Our advice column for all the questions that feel too weird, too personal, or too “is it just me?”. Spoiler: it’s never just you.
Ask Sunnie: What to Do When Your Creative Passion Starts Feeling Like Pressure
*Quick reminder: The advice provided in this column is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. For any health concerns, diagnoses, or treatment plans, please consult your doctor.
Flour Shop founder Amirah Kassem
If you’ve ever seen a rainbow explosion cake on your feed—the ones that literally spill sprinkles when you cut into them—you already know Amirah Kassem’s magic.
But before she was making desserts that basically broke the internet, she was just in the kitchen with her mom in Mexico, baking for fun. That hobby turned into FLOUR SHOP (aka the most colorful bakery ever) and then Hall Pass Ice Cream in LA, where every scoop is made from scratch and inspired by things she loved as a kid.
This month, one of you dropped a question for Amirah that we’ve been wondering about too.
Amirah:
I love this question. The truth is: once your passion turns into your job, some parts will feel like work. For me, if I’m talking about straight-up baking, yes—it can feel like a job now, and that takes away a little of the fun.
But it didn’t take away the things I actually loved, like being curious in the kitchen, experimenting, and coming up with new recipes. That’s still the fun part. And once I realized that, I made sure to set things up so I could spend more time on creativity. I built a team to help with the baking so I could focus on the part that lights me up.
I didn’t start baking just because I liked baking. I started because I loved making something for someone else, seeing their reaction, and watching them get excited. That’s the piece of my “why” I’ll never lose, and I think if you figure out your version of that, you won’t lose yours either.
The other thing that can steal your joy is comparison. And I know, it’s so hard when you’re scrolling and it looks like everyone else is already successful. But not everything you see is real.
When I first started Flour Shop, people thought it was an overnight success because I was baking for Vogue and celebrities. What they didn’t see were the years of early mornings, the mistakes, or me pretending I had a whole marketing department by making fake email addresses when really, it was just me.
So the next time you catch yourself thinking, Wow, they got so lucky, remember—most people worked for years before anyone noticed. Don’t compare yourself to someone else’s finish line. Compare how much drive you’ve got, how curious you’re staying, and how many times you’re willing to show up. That’s what actually counts.
