Tumblr is one of those things that you either love or hate. I have had a Tumblr since 2012 as well as 862 followers (which really isn’t that much) so it is safe to assume that I am on the “love” end of that spectrum. Over these past five years, I have gone through four distinct phases with Tumblr and six URLs. Here they are, laid out for all to see.
curlygirljmd
My first URL. I’ll admit, while it is clearly juvenile as well as my Yahoo email address, it isn’t my worst one.
And as you can see my first post was a work of genius, clearly deserving more than the two notes it got. My Tumblr theme also was not as pleasing to look at as this screenshot might imply. For a long time I used the themes provided by the website as opposed to getting one personally coded, so just imagine this but in comic sans against a black background with neon bubbles. This was a short lived URL however because I quickly changed it to reflect my overwhelming obsession.
iwillalwaysshiplarrystylinson
Here it is. My worst URL. I will always ship Larry Stylinson (the ship name of Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson because I was THAT kind of fan). This was my One Direction tumblr phase featuring edits like the one below.
In addition to a multitude of poorly edited photos, I also wrote two self-insert fanfictions because I was a budding writer and it’s what all the cool kids were doing (if I really like you and you ask, I’ll show them to you because they are truly a wild ride). It is also at this time that I found a blog claiming to be the actual Harry Styles and there were so many theory logs trying to prove its legitimacy. The user answered a few of my questions that I sent in and up until that point that was like the best moment of my whole life. This is the beginning of my cringiest phase which continues well into my next two URLs.
nineteen-roses/froznroses
You would not believe how quickly I ditched my obsession with One Direction for another equally as creepy obsession with popular YouTubers Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil. This begins my dreaded “lol I’m so random” phase. I was obsessed with llamas and even started my own YouTube channel in which I wore a knitted owl hat and ranted about how hard life is as a 14 year old (again if I like you enough I will show you). This is about when I started writing my first attempt at a YA novel, and when I gave up on that I began my Danisnotonfire fanfiction which (as you may have guessed) was another self-insert.
From here I also moved into SuperWhoLock, which for those of us actually have lives, is a combination fandom that encompassed Supernatural, Doctor Who, and BBC’s Sherlock. It also incorporated bits of Marvel and Harry Potter, but those were the biggest part. I also had some Disney mixed in there somewhere. Surprisingly enough, this obsession did not birth any fanfiction; however, it did spawn my most famous tumblr post, racking up an impressive 51,978 notes and to be completely honest it is a terrible, awful, disgusting post and I really don’t want you to judge me for this one.
That is both my proudest and most shameful Tumblr moment, however, I do credit this post as being how I gained most of my followers. This was my most active time on Tumblr, making friends across the country and even one in the UK. Unfortunately, I have pretty much lost touch with all of them with the exception of maybe following each other on Instagram.
brave-roses/callowromantic
After discovering my favorite band, The 1975, I began my slow development into an aesthetic blog. Pictures of Matty Healy were alongside particularly pleasing Doctor Who edits. I had some complaints from the multitude of still cringey followers to “please tag your pictures of The 1975” and I did for like a month and then I decided that this was my blog and I do what I want. At that point is when I made the switch to my favorite URL and finally made the plunge into full aesthetic. My blog is currently both modern and classical pictures and art with some social justice sprinkled in. There are text posts with romantic exclamations and affirming notes. I try to keep meme posts of my blog and instead just sending them to my friends. I’m just trying to stay on brand.
I like to think of myself as a withered Tumblr elder, watching all the younger bloggers still making mistakes typically made by underclassmen high schoolers, thinking they are so