Shannon,

I'm really glad to hear that you managed to disentangle yourself from the toxic upwork client. I'm going to be going into freelancing myself (starting this week) and your experience has definitely informed what I will/won't accept on platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr. I probably wouldn't have thought too hard about whether some clients were exploitative if I hadn't read your story.

I'm sure it's the same for many other aspiring freelancers on this site. I'm sure it must have been difficult but the fact that you were willing to write openly about your experience on Medium probably means that you have saved other people the hurt of going through what you did.

Hoping you find something that works great for you in the future. I'll be trying the site Sally mentioned below, along with a list of others. If you're still pursuing freelancing and looking for different sites I'm happy to compare notes as I learn more.

Best,

J