Tumblr is a social media platform, featuring a micro-blogging site style. It reached the heights of its popularity in the mid-2010s, between 2012 and 2015. For teenagers, it was a relatively safe space allowing them to connect with friends and like-minded people in a harmless way. Yet in its prime, Tumblr wasn’t just a platform but rather a lifestyle guiding you to live your best “misunderstood” teenage life.
For many teens now, it has an infamous reputation and brings up an interesting conversation about how impressionable teens consume social media and how it influences pop culture (and vice versa). In 2018, Tumblr banned mature content on the platform and temporarily came off the app store. Quickly, the site went out of fashion and usage decreased drastically, as it transformed into a more calm space. But now, it is having a revival.
In the realm of fashion, there is an enduring understanding that trends work in a cycle of 20 years. However, through how media is presented today, trends are churned out at lightning speeds. These trends extend from fashion to lifestyle, to body type—encompassing pretty much everything. This shortening of the trend cycle is partly driven by social media platforms like TikTok, which has come to the forefront of social media with 750 million monthly users worldwide this year. The app has also provided a space for alternative/indie/grunge culture similar to Tumblr, essentially making these subcultures cool again. Furthermore, we seem to be experiencing some sort of mass nostalgia. Late teens and early twenties are predisposed to this wistful feeling as they go through major life changes, craving simpler times biased toward good memories. Additionally, a younger generation who missed out on and longed to have the experience and aesthetic of Tumblr trends the first time around, has taken interest in and boosted this trend, These two elements have pushed the unexpected resurgence of Tumblr.
On TikTok, “#tumblr” currently has 378.1 million views, and between 2020 and 2021 the site had double the percentage increase in site users than between the two previous years—proving this generation's fascination with this era of social media is growing rapidly.
This era of peak Tumblr was almost cult-like, as many young teens (especially girls) strived to achieve the Tumblr look and lifestyle. All-hail the Tumblr girl—soft-grunge, mystery, melancholy, and lust.
Refinery 29, in January of 2022, defined the Tumblr girl style with “skinny black jeans with knee rips, a pair of Doc Martens, faded band tees, fishnet stockings, chokers, and denim jackets” amongst other items in her wardrobe rotation. The article also comments on the personality many would try to adopt, with “song lyrics scrawled on the back of their hand, and heartfelt poetry written in the columns of her notebooks. Brooding was always encouraged.” Tumblr also kickstarted the careers of artists whose sound embodied or characterized the Tumblr girl ideals. These artists greatly profited off the platform and are still relevant and successful today (e.g. Lana Del Rey, Melanie Martinez, The Arctic Monkeys and Lorde).
Nonetheless, behind all this fun exploration of media, fashion, and self-expression—there was also a prominent toxic subculture that existed on Tumblr.
As it’s well known, teens often have an obsession with labels and aesthetics—which is virulent in its own right—which played a part in fueling the Tumblr girl along with its problematic elements onto impressionable teens. This subculture on Tumblr talked openly about mental illnesses (e.g. depression and suicidal thoughts), being heartbroken, and admiring a certain heroin-chic body type—romanticizing and idolizing toxic behavior and thinking, with the ultra-thin look.
A notorious repercussion of the Tumblr girl aesthetic and lifestyle, was the glamorization and promotion of eating disorders (EDs), specifically anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. 24 million people in the United States suffer from EDs, and it is the second deadliest mental illness resulting in 10,200 deaths a year.
Emphasis on the heroin-chic body type insinuated support of drug use and eating disorders, to maintain the super slim body type, straying people away from proper nutrition and healthy mindsets. Worldwide, between 2013 and 2018 there was a 7.8% increase in EDS. Even though historically women have been more affected, men are also a growing proportion of that statistic. EDs are often triggered by unhealthy ideals being promoted in the media, as seen on Tumblr.
The infatuation with tragic women or sad girls is nothing new in media; it can be seen throughout history and literature, becoming a cultural norm. Rather, these fetishes were just exacerbated by the platform. The praise on Tumblr—and in the larger media—of the heroin chic body type, can be tied back to how this look resembles dead/dying women, portraying them as voiceless, passive objects. It is romanticized due to the insinuation of immobility and lack of control. Unlike a woman who is alive, it depicts them as incapable of talking back or arguing with their “superior men”, therefore embodying the ideal woman.
People shouldn’t have to see their bodies as trends or sacrifice their health just to be deemed beautiful to gain basic respect. This applies eminently to women, as our patriarchal societies target women’s view of their own worth, as men often equate their value to their appearance.
Tumblr had very young and impressionable users, and through data and discourse, it is evident that being exposed to all this at such a young age has been very dangerous for them. But on Tumblr, it wasn’t recognized as unhealthy. Instead, it was a way for people to connect with each other. Social media allowed people to vent their issues to strangers without consequence, awkwardness, or shame. This formed a bond between said strangers, who were experiencing similar things. Therapy and medicine still can be very inaccessible and stigmatized. It can feel better just to joke about it on the internet—seen on Tumblr with people vocalizing their anxiety/depression, coming to terms with it enough to formulate their suffering in a sarcastic way. However, this led to a culture of people being connected and defined by their problems, and to maintain this community, adopting an “I don’t want to get better” mindset. When exposed to this mindset, even if you don’t possess it, the impressionable teen could feel that they had to be mentally ill to be interesting. Or on the flip side, maintain a mental illness, as they believe that is what makes them interesting.
And with the revival of Tumblr, could come the revival of all this.
It is possible Tumblr could make its comeback without its unhealthy subcultures. In the revival we are seeing now, on TikTok and other platforms, there is some difference in the aesthetics. Over the past years, the promotion of body positivity and destigmatizing mental health has become a trend and has even been utilized in a commercial space. There are notions about this happening, yet it depends on how the fundamental values of these cultures translate to the modern day online and in reality.
We all enjoy exploring media, fashion, and music but it can be done without the need to project or internalize this toxicity. Moving forward, we should strive to be conscious of the ways social media impacts us and our communities. Remember that these trends will come and go, but the importance of our happiness and mental health should sustain itself throughout your life.
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