Opinion: “You should sell your art” isn’t the compliment you think it is.

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I’ll admit that the first time I heard the term “side hustle,” I assumed it was a dance move and immediately ignored it. As I delved further into my creative hobbies, though, I noticed it popping up more and more. Essentially, a side hustle is a job you take on in addition to your primary occupation. This can be an official taxed job with a paycheck or something you start yourself, but today the term usually refers to creative activities like painting and baking. Artists are frequently encouraged to monetize their hobby and start a small business, especially over social media. Ever the contrarian, I have a few problems with that.

First of all, the phrase “side hustle” is annoying. Why should your passion be a “side” thing? I play and listen to music all the time, and while I don’t currently make money from it, I don’t think I would ever call it a side project. If you feel that you’ve found your creative calling in life, the phrase is insulting.

Furthermore, you shouldn’t have to turn something you love into work. In our heavily profit-motivated society, everything centers around making money. Anything that’s not a corporate job is automatically a side project, and that’s absurd. There’s a sick, silent implication that any time that’s not used to make money is wasted. That line of thinking completely denies average people the opportunity to enjoy life. Some people just want to use their free time creatively, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s easier than ever now with websites like Fiverr (where you can pay people around the world $5 for services like logo and web design) to market your talents, but that shouldn’t be an expectation.

In fact, having a hobby is healthy and is something everyone should have the chance to enjoy. With so much happening in the world every day, it’s important to have time to relax, and it can improve mental health. It’s vital to have aspects of life that don’t revolve around money. Turning your hobbies into work means you’re working all the time, and the activity that once brought you joy becomes nothing but another stressor.

With such a large gap around the country between minimum wage and the cost of living, full-time artistic work is increasingly seen as unrealistic. It’s just generally accepted that if you have a talent, you should use it to make money but it can’t be your main career. This corresponds to a disappointing lack of funding for the arts in the U.S. (except people who make NFTs, but don’t even get me started on that). Public opinion seems to be that artistic careers are only financially viable as an auxiliary to a “real” occupation. Is it such a radical idea that people should be able to comfortably support themselves on the income from one job?

None of this is to say that people who choose to put effort into side hustles are wrong in any way. We don’t live in dreamland, and people have to make a living. I certainly don’t fault anyone who finds success in marketing their skills. The unfortunate reality is that it really is hard to make money as an artist, and we all have expenses. If someone successfully starts a business from their creative hobbies and that’s something they genuinely want to do, more power to them! It’s an impressive achievement, but it shouldn’t have to be the norm.

However, not everything can be fixed overnight. While minimum wage is still inadequate in almost every state in the nation, you should support small creators whenever possible. If you have friends who sell their art, let people know. When you can’t support artists with your money, use your voice instead. Individual acts can lead to large-scale change.