Starting as We Mean to Continue: Openly, Honestly & Together.

Thank you for visiting Mùa Creative Studio.

I’m the Curator & owner behind Mùa Creative, but I am not the only founder. Mùa was formed by friendship; a trusted international network of colleagues, textile vendors and tailors. Together, we bring more than 60 years of experience across textiles, fashion, design, sourcing and production.

I did not intend to write our first blog about my experiences of the last 2 years, but events unfolded last week that have forced me to speak out.

There is another reason why my own story is not out of place here; is the loyalty and friendship of my team and vendors that have enabled me to have this wonderful opportunity that is Mùa Creative. They also missed out on enormous opportunity from the terrible experience I lived, and continue to live through, but they have been solid and determined that we will rise up again if we do it together.

What we have in store is truly something wonderful, but at the same time, it is a simple coming-together of our strengths. Mùa Creative is also a reflection of how genuine friendship and professional respect can be built from half a world away.

I will start with a tiny snipped of background information:

My fabric business was a mini-empire during Covid. My business and personal brand grew globally, but I have to say it was never fun. Like many other businesses, huge growth over the Covid-Era ended with supply chains shutting down completely in late 2021 and early 2022. My business came back down to earth with a shattering thud.

What followed was just survival. The stress was unfathomable and I was ill-equipped with the skills and experiences needed to navigate it. My creativity was rewarded in a few ways that helped me through, and so with new opportunities and a new business model I pushed forward.

In 2023 and early 2024 I let my customers down enormously. Orders were very late, and it took me months to overcome problems with a new supply chain. As many customers have said, it was the chaos and my inability to communicate directly them that also that hurt. Understandably I lost a lot of the loyalty that my business grew due to my mismanagement of those long months.

In the background I worked closely on solutions with my suppliers. I knew I needed to shift gears and win customer loyalty back, but all the changes were taking time. By mid 2024, I made some further significant changes and announced some to my global audience. I was very excited to open a new store and begin a drop-ship model with my printing partners in China so the orders could go direct to customers. My deliveries were rising in numbers and during August and September I was processing almost unmanageable amounts of stock for the tiny space I was working in. I also had thousands of meters of fabrics ready by October so things were looking up.

My positivity was short lived. During October 2024, I was subject to unprecedented defamation on Social Media. After prompts from a group on Reddit, other groups grew to take on the role of judge and jury in my Trial-by-Social Media. It started with a very untruthful You-Tube Video accusing me of fraud and criminal behaviour.

Within a week, I went from a business owner who was clawing back after incredible hardship to a character who had committed fraud, theft and deliberate deception. As the messaging spread rapidly across platforms and reached audiences around the world, my initial shock and confusion gave way to genuine fear and panic.

For customers who were understandably frustrated, that narrative was a simple explanation. And unfortunately, for anonymous by-standers the stories were exciting and worthy of online entertainment.

The pathway and solutions that I had communicated to my customers are still evident in all the material I published - but it became drowned out by repetition and gossip that spread more quickly than I could hear or see it.

Coerced by social media players who had never considered giving me right of reply, my customers demanded refunds quicker than I could give them.

Unfortunately, bank chargebacks were so high that I lost complete agency over my own finances.

I had just signed a lease on a new shop which ironically was a solution to assist customers to come in and move their orders forward. I had plentiful stock on hand, lots coming, a great team and lots of exciting plans involving in-person business.

Devastatingly, none of this happened. With the immediate loss of all staff, the shop became a looming financial pressure. It also became a place where I did not feel safe, and within a few months I had to exit the lease, equating to tens of thousands of dollars in losses without counting the losses of the forecast income. My husband sold his only property, a small cottage in the country, and over the coming months we lost everything.

Had these women on social media sought verification of ready stock, plans & intentions for my new shop all of this could have been avoided. Furthermore, if they pursued legal or regulatory channels, I would have been very happy to provide all of the evidence and information needed to put concerns to rest.

I have, and have always had substantial data available such as supplier emails, invoices, inventory on-hand and ready inventory waiting in China and India ready to share. I have since shared the requested information with Consumer Affairs Victoria, and have willingly offered more information if or when required.

Within just 2 weeks I was experiencing a trauma response. Half of the customer per-order payments were repaid but I could not even import my ready stock. With the subsequent loss of staff, trade and sales, and a very expensive Concerns notice to one of the main perpetrators of the Facebook Group, I had no idea how I could regroup.

I had to open a store that I could not stock. I eventually loaned money from a family member to import the stock and when it came I was faced with an unimaginable administrative mess. The chargeback and paypal refunds did not match up with the eCommerce Data. I did not know for sure who had received chargeback refunds or if cancelled orders were in fact refunded.

Any communication I made turned into a nightmare, and my emotionally-charged reasoning became fodder for further attacks. Every response or explanation was deemed irrelevant - Even the deterioration of my mental health was seen as an excuse.

