Creative Downloads — Feb 2026

Written By Chanee Hylton

Here’s what is speaking to me as a creative recently.

Owning the whole pie. Instagram’s great for getting a fit off. TikTok’s great for a good. Substack's great for writers reclaiming their voice. But what if we actually built our own worlds? for visual creatives? What if our outdated portfolios became domains that reflects every layer of what we feel called to express?

Less for show. Less for visibility. More for the art. More for the craft. Something about it feels as bespoke and novel as carefully crafted MySpace layouts and tumblr pages. Something about it feels back to a truer time in history.

Creative Social Climbers. Today’s creativity is easily templatized. Anyone can try on anyone else’s “aesthetic”. Theres a scarcity of people sitting with themselves long enough anymore to even know who they truly are. It's exhausting watching posturing and proximity get you farther than talent. When you're performing full-time, when is there space for cultivation?

But I feel a shift, the real ones are getting back in the field. And if they’re already in the field, then claiming more space and be awarded for being the true movers and shakers of this creative shit.

Creative meetups without the frills. Step foot into any mixer in NYC, and everyone's working the room, exchanging handles, promising to link up soon, but then nothing substantial comes of it. I think about the Harlem Renaissance, and the the late 90s as digital mediums exploded. Did creatives back then struggle this hard to just hold space with other people who were also blooming?

I don't think the problem is a lack of third spaces. It's that we've forgotten how to use them. Cafes. Hotel lobbies. Parks. Libraries. Museums. Wine bars. They're all there. We just need to stop treating every gathering like a networking event and start showing up to actually be with each other.

From TikTok to YouTube. My favorite creators right now are the ones who've committed to YouTube. Think President Kennedy, Hello Qori, Syd Paige, SadeShakur, Monet McMichael, Allyiahsface. There's something about long-form content that demands intentionality.

You can't fake depth in a 20-minute video the way you can in a 15-second trend. These creators take their time, let you in, and that craftsmanship bleeds into everything else they make. And honestly? I'm ready to create there myself.

That’s all for now.

Chanee Hylton