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“Reflection turns routine into learning and tasks into practice for a better tomorrow.”
Omar Bennett
Having discovered a love for reviews via my mental health blog (www.imnotdisordered.co.uk) and from creating yearly re-caps on social media, when I realised that June/July brought the opportunity to do a bit of a mid-year review for Gracie’s Way and its first six months, I didn’t have to think twice on deciding to create an article for it! I had a lot of fun putting this together and in looking back over these first six months of Gracie’s Way, and the lessons I’ve learned and the realisations I’ve had from doing this Review, I’d like to say the biggest thank you to all the readers and followers and literally just anyone who has mentioned the project to others! It wouldn’t be the amazing position it is now if it weren’t for you, so thank you and I hope you’ll continue to support and interact with the project. Now, let’s kick things off with a look at all the first decisions related to the creation of Gracie’s Way…
Reviewing All the Fundamental Decisions Made Before Launching…
This seemed like a more creative way to start a Mid-Year Review than beginning with January! We will get to monthly reviews, but I wanted to start with a few more general reviews that will also provide some background to Gracie’s Way for those who haven’t been here since Day One. But I won’t go into an actual, detailed introduction to the project – because there’s an entire page on the website that does that: About The Project | Gracie's Way! – and I won’t do an introduction to the namesake of the project and the ultimate inspiration for it; my beloved rabbit, Gracie, because there’s also a website page that does that: About Gracie | Gracie's Way!
Decision #1: the order I did things before launching
Having only discovered and started using Chat GPT in around November/December 2025, I actually used AI to help me with Gracie’s Way from the very beginning, and when I say beginning, I mean… BEGINNING…
Using AI from Day One – or Day Zero depending on how you look at it! – means I actually have a really good foundation for talking about and reviewing my decisions on the first things I needed to do for Gracie’s Way because I used AI to gather what it would recommend I do first and you can programme Chat GPT to save/archive previous prompts with it, so that’s how I was able to trace the history back to the first one regarding Gracie’s Way…
And it looked a lot different – and meant something very different – in the very beginning because it actually originally started as an idea to be a service or resource that one organisation (Waythrough – who provide my Recovery Workers) offered its service users. This was because the very first idea for Gracie’s Way was inspired by a discussion at one of their events (there’s more detail on this in the About The Project page I linked earlier), and so the first prompts to Chat GPT – after the one looking for inspiration for the title of the project – were around what I should do first for a project to become embedded in an organisation. When it suggested creating a Strategy document, I felt that it was way too soon to be doing that and instead, I created an advertisement poster and the logo.
When myself and the Waythrough staff who’d attended the event and offered to support me with the idea, established that it was going to be quicker to get it ‘off the ground’ if I just went ahead and did it as a more personal and individual project then sought the support/endorsement of Waythrough. We also recognised though, that this didn’t mean Waythrough wouldn’t support it or collaborate with it in any way, but this was a much easier way of doing that because I would just have to pitch it to the communications and marketing team instead of going through a ton of the higher-ups to approve the project in general. I ended up really liking this thought too because I very quickly realised it also granted me a heck of a lot more creative control – and anyone who knows me, will agree that I like to have control!
Even going it alone though, meant I still needed to create some sort of Project Document or Strategy for Gracie’s Way so that I had something I could use to pitch to Waythrough to eventually endorse it. So, I turned to Chat GPT again and asked what should be included in the Document and I spent a lot of my time doing that. For anyone who is curious, the Document has:
1. Introductory Pages which include: a note from myself, Project Purpose, Project Scope, Target Audience, Demographics and Statistics, Platforms, Engagement Metrics, and Projected Reach, Safeguarding, and SMART Objectives.
2. Project Plan pages which included Evidence of Relevance and Necessity via Surveys and Research, Timeline and Milestones.
3. Project Contents pages which include Supportive Materials for Bereaved Owners, Professional Resources including the Training Package, Communications and Marketing Items, Endorsement/Collaboration Opportunities Available.
4. Project Analysis pages which include a SWOT Analysis and a Risk Register with Mitigators.
5. End of Document pages which includes Other Documents Available and a Contact Page.
As I was doing that Document though, I got to the part about Project Contents and realised I couldn’t put those pages together before actually designing the resources and materials and so, when I had done as much of the Document as possible, that’s what I moved into creating. This took a lot longer than Project Document had been because I had to design seven for bereaved owners and six for professionals!
