I had a pin go viral on Pinterest—here’s what changed
The pin in question.
It is a dream of mine to one day write a book. The desire to hold a copy of my words in my own two hands has steadily grown over the past several years and in 2025, I feel fit to burst! I want it so badly my chest aches, my hands clench, and my eyes mist up just thinking about it.
And, as anyone in the writing world knows, publishers are businesses and like to know the book will succeed before investing thousands of dollars into the project. Which is fair. But oh, so very frustrating, too.
I have an idea for a book that’s been percolating in my brain for the past several years, but the idea still feels very fledgling. It’s like a feather on the breeze, one moment coming so close I can almost grasp it, and the next, whisked away in a powerful gust. Never close enough to fully hold on to.
So, while I was making my 2025 vision board on Pinterest, I wanted to save an idea that would help me keep taking baby steps towards the bigger goal of writing and completing and publishing a book. The catch was I couldn’t find the exact pin I wanted. In a moment of inspiration, I opened Canva and created the pin myself. I then shared it on my profile so I could save it to my vision board without a second thought.
Several days later, I opened Pinterest and got the shock of my life when I noticed that this pin had been saved over 90 times. Every day, I checked back in. Every day, hundreds more people had seen and saved this pin. In the month of January, over 70 thousand people saw the pin and 1200 of those individuals saved the pin to their own Pinterest boards. I was floored.
As a writer who hopes to one day publish a book, growing my audience is often on my mind. I hate the thought of self-promotion and balk at sharing something as simple as a blog post. If I could have my way, I would prefer organic growth that requires little to no effort on my part. I just want to write, not promote my writing!
But, because an audience is often seen by publishers as potential customers (how crass?) I do think about this a lot. And think about what it would feel like to go viral, how my opportunities could change if I did.
Granted, this pin going viral didn’t change my follower count by much. It didn’t result in many new blog subscribers. It didn’t translate into the crazy insane growth we sometimes picture when we hear that something “goes viral.” But it did change my perspective.
On the one hand, it was exhilarating. It gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe writing can be something more for me, that I can write books and posts that will encourage many. That all my efforts are not in vain and maybe writing a book isn’t such a far-fetched dream after all.
But on the other hand, it was a bit of a letdown. I thought I would feel different, more successful somehow. I think in some ways, I believed I would be a better creative by virtue of people valuing my work. But I’m still the same me and my writing is still the same as it was.
I know it’s the biggest cliché in the world, but once you achieve the goal you’re working towards it often doesn’t satisfy in the same way you thought it would. In many ways, I think the pursuit is more enjoyable than the catch because you still have anticipation and hope of what’s to come.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that if the act of creating isn’t the end in and of itself, we will be disappointed with the response to our work. If the acts of writing, drawing, photography, art, working out, reading—if we are doing these things to achieve a specific end, it will be a lot less satisfying than if we are simply doing these things to enjoy the good things God has given us. The point isn’t to be productive, rich, or famous. The point is to worship our Creator through the act of creating.
What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
-Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
