So! Now that I'm back from vacation, I have a strong pulse to make and create, as well as having smelled the fresh air of independence and friendship again. So, I want to open up this discussion before moving on to new comms.

What happened? So, this year, in about 3 days, I will be present at SizeCon Micro, which, for those that don't know, is the biggest size convention that happens online through Gather. And yeah, if any of you will be present, you may see me going around~ When I was buying the ticket, they asked me if I wanted to participate as a vendor, and/or as a spokesperson, and I agreed to both, sending in links to my accounts and a few images/pics for the vendor part. After a few days, they told me I couldn't make it as a vendor or a spokesperson, because despite the fact that the art I sent wasn't against their rules, what I posted on my accounts was. What was the problem? "Child" characters. They were very chill, and we discussed it at length without any problems, and I thank them for it, as this kind of discussion is never a discussion, just an all-out war between the participants.

But what happened made me think. I figured that compared to other creators of similar age/number of posts/type of content, I was growing far slower in terms of followers, which I see as people thinking many of my posts are nice, but only a few want to stick around and have me in their notifications. So I thought, could it be that it's also related to me making content with characters with certain characteristics? Though I also took into account the fact I do various different things, I'm someone who has a wide range of likes and that results in many different forms of content. You all may also confirm or disprove my hypothesis here.
But this mishap with SizeCon, made me also realize, that with certain bigger communities, and possibly companies, my posts could go against their policies and limit my reach.

However, as we've all seen from stuff like PayPal and other service providers, one shouldn't just change themselves to every whim of others, especially if the whim of others can cause a wider phenomenon of mental closure, hypocrisy, blurring the line between fiction and reality, as well as actively endangering what many are saying they are trying to protect.
My thoughts on the matter are the following: characters are characters. They are figments of the imagination one can change however they want. They do not have experience, don't have a life. What is in fantasy stays in fantasy. And ultimately, yes, their age is indeed just a number. What I want to be clear about is that I am not telling anyone to enjoy content made with those specific characters. I myself don't like some types of content (especially of explicit sexual nature) with various characters, regardless of the number they put on the wiki regarding the media they come from. And it is my firm belief that not allowing content from these characters on several major sites as a rule may cause more harm than good. But that goes on into the wider discussion about it, which I feel can be its separate thing, and I don't want this post to be too long as I would like more people to read it.

Another thing I want to be very clear and honest about, is that I cannot just stop making content with those types of characters. As you may have seen from my commission work, a lot of characters do fall within that character type, and banning that type of character would cut me quite a large chunk of what I do that I, currently, cannot afford. What else I cannot afford? Losing time, and currently getting struck because I didn't look up a character's age, or having to tip toe around half my posts when I already had to do it for irl photos.

Recapping, doing "child" characters may be slowing down my growth as a creator, and making me lose time posting them in the right place at the right time is getting annoying. But it's also a very big part of my income I cannot afford to remove, as well as my beliefs on the matter being that it is more damaging to remove this content as a whole.
So, what will the changes be? I thought of the following:
1) If the character looks like they could be an adult in the way I draw or render them, it is considered an adult in every shape or form in my media going forwards. Examples: many anime/manga characters I've done, like Fire Emblem, Persona, Pokemon characters, ATLA characters, or characters with unconfirmed or not mentioned age, like Mario or FNAF characters.
2) If the character looks like they could be a child in the way I draw or render them, they will either have to be aged up to be posted (examples: buff/adult-looking Sonic characters, different proportions with certain more child-like Pokemon characters etc.; also wth DA? What is the problem with aging-up characters then? That really makes no sense at all)
OR be kept in their original design, but automatically be counted as private, in which case, if the commission was higher than 80€ they would get an extra 30% price, like any other private commission.

These changes are the best thing I could come up with, but if you do have any other ideas I would gladly hear them. These changes ensure that I can keep working with those characters without having too much of a deterrent to them, my accounts stay basically clean, with all my post being adult-looking or adult-confirmed characters, as well as possibly incentivizing clients to choose other types of characters. And to top it all off, I am not internally hypocritical between what I do think about the matter and what I actually do and work on.

Thank you for listening. This was a long one, and if you have any questions or any ideas I'll be glad to discuss them in the comments~ I'm sure I don't have to say anything more, because I think I have gathered a pretty chill and wholesome community, but just in case, remember that we are all people, let's be civil in this discussion around this topic. I understand it's a very touchy subject, I do know that, but it can be discussed without blowing everything up and attacking each other. At least, I believe so~ 💖