With the realistic and frustrating recognition that this would be a heavy workload, I decided to use Chat GPT again by prompting it to advise what the contents should be for resources under the names those I thought of by myself. Again, if anyone’s curious; the first three resources I designed ware Understanding Your Grief (which you can read about here: Understanding Your Grief Guide | Gracie's Way), Pet Bereavement Coping Guide (which is here: The Pet Bereavement Coping Guide | Gracie's Way, and the Wellbeing Activity Guide (which is here: The Wellbeing Activity Guide | Gracie's Way).
Decision #2: choosing to only create an Instagram account & other social media decisions
That last bit rolls nicely into this decision because not only was it the next thing I did prior to the launch, but I had also decided to just have one social media platform for Gracie’s Way based on my prediction of what the workload could be for me. Having three social media accounts myself (Instagram and Twitter: @aimes_wilson and my Facebook profile is private and only for family and friends) has meant that I have a lot of experience and evidence for my realisation that it would take a lot of time and effort to maintain three for Gracie’s Way. And not just necessarily it being about Gracie’s Way but also acknowledging that I would obviously still want to manage my own three platforms.
I chose Instagram as I think it’s a fairly popular platform – particularly for pet bereavement themed content – and also because I think it’s a lot more interactive in terms of the different additions you can do to Stories etc. And I think that this is a potentially important quality to have in order to become successful/popular. I also prefer it for the visual content side too – I feel that carousels are so much tidier than a Facebook post with a ton of pictures and there’s a ton more options than Twitter allowing just four images per tweet – and it helps that I seriously love creating Reels too!
I did make a few additional decisions around Instagram and the content on there over the last six months, but I’ll chat through them in chronological order of when they occurred, later…
Decision #3: the method I used to create the website
When I first started my blog, I’m NOT Disordered in 2013, I Googled websites for creating a blog and WordPress was actually at the top of the response so I ended up creating an account on there but as soon as I started trying to design the actual layout and features etc of the blog, I realised that I was completely out of my depth. I think it’s funny that a lot of people assume that Influencers are really good with technology… WordPress felt really complicated and intense and at that time, just starting out and not knowing how big it would become – I thought that doing research and finding instructions and advice for using WordPress just wasn’t worthwhile.
So that’s where Blogger comes in! And having used it for over thirteen years now, I was confident in my abilities with it and so I made the decision to use it for creating the Gracie’s Way website too. Then, another similarity to my blog is that I installed the same template that my blog uses from Pipdig (pipdig - Pro Blogger Templates & WordPress Themes for your blog)! In all honesty, I remember when I first bought that Pipdig template – I felt like a proper Influencer because for years, I’d seen the Pipdig branding on the blogs of some of my most favourite Influencers! Seeing that, I just assumed you had to be rich or famous to work with Pipdig/to have a template from them! I didn’t realise that anyone could purchase one from them and that it’s reasonably easy to apply it/install it on your blog!
Because the templates don’t design or format the pages of your website, I used Canva to create the actual pages. Now, I honestly hadn’t even heard of Canva until my Digital Marketing Internship in June 2019 when I was taught how to use it to create memes and graphics for the social media of the company who provided the Internship. I remember feeling so proud when I published the first post on either Twitter or Facebook, I believe, that featured something I’d designed on Canva!
I very quickly found myself really enjoying using it because it provided so many functions and abilities to be really creative, which is a quality I’ve always enjoyed and developed beneficial thoughts and feelings from. With this enjoyment, I soon found myself using Canva to create content for my own social media and my mental health blog too. In doing so, I learnt new functions that Canva offers and I’ve now developed the belief that literally every time you use it, you’ll learn something new and this is honestly perfection for me because I’m very passionate and feel I benefit a lot from learning new things. So, to have a site I love, and it have this quality? Well, I feel like it’s only understandable that I use it as often as I do!
