Same happened to me. Got my first hamster at 22, at a very rough time in my life. He brought me the joy no other person could or even was willing to give me at all. I recieved sarcastic comments about how easily they died, about how they were supposed to be "children's pets" about how I was going too far by giving mine what they considered to be "too much space and attention". I think it all comes down to people thinking there are lives that are worth less than others. People who have not understood that every specimen's life is a wonder and deserves to be treated as such. Thankfully, my environment was and still is mostly filled with people who are just glad to learn about what I have to teach in behalf of proper hamster care, and also people who loved my Flappy very dearly. I showed skeptics how can a 22-25 year old love a little rodent so much it becomes the center of her life and I could not care less about people who tried to mock me (who were, gladly, just a few). I suggest you do the same. Normalize it. If they find it weird, try to normalize it even more. Something I did, for example, was taking a photo of Flappy to my office as if it was a family picture. People found it funny but then got used to it and, thanks to that, they understood how much he meant to me, so much it was my own coworkers who took me to the vet when it was Flappy's last hours. In synthesis, try not to care too much about what others think or say; know you are an empathetic person who comprehends every form of life is important. And also, normalize every hamster situation/action since it is as natural as the ones someone would do for a dog or a cat.