“I really love being a creator sometimes. Last week I was at a local con, selling enamel pins and this teenager - I think he was a teen, but he looked like a giant toddler - comes over in his gaudy-as-heck pink jacket. Face is fresh as morning dew but he’s got a real tired look in his eyes, until he sees somehing out the corner of his eye that makes him light up. Like I swear you could see stars in his eyes. Things is, I used to be big into a silly show called Crying Breakfast Friends and still had some pins left in the grab box. Never sold a lot of them cause the show was old by now and those were some early pins I made so they were not the best, but he goes absolutely feral over them so I say he can have them for cheap. He’s about to pay when he sees my other pins and their prices and insists to pay full price. I’m taken aback and for some reason try to argue, but he says “Look, you are not my moms, you can’t survive on love and light alone”. I sorta didn’t process that, but was more focused on stopping that boy from overspending on some crappy pins cause he seemed real nice and then he just follows it up with “I get it. You don’t think they are as good as the other ones, but you put the same work into them as the others. They are an important part of how your art became yours and that’s why they are some of the most important pins you ever made”. This kid nearly made me choke up and I gave up argueing against getting more money.
So we start talking about CBF. It felt real good to talk about something that you thought only you cared about with someobdy else and we really got along. And the kid used to be a superfan, used to make reaction videos and fanart and roleplayed with his breakfast, even made breakfast OCs. The last thing he didn’t really want to talk about, because he got real quiet all of sudden. How can breakfast hurt you that bad? But I managed to cheer him up by saying I’m gonna make more CBF pins and would send him some. He was super grateful and told me to send it to the beach of his city. I wanted a real address but he said the postwoman there would know what it meant.
And just as he leaves he say “My therapist said I should reconnect with the things that make me happy to combat my PTSD and existential dread, so thanks, you really saved me here” boy you’re 16, ur welcome but what the hell?
UPDATE: I found his tubetube account and yeah, there’s all the reaction videos but also he apparently used to be part of SADIE KILLER AND THE SUSPECTS like he played a bit of guitar with them and documented their sessions and uploaded them AND HIS DAD WAS THE MANAGER THAT LAUNCHED THEM BECAUSE HE ASKED HIM TO DO IT wat? I have so many questions. Like did the rockstar life give him PTSD before they even got big? Does he have a dad and two moms? was his dad his mom? is this a trans thing? who is that sweet boy?
SECOND UPDATE: Apparently his dad is an underground rock legend and a millionaire cause his song appeared in a sprite commercial. I’m done. How are people real”
from the blog of a pin designer
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