I can actually remember a specific moment in my Internship where I’d created a graphic or meme and was showing it to one of the Communications and Marketing staff and they advised me on one specific change – I can even remember what it was! I had a picture as a background and then text on top of it. The text was in white to stand out from the background, but the staff told me that I could put a box around it and rather than it be the outline, it be a full box with the text be on top of it. Then, they taught me about the transparency adjustment feature which meant I could make the white box behind the text a bit see-through to a point where you could still almost see the background, but it had a faded affect and looked paler than the surrounding area.
If you’re thinking of checking out Canva and/or if you do already use it but are open to learning new skills for it, they actually run a Canva Design School with online courses regarding various elements that range from using it for branding, incorporating AI, creating campaigns and so much more: Canva essentials- Canva Design School.
Decision #4: the launch date
Since 2007, I have been very aware that anniversaries of hard instances can be literally monumental in terms of the impact they can have on my (and I know others have a similar take or experience of this too!) mental health.
On November 20th, 2006, I began experiencing sexual abuse by a person in a position of power, and it continued for exactly six months when, on April 20th, 2007, my abuser attempted to take the abuse to the worst level possible for the second time. And it was a ‘straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back’ kind of moment because I suddenly found all of this physical strength in me and I managed to escape from the room, but he came racing after me and we both just had this enormous argument. I screamed “think of your wife and children” and his boss’ office was nearby so he overheard and came out and asked what gave me the ‘right’ to speak to my abuser in ‘that way.’ And the words just flew out of my mouth with very little thought, consideration, or control!
I was promptly branded a ‘manipulative liar’ and banned from the building. When my Mum arrived to take me home, I was incredibly certain that I couldn’t tell her – or anyone else – what had happened because I couldn’t tolerate the thought or even take the risk that anyone else might have the same response (despite the fact that my Mum would never say that, but I also thought his boss would never say it…). So, I stayed quiet for just under two years before making my first suicide attempt and eventually reporting the abuse and rape to the staff of the ward in the psychiatric hospital I was admitted to. Unsurprisingly, my abuser denied everything and my only two comforts from reporting it were firstly, that the Police told me they were really frustrated because they believed me, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were stating that there wasn’t enough evidence to press charges. So, it felt good to have their support and trust. And the other comfort was simply the knowledge that despite the fact it wouldn’t have been my responsibility if he did, I had done everything in my power and control to prevent him from hurting anyone else.
After reporting it in 2009, I spent the following three years in and out of both medical and psychiatric hospitals – with staff stating that my records showed over 60 admissions during that period of time. I struggled with the memories so much and was doing all that I could to block them out – even though that often meant making myself unsafe. It wasn’t until my suicide attempt in 2012 that left me on life support and led to me eventually being sectioned under the Mental Health Act and spending over two years in a psychiatric hospital, that I started to finally allow my mind to process the memories. Being in a psychiatric hospital isn’t as ‘safe’ as a lot of people either think or are led to believe, but, for me, it was certainly safer than being in the community. And that sense of safety and security, gave me this sense that if I finally let myself think about the memories and confront what had happened to me, and I fell to pieces, at least I was somewhat protected and physically unable to do a lot of the dangerous things I might have turned to if I’d been in the community.
In finally processing my trauma, I found myself becoming more and more aware of those two anniversaries (the start of November 20th and the end of it being April 20th) and so for a few years, I found myself really struggling on those dates. But, as I progressed through Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and began taking medication, I found myself adopting a healthier and happier take on those dates and began feeling determined and passionate to turn those dates into the anniversaries of really amazing events and opportunities instead. And it was this attitude and mindset that inspired my decision to launch Gracie’s Way on January 9th as it would have been Gracie’s Birthday that day.
For me, not only was it meaningful and a way to bring a sense of goodness to a date that could have become incredibly difficult to experience, but it also felt like I was publicising a message of the fact or idea that even when a pet has died, they aren’t forgotten. Even when you appear to be ‘over’ their loss and ‘moving on,’ they’re still with you, on your mind, and in your heart. And, of course, it was incredibly fitting that a project carrying her name and which was solely inspired by her death, should have a particularly special connection to her life too.
Review Topics:
Now, originally, I was going to talk through all of the following subheadings but by month and then I established that not only was that going to be a lot more work, but it was also going to be a bit of a struggle to go back through so many different elements in a practical sense of hunting out statistics etc. So, to lighten my workload and to make it all a lot more feasible, I decided to use the same seven areas I was going to review for each month to inspire more general subheadings and in talking through each one, I’ll include the months that these things changed, progressed, grew, and developed.
