Dear Max, chin up....

Dear Max,

Not got your gap-year off to the best of starts, have you? After an initial post on the Guardian Online blog about your forthcoming trek round the world, a torrent of vitriol has been directed your way, not least of all because it turns out your father is a writer for the travel section of The Guardian.

Oh dear.

Cries of nepotism, Nathan Barley behaviour and your basic middle class twatishness have been levelled against you, and hell hath no fury like the internet. Trust me. 462 comments later and you're probably feeling a bit rubbish. But worry not, I'm here to help. Here are some ideas on how to regain some feeling of self-worth after an internet flaming:

1. Imagine the commenters
Specifically, imagine them sitting in a basement somewhere in middle England, in their pants, calling up to their mum for a cup of tea.

2. Check the spelling of the comments
Not only will this stand you in good stead for when you eventually 'find yourself' and get to University, it will make you feel slightly superior. And whilst a feeling of superiority is not something to be encouraged ordinarily, when your self-esteem is rock bottom, it's a small help.

3. Read what you wrote again
You know you're nice. Your dad knows you're nice. Chances are, even a few of your friends think you're nice. But these readers don't know you. All they know is that you're a spending a year without working, having led a pretty sheltered life, and you get to write about it for one of the biggest newspapers in the UK. Which leads us onto...

4. Resort to 'they're just jealous'
It's what your parents told you when you were being bullied in Year 5 (they totally *were* jealous of your 80's haircut, btw) and it's what they'll tell you now. Chances are, they're right.

5. Blame the grown-ups
I don't suppose you hacked into The Guardian system and posted that blog yourself, did you? No, thought not. Therefore someone took the decision to hire you, publish you, and then sat back whilst you got roasted. Whether you like it or not, getting you to document your run of the mill Gap Year when your father is one of the writers, on such a lefty newspaper, was a bit daft.

6. Go and get on with it
Good things about India include the fact that internet access if patchy, and there aren't many people who get The Guardian delivered daily. As long as you stay away from the big hotels, the chances are the name Max Gogarty means nothing to them. I'd recommend keeping the whole story under wraps though, you may not get much sympathy (unless you can track down that MP's kids)

7. Embrace it
Certain people can embrace the hatred directed towards them, nurture it, and turn it into something they can cuddle up to at night. Nick Denton springs to mind. If you've got the constitution, restart your blog, purposely rile your commenters with stories of daddy wiring you money and job interviews with newspaper editors and live off the Google Ads income you get as all the rubberneckers get helplessly drawn into the adverts for Voodoo dolls of one Max Gogarty.

Glad to help.

Susi Weaser is the editor of Shiny Shiny, and she knows how you feel.