A group of women online took it upon themselves to further humiliate me by stalking me in my almost empty store - they relayed photos to their facebook group. There was camaraderie, humour, encouragement and bonding, all at my expense. When they banded together to sabotage a local design opportunity I had I was defeated. I never understood why they would take away my livelihood when my customers relied on it so much. I still cannot look at that evidence without crying.

The administrative and regulatory fallout that all of this has put me in is nothing short of a nightmare. It was, and unfortunately still is, beyond any hardship I could ever have imagined.

The personal impact it has had on me is so much worse than I can communicate to anyone. Subsequently, my husband and 2 children have had to live through it too. We haven't just lost everything we ever worked for, my kids have lost their mum. I am home every single day because I cannot go anywhere. But I am never here.

I was, and still am, subject to Reddit Mega-Threads in my name, as well as rolling You-Tube Videos. With the Support of Victoria Police, the administrator of the Australian Facebook Page was Charged with Using a Carriage Service to Harass In April this year - 18 months after she started it all. She accepted a 12 month diversion program to avoid a criminal conviction. I was extremely relieved, because the behaviour, which included anonymous text message late in 2025 were reprehensible.

I thought I would get reprieve when her Facebook page disappeared. I never checked Reddit or You-Tube because It hurt too much.

But this week, on the 12th of August 2026, nearly 2 years after this all started, I received a series of emails that made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I felt like I was being monitored. And I was right.

Over these 2 years, I have suffered heavy nausea from the anxiety of having no agency over my own life. When I realised these emails were not right, the sickness came over me with the power of those first few months. I turned to Chatgpt to start the research because I felt too sick to search myself.

I did not find answers to the emails, but I found new material, and older material that I was not aware of.

The material is derogatory, demeaning, hostile, accusatory, mocking, speculative, inflammatory, intrusive, dehumanising, personally disparaging, repetitive, highly personal, and if I had any reputation left, it would be dust.

Interestingly, some of the material has become so far fetched that I wondered what is making these people tick. Some is so ludicrous that my husband and I actually had a laugh about some of it. But it really isn't funny.

It is easy for friends and family to say "Stay Off Social Media". But I do not have to see it for it to affect me profoundly.

Especially when I read this comment "We can only have threads to hopefully help tank the SEO of her new ventures".

All of these narratives are indexed by Google. Everything these people say is digitally etched and easy to find. It will forever dictate the way I am judged by people I know, and prospective employers or associates.

I will never be at peace when I cannot find employment. I will never be at peace when I cannot put my name to anything meaningful. I will never be at peace if I do not have agency over my own life.

All I want is Peace.

Peace to rebuild just enough so all of the customers out of pocket get what they have deserved for over 2 years.

Peace so I can repay creditors or artists who were left out of pocket.

Peace so I can go outside of my house without shame, embarrassment and such high anxiety that I need to throw up and run home crying.

Peace so that my cold-water swimming is for joy, not to calm my shattered nerves.

I want enough Peace so that I can earn money and afford the mental health services I so desperately need right now.

I want my human rights. I want dignity, equality, privacy, protection, freedom of expression, access to law and remedy, and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

I want to stop the disparaging, dehumanising attempts at rallying a system that has no remit to protect small businesses from online harm. I have extensive records of my attempts to seek help; over 100 emails and letters to agencies, social media platforms, legal supports, Federal and State government ministers, applications to legal departments of the social platforms, Australia's eSafety Commission, Victorian Ombudsman. And Nothing. Nodoby can do anything but suggest I get a lawyer. Not an easy achievement when I cannot even afford my psychologist, who, with the help of my GP and Psychiatrist have at times through all of this, kept me alive.

Over the past 5 days I have painstakingly collated multiple records of the horrendous material that is still being published. Another weekend wasted wretching through tears and being totally removed from my life and family.

On the best advice from my mental health supports, family and friends I have spent months trying not to seek justice, because it became harder to persist than to bother at all. I have been trying to muster the strength not to look back but everytime I try to move forward a wave of abuse & harassment returns.

Reddit, YouTube and Facebook are extraordinarily powerful companies. With that power must come vigilance, effective reporting systems and meaningful responsibility for the harm their platforms enable.

Two years of my life have been consumed by the consequences of their failure to act. I cannot get that time back.

So I have decided now that I am going to try to seek accountability. Just yesterday I sent one last respectful email to one perpetrator to ask her to remove her content, but that is my last attempt. I will never try to face or communicate with any of the individuals responsible ever again.

But I am going to try to seek accountability from the platforms Meta, Reddit and You-Tube.

I have started with formal applications, but I have a long way to go. It is quite sickening, but I feel I will never get peace if this is allowed to continue.

I believe anything I can achieve will not just be for me - it will be for other small businesses owners who's livelihood and wellbeing is at the mercy of social media.

In the meantime, your support to the Mùa Platform is greatly appreciated. There is lots to come for people who prefer to purchase fashion, gifts, homewares or accessories, not just sewing types. So please follow us on Instagram or subscribe to our newsletter.

Peace to You All,

Nerida Hansen

Creative Director, Mùa Creative Studio