Goals, Big Changes, Projects, & Huge Updates:
Originally, this section was just for goals and then there was a separate section for the changes, projects, and updates part, but I realised that I was starting to talk about goals being to successfully make some changes and updates or to create a specific, new project so they were really leaning into each other and it made me decide to combine the two sections…
So, the first goal I can remember having with Gracie’s Way – other than the obvious of creating the resources and the website etc – was that I made the decision to not only have four articles (which I’ll actually discuss more thoroughly later in this article) ready to publish/already published on the website, but to also have an entire month worth of Instagram content created before launching! In all honesty, it wasn’t until I got to around the twelfth post, that I actually realised it was going to be a heavy work-load. However, having previously created a number of Blogmas series’ (where you publish a piece of content every day from December 1st until Christmas Day) on my blog, I’ve become accustomed to having to create an enormous amount of content at one time. Over the years I’ve done Blogmas, I have learned a lot more on how to create a lot of posts that are still to a standard that I’m not only satisfied with, but also to a standard or quality that I can be proud of.
The next goal I remember developing was a result of a guest article by Professional Ambassador; Emma: "I Can't Wait to Hold You Again One Day" : Guest Article by Emma Yoxall | Gracie's Way and I do actually mention it in that blog post! It was to create a document full of information and advice on writing a guest piece for the Project’s website, and so, with Emma being the first Guest Author on Gracie’s Way to be happy being named, I thought it pivotal that I ask her to put together some tips she’d give to other budding Guest Authors. Whilst you can absolutely request a copy of the document that was put together (just email gracieswayuk@outlook.com), her tips and some of the content from that document were actually added to a whole new page on the website too: Guest Article Pitches | Gracie's Way.
The document, however, isn’t purely about Guest Articles, because in February, I was attending and speaking at an NHS CPD event about children and young people with adverse childhood experiences, emotion dysregulation, and personality disorders and I was offered a table so that in the refreshments breaks and at lunchtime, I had some merchandise on it. Half of it was regarding my blog (I’m NOT Disordered), but the rest was about Gracie’s Way, and one thing I decided I wanted to create and include on the table, was a flyer detailing the different opportunities available for people to collaborate with Gracie’s Way (and there was a separate one for my blog too!). In thinking about this flyer, I found myself creating an entire Gracie’s Way Collaboration Pack where I decided on a handful of collaboration methods: Co-Produced Content, Reviews and Testimonials, Article Contribution, the Ambassadorship Programme, and Campaign Sign-Up.
In the Pack, for each of these methods, there are a number of pages which obviously differ depending which method they’re regarding, but mostly; they’re explanations as to what the method is, who it’s right for, the benefits of it, tips and advice, and then – where Gracie’s Way has featured the method already – there’s also examples and testimonials for the method. Probably understandably after that little list, the Pack ended up fairly lengthy at 40 pages, but research led me to decide to keep it all in the one document rather than create individual ones for each collaboration method and them then have less than ten pages each! Plus, there’s obviously a Contents page, so it is fairly easy to navigate your way through the Pack and not feel you have to read every page or try hard to find the part more relevant to you or which is the bit you want to read.
The next goal – which also became a project, big change, and huge update! – was actually inspired by the idea I had when creating the Collaboration Pack; launching the ‘Ambassadorship Programme.’ Frustratingly, I can’t quite remember where the actual idea to recruit Ambassadors came from… Like, I can’t recall hearing of the title of the role somewhere and thinking ‘that could work for Gracie’s Way!’ I think this lack of memory is likely because everything was very intense and a huge learning curve – which it still is (a learning curve) – in the very beginning (the Ambassador idea and goal only came up early February, so it was just over one month after launching the actual project!).
Something I had already learnt that I used for the Ambassador Programme came from the Collaboration Pack and that I realised that before I contacted or mentioned in passing to people that there was an opportunity to work with Gracie’s Way, I should have the guidance document and details all established and created first. So, in the beginning, the very first Guest Article by Bereavement Ambassador; Dana Silversides was done in a very much un-structured way because the Collaboration Pack didn’t exist so there were no guidelines, advice, or processes etc. And, even just from my early thoughts, expectations, assumptions, and visions for the Ambassador Programme, I recognised that this would make it a really smart idea to already have the Ambassadorship Programme Info Pack created before I started to either advertise the opportunity to be an Ambassador for Gracie’s Way or approach people personally to ask if they’d like to do it.
Alongside the Info Pack, I also remembered when I had run a campaign a few years ago, and had recruited ten Volunteers, I had needed to create various Policies for them to sign e.g. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, Safeguarding, Data Protection etc. So, I considered which Policies were most relevant to Ambassadors of a project like this and subsequently created a Social Media Policy and a Safeguarding Policy. After this, I developed the belief that announcing the Programme’s existence on Instagram, would likely receive a lot more attention if I already had at least one Ambassador who I could tag in the post and who could then share it too. So, I sent all the documents to Dana and Emma via email and began the process of having them read it and consider the opportunity. When they both agreed, because Emma has relevant career experience, I established that she be referred to as a Professional Ambassador and Dana the Bereavement Ambassador. I actually really loved this because the entire niche that Gracie’s Way relies on to aid its success is that it supports both owners and those supporting owners, and so having an Ambassador that basically represents each of those, felt really respectful. It made me feel like the Programme was really embodying the values of Gracie’s Way.
The next part to this was that they needed to sign the Policies and then write their Introduction for me to create a page for each of them on the website (Meet the First Bereavement Ambassador: Dana | Gracie's Way and Meet the First Professional Ambassador: Emma | Gracie's Way) – as well as obviously having one for the Programme in general: Ambassadorship Programme | Gracie's Way. Once these pages were finished and the Policies were signed, I then put the opportunity out there via the Gracie’s Way Instagram (you can see the exact launch post: Ambassadorship Programme Insta Launch Post). Having not recruited any more Ambassadors in the past four months, I assessed why that may be and have come to the conclusion that perhaps the opportunity has not been publicised/advertised enough so I’ve taken some steps to change this, but I’ll talk through them at the end of this post in the ‘What’s Next’ section!
The next goal was in March, and it was a lot deeper than those I’ve talked through because it came from the bunny I got after losing Gracie – Evie – being diagnosed with Gut Stasis (the disease which caused the fatal heart attack in Gracie in November 2025). With Evie only being around six months old at the time, I experienced this huge motivation to spread the word about Gut Stasis to everyone via Gracie’s Way’s. I wanted to raise awareness of it because it can be fatal within 24 – 48 hours if it goes untreated and/or symptoms are missed, so I created a reel for it on Instagram (which you can watch: Gut Stasis Reel) and then put an entire article about it together on the website: What Gut Stasis Looks Like: A Guide & Video | Gracie's Way. When I received comments and emails from readers and followers saying they hadn’t heard of it until seeing the Gracie’s Way content, I felt a huge sense of achievement and a big amount of hope that I had just saved some bunnies in making their owners more aware, educated, and cautious. And, in all honesty, this means a great deal more to me than improving the number of followers or views.
The next big goal was regarding May, and it was about the creation of content for Dying Matters Awareness Week 2026 which ran from May 4th to May 10th. Having been a mental health Influencer for over thirteen years (though only really accepting that title for less than a year!), I’ve become overly well-versed in creating Awareness date content! I’ve learned how to interpret them in a way that means creating more creative content because if you want to have popular or successful content on social media or online in general, for an Awareness Date, you really need to find a way to stand-out from the flood of content that will not only be posted at the same time, but also that will very obviously be on a very similar theme! But, having a huge enjoyment of being creative and actually finding it therapeutic to do things that take a creative thought process, and which test the power and quality of my ideas, I’ve always tried to celebrate a lot of the Awareness Dates relevant for mental health and trauma especially. And in seeing the rise in views on those occasions, I knew that it would be a wise idea to do something for Dying Matters on Gracie’s Way – especially with the project still being so new and being so early in its journey of building an audience and a following.
