I decided I didn't want kids. When my blog about it went viral, I was flooded with hate from people who labeled me a 'narcissist.'

• Madalin Giorgetta is a 34-year-old writer and content creator based in Perth, Australia.
• Last year, she wrote a blog post about not wanting kids, which subjected her to a wave of hate.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Madalin Giorgetta, a 34-year-old student, writer, and content creator based in Perth, Australia. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Throughout my life, I always assumed I would have children one day.

When I met my current partner, whom I married in 2021, we both thought that we wanted children, but hadn't previously worried too much about it, until a few years ago when the pandemic first started.

Around that time, I was feeling a bit bored, and thought, 'Maybe now's a good time to have a baby?'

But when we seriously sat down and began to weigh up the pros and cons, thinking about what our lives would look like with children and how much we might miss out on if we did have them, we started to think it wasn't such a good idea after all.

As a couple, we value being flexible and currently don't own a dog or house because we like the idea of being able to pick up and go wherever we want. We realized a child wouldn't fit particularly well into this lifestyle.

Last year, in July, after my husband and I had officially made the decision not to have kids, I shared these thoughts in my newsletter and blog. Even though I have more than 34,000 Substack subscribers, I still consider the platform to be a safe space where I can air my thoughts in a relatively open way with the people who follow me.

Eight months later, I was shocked to learn that my blog post was picked up and covered by national news outlets in Australia, and my innermost thoughts were exposed to millions of people.

While the articles themselves seemed to frame my blog post in quite a positive way, commenters got really angry, calling me "selfish" and a "narcissist."

It felt really strange to see people writing full-blown paragraphs and getting super upset, passionately insulting or defending me. I never expected that the blog would blow up like that, especially as I tweeted about it when I originally published it, and it didn't get the same kind of explosive reaction.

I think people were triggered by my views because they went against societal expectations

Lots of readers seemed to assume that the reason I did not want children is that I only care about myself.

I think this feeds into a general stereotype that only people who are parents are selfless, because of the amount of care and sacrifice it takes to raise a child, and I felt that people were insinuating that because I was not going to be a parent, I would never learn what it means to be selfless.

I have a lot of love to give, but I would personally rather put this love into other things, like my existing family, or myself and my own passions.

I also suspect that what I wrote probably rubbed people the wrong way because of their traditional expectations of family life and the roles that women play. Hearing a woman say what I've said must make them feel uncomfortable because it challenges a perception that women want to be mothers, and that's it, which isn't the case.

Lots of the articles used the term "influencer" to describe me, which I think made matters worse, as people often really often have a bad perception of influencers and assumed I did not want children because I was so self-absorbed with my own profile and career that I would never want to give up my life for someone else. While I do have an online following, I would describe myself as a content creator and writer, not an influencer.

I addressed the negativity to support other childfree women

Instead of ignoring the comments on the articles, I decided to screenshot them and include them in my own statement on Instagram.

I explained a bit more about my point of view in the caption, hoping that people reading it would begin to examine their own lives and realize it's OK to not have children if they don't want them. It is a choice and it shouldn't be pushed on you by anyone.

I felt it was worth bringing up the fact that the blog caused so much controversy. Controversy can often start discussions and get people talking, and I thought my statement could bring a different point of view to the negativity, and encourage more people to want to talk about being childfree by seeing me standing against the criticism.

I'm happy that so many comments under my post were positive and supportive, although I have received some criticism from commenters who think I am trying to influence other women and force my opinions on them.

My aim isn't to tell people to be childfree but to destigmatize the conversation around it for other women who do not want children or are unable to have them.

I hope to post more about being childfree in the future, to show that there are women making this choice and you don't need to feel sorry for them or assume the worst about them.

It's sort of like saying, "Hey, people like me exist, and we're happy."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.