healthy relationship to the idea of it being a hit, like wouldn't that be a kick?! But it would be a fun extra, not the goal. When asked to define success for himself recently, he said it was to be happy with the music he's making and that he is, he's said many times in the past he defines success as being able to tour, he issued a whole manifesto letting us know that he would be pursuing something other than commercial success with this album before he even began writing it- the man knows the industry and he knew what he was choosing, and yesterday he told us yet again that he is on twitter a couple times a day and sees a lot more than people think. This last one is connected I believe; all of this talk about what kind of success he wants isn't something he's telling the GP, he's telling US, he's telling YOU. He's literally saying, chin up love, I'm good. Please stop worrying about me! Because he sees the discourse and what people say, and he is addressing it directly. So you know, who needs me when LOUIS has himself addressed the topic!

But what I would say? I would say that I think this isn't about him, it's about us. He's literally a multimillionaire living his absolute best life and *loooving it* right now, but we aren't! We're just Common People trying our best to survive a brutal and miserable world that attacks us every day with more stresses and fear, and we turn to fandom and to Louis to have something NICE, something that feels good and doesn't make us want to cry. So when that escape is full of negativity or isn't going the way we want it to it really feels like shit and hits hard. And the like ideal world answer to that problem is to go all Louis and say paradise is in your own mind, don't rely on stuff outside you for happiness because you can't control it so it may let you down at any time, but I know- that's high level goals, that's not necessarily realistic in the day to day. What you can do though is remember that the idea of being here in this fandom is that it's supposed to give you happiness and ease and relief from the outside world, and once you've remembered that it makes it easier to see how to fix where it's going wrong. UNFOLLOW EVERYONE WHO POSTS CONTENT THAT MAKES YOU FEEL STRESSED OUT! Literally. Just do it. Mean harries OMG why would you want to see that?!? Block. Bye. People making fun of his voice??!! Literally insane and definitely on the wrong side of history, laugh at them, and then block. Anyone who thinks Louis *can't* write a number one hit in his sleep is honestly stupid, he wrote dozens?? The man wrote so many he got bored of it and was like, guess I'll take on a new challenge now... (If it was by 1D and it was a banger...!) Who cares what they say? I didn't know Louis got a bad review in the Guardian! And that's fine! I don't care!! I saw that important indie music magazine NME gave him 4/5 :))) That was nice. News I can use! I come here and scroll down my dash and see everyone being happy and showing me Louis being happy and it's nice and it's fun. Unfollow everyone you don't know that posts that stuff, if you have friend blogs you feel like you can't unfollow, blacklist all their tags or their name so you don't see the negative content. Find new blogs. If you feel like you can't make the leap to actually unfollow people, try making a separate tumblr (like from a diff email) and just following no stressful blogs and try that dash for a while without changing your old follows, just see what it's like. Every time you see something that makes your stomach clench, unfollow or blacklist. See if it could work out for you.

Listen: I know everyone says this, and people are just like suuure but I can't actually do that, I need to know what's happening but I PROMISE- nothing important is actually happening with all that! On the rare occasion it's actually interesting or whatever, it'll cross over. Unstressful people will talk about it in a less stressful way, either to discourse or to make fun, and you'll find out, and you won't have missed anything. Seriously- try it. I know it *feels* like we owe it to Louis to stress about this stuff or something, like if we don't think about it we're letting him down or something but that's just anxiety thinking! It's magical thinking: if I don't reblog the good luck post something bad will happen. If I tap in a certain pattern it will protect me. If I keep on top of everything people are saying about Louis I can help him. Magical thinking is a symptom of anxiety disorders, and no shame in that who doesn't have fucking anxiety these days, but it also FEEDS them, and the last thing we all need is more anxiety. Care for yourself by giving yourself the gift of an easy and pleasurable online experience! I want that for you and so would Louis.