So, the precise goal with doing this Awareness Date content was actually to increase the stats of both those particular pieces of content and the website in general, by at least 25%. For those who are – understandably – curious and eager to know, there was actually an increase by just over 45% and that increase wasn’t just about the Awareness Date content have that many more views, but also the views of previous content and, obviously, the website in general, rose too. And that rise continued because almost immediately after that Week, was Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) too!
I had to make some difficult decisions with MHAW though… I fully recognised that another Week of daily content on the Gracie’s Way website would be far too much – not just overwhelming viewers or readers, but also for me as a workload too! And the largest contributing factor to that workload was that I really wanted to create blog posts for MHAW on I’m NOT Disordered too! So, in the end my compromise to ensure both platforms had content, was to create daily MHAW blog posts on I’m NOT Disordered and then daily MHAW Instagram posts on Gracie’s Way.goal
Then, the next and most recent goal has actually been the one about updating and giving the website a big re-fresh, but I want to talk a lot more about that at the end of this article so, onto the next little category to review…
Articles:
As of right now writing this (28th June) there are 27 published articles, 1 scheduled, and then there are maybe around 15 that are actually in the works in that they’ve been started on Word on my laptop, have a title, a quote, and some of them actually even have up to a few pages typed! I randomly start some articles when I’ve had an idea for a title or theme for an article and it’s something that there’s every chance I could forget about it, unless I do something to ensure that doesn't happen! And it means that when I finish anything that is timely and needs to be published at a specific time e.g. Awareness Dates, and have no other ideas, I can just look at the folder on my laptop and pick one that I’ve already thought of and started. That way there’s always some sort of reserve of content, which – through my Influencer career – I’ve learned can be helpful because there have been so many instances over my thirteen years of blogging/working in the Communications and Marketing industry, where there’s suddenly a huge lull in Awareness Dates, meetings, events, etc and so it’s useful to always have a back-up of content that mean those quiet periods don’t mean there’s no content.
Now, let’s review some of the articles that I haven’t mentioned yet…
As I said earlier in this article, I had felt it important that I have some articles all ready to go when I launched the project and shared the project’s URL. One of the first four articles was actually a collaboration with Amazon UK and again, this was actually the result of something I’ve learned through having a blog – collaborations often provide an additional target audience or a larger following. This is the case for the obvious reason that you’re attracting or reaching the collaboration partner’s audience as well as your own, and sometimes, the partner has a totally different following because their audience may have different interests or they may be a different demographic too!
In addition to all the lessons I’ve learned via my blogging being applied to, and becoming useful for, my work with Gracie’s Way, I’ve also been able to utilise a few contacts and connections I’ve built from collaborations on my blog. One of the largest of these being Amazon UK! I’ve worked with their Marketing team at various points over a number of years now, and they’re literally always willing to try something new and to put more creative spins on our work together so I felt fairly confident when I approached them to work together on an article for Gracie’s Way too and the result was: Grief with Amazon UK: 30 Amazon UK Items To Manage Your Pet Grief | Gracie's Way.
A month or two later, I collaborated with Author of Fox Under the Moon; Stacey McNeill! I’d actually met Stacey last year when she was selling her books and merchandise at a Christmas market and we first worked together on a piece for my blog before she agreed to also partner on this article for Gracie’s Way too: How Fox Under the Moon Got Pet Bereavement So Right | In Collaboration with Illustrator & Author; Stacey McNeill of Fox Under the Moon | Love Your Pet Day 2026 | Gracie's Way. Now, strangely, the Instagram post (which you can see: Fox Under the Moon Collab on Instagram) for the collaboration was the most popular I’ve published, but the actual article on the website only had the average amount of views as other content has!
Since Day One of starting my blog, I have remained aware of the statistics – particularly the all-time total readers (over three million now!) – and this is mostly because I’ve always struggled to blow my own trumpet and recognise my achievements and successes. Looking at the statistics though, I’ve discovered that they’re pretty undeniable in terms of them massively illustrating the popularity of my content and – when comparing statistics from Day One to now – the growth and improvement of it. A key blog statistic for this is that it took two years to reach my first 100,000 readers, but I just received almost double that in one month!
In addition to using this insight and awareness of the statistics behind my content to celebrate and acknowledge my achievements, I’ve also used them to inform and inspire my career decisions and content ideas. And that’s no different with the statistics of Gracie’s Way; with the Fox Under the Moon collaboration doing better on Instagram, when I had the possibility of a new collaboration in June with EverelleCraft (an Etsy UK store), I actually posted it on Instagram first to judge the popularity before creating the article on the website… When the Instagram post proved successful, EverelleCraft very kindly agreed to offer Gracie’s Way’s audience and following a 50% discount code: just type ‘AIMEE’ into the discount code box at the checkout! For links to the store, to see the collaboration article, and to see the bracelet I purchased from there that inspired the whole collaboration together: A Guide to Remembrance After Pet Loss.
To wrap up this section of the review, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 articles (in terms of popularity):
1. Finding Inspiration & Motivation from Pet Loss | Rest in Peace Evie | Gracie's Way
2. An Interview with Gracie’s Way Project Lead: Aimee Wilson | Gracie's Way
3. What Gut Stasis Looks Like: A Guide & Video | Gracie's Way
4. Grief with Amazon UK: 30 Amazon UK Items To Manage Your Pet Grief | Gracie's Way
5. "They showed me what my purpose was" : Guest Article | Gracie's Way
Instagram:
Since January 2nd, 2026 (I created a series of seven days of countdown content before launching on January 9th), I have published 116 posts on the Instagram account for Gracie’s Way: @GraciesWayUK.
Before launching, I decided that I wanted to be really strict on the branding on there and so the majority of the content is created on Canva and has the same layout of the logo on the bottom of the first slide (most posts are in the carousel format) and the title of the piece centred to the top and in the same font as that of the logo (Gagalin). But, on January 19th, I made the decision to post the tribute video I had created and published on my own Instagram when I lost Gracie on November 1st, 2025. I realised that it was actually a really appropriate move and it might better illustrate my dedication to the project and the topic of pet bereavement for followers to gain insight into the bunny that is driving me to do this.
When it proved to be really popular, I found myself feeling validated and reassured that I’d been right in my decision and after that, I continued to publish the odd piece of personal content… I’ve tried to maintain some sort of balance with the fact that Gracie’s Way is intended to be a project and to help others and I don’t want anyone to ever see its content and think of it as an extension to my own account because there’s so many personal posts on there.
On February 21st, a piece of content I found balance in however, was another tribute video for Gracie but, it had a trending audio to it by @enchantedreadings (you can see the post I’m referring to: Gracie and Trending Audio Post). This meant that I’d managed to publish a personal bit that showed the story behind Gracie’s Way, whilst also making the content current and on-trend to gain maximum views and engagements/interactions. And the next personal piece of content which did something very similar was on February 27th and it was about the CPD event I’d attended that had been hosted by my local mental health NHS Trust: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). This piece (which you can see: CNTW Event Instagram Post) was not only personal because it was regarding something in my own life, but it was also professional because it had been the first event I’d shared Gracie’s Way merchandise at!
Since then, I’ve tried to publish a real mixture of personal and professional/branded content so that during MHAW, I very well-branded and general advice content, I included a personal one too: ‘Why I Nearly Made a Suicide Attempt When My Therapy Pet Died.’ And I’ve also published content that is on-trend too e.g. the ‘What Everyone Else Saw,’ a ‘POV’ piece, ‘Behind the Girl Who…’ and one that fits the trending audio (which you can hear or use for your own content: @lilac_fawn_frenchie): ‘We Both Died That Day, But Only You Stopped Breathing.’
One of the biggest changes since launching Gracie’s Way though, I think, is that I’ve stopped posting on the project’s Instagram account as often as I was when I first started it. In all honesty, I initially annoyed myself with this and would have very openly and readily agreed if anyone called me a failure or said I’d let followers down. With those thoughts of failure and embarrassment in mind, I’ve taken a massive step toward changing this which I’m going to talk about at the end of the article…
Publicity:
The very first form of publicity for Gracie’s Way was by Waythrough (a mental health and addictions service who have provided my mental health Recovery Workers since 2014) when they published a post on their Instagram (which you can see: Gracie’s Way Launch Post on Waythrough) announcing the launch of the project. With the organisation already playing such a life-saving role in my journey, having their support and encouragement from Day One, meant a great deal to me. It was a brilliant illustration of their faith in my skills and abilities, their trust in Gracie’s Way’s potential to help so many people, and their honest recognition that pet bereavement is hugely relevant to their work.
Another launch-day piece of publicity that was also really meaningful, special, and important to me; was when I featured on my best-friend’s mental health blog: Launching Gracie's Way: Everything I've Needed to Create a Pet Bereavement Project. I’ve known Martin Baker (Co-Creator of Gum On My Shoe) for a number of years now, and one of the many reasons why he’s so special and means so much to me, is that he’s literally the only person in my entire life – not just my friendship group! – who has a blog. And it means we can relate to each other on a level that no one else in my life can. It means he understands some hard moments in my Influencer career and having to make big, difficult decisions around my blog. And this means I really recognise how special and important it is to have someone write a guest piece for your blog, so I think that’s partly why I recognise him publishing my piece for the launch of the project as very meaningful.
In keeping with this chat about blogging, another platform I used on launch day for Gracie’s Way was my own mental health blog; I’m NOT Disordered (which just reached over 3.1 million readers). I honestly, actually put a lot of thought into this because I was very eager and adamant about ensuring I differentiate between the two. I really wanted to ensure that I had very different roles with them – as Project Lead for Gracie’s Way, it feels like more of a professional career move than my blog – which, ironically, is 100% what inspired me into my Influencer career and passion for the communications and marketing industry. So, I think that’s why separating the two has occasionally been challenging, but ultimately, I’ve massively avoided relying on I’m NOT Disordered as a publicity platform – which, I think it could very understandably be deemed or utilised as when considering the level of readers/the statistics that it has, and its reputation in the Influencer and mental health industry etc.
So, in the six months of Gracie’s Way’s existence, it has only featured in collaboration content on I’m NOT Disordered four times (including the launch day content):
In addition to the collaboration with Fox Under the Moon (which I’ve already mentioned earlier in this article), the other two forms of publicity for Gracie’s Way have revolved around Instagram. One form has been when the project’s lovely and amazing Ambassadors (Dana and Emma – who I linked earlier) have shared the project’s content on social media and/or when they’ve created their own original content that publicises Gracie’s Way. And I think that in saying this, it’s only fair to give their Instagram accounts a mention, so Professional Ambassador, Emma is on @emmayoxallpetlosssupport and Bereavement Ambassador, Dana is on @danavictoriaannexxxx.
And finally, I’ve also – for the first time – ‘boosted’ some of the posts on Gracie’s Way’s Instagram account too and ran them as ‘ads.’ For those who aren’t too familiar with Instagram and that part of it, you can choose a piece of content (it has to meet criteria in so far as size and audio to it) and Instagram will tell you if you spend so much per day for so long (I think the minimum is £2 or £3 per day and a minimum of 2 days), how many views it could get, how many followers you could gain, engagement rate improvements and growth etc. So, I’ve boosted the following posts:
Introduction to Gracie’s Way which gained 2,448 views
If You’re Missing Your Pet Today, You Need to Hear This which gained 2,127 views
If Love Alone Could Save You… which gained 1,898 views
You’re Not Alone which gained 1,053 views
Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 which gained 892 views
New to Gracie’s Way? which gained 1,129 views
For full disclosure and transparency, the most I’ve spent on an ad was £14 across 7 days and the least I’ve spent was £8 over 4 days and I can safely say that the statistics for those posts reflected the amount spent and the duration they were boosted!
What’s Next?
Ok! Arguably the most exciting part of the article! What’s coming next for Gracie’s Way?
1. There’s been a complete re-design and refresh of the website including every single page and I answered questions about it on an Instagram post: Website Refresh on Instagram
2. I’m planning to re-advertise the Ambassador opportunity, which you can read more about: Ambassadorship Programme | Gracie's Way
3. The project is now recruiting its first two Volunteer roles which you can apply for on Reach Volunteering: Gracie's Way | Reach Volunteering
4. In light of these vacancies, there’s also now additional documents being created via Canva; with the two largest being a Social Media Handbook and Volunteer Welcome Pack!
Gratitude
I’d like to give a massive thank you to all of you lovely readers and followers! Your interest, support, kindness, and passion are incredibly helpful for myself and for the project generally, and I can’t wait for another six months of making progress, learning, and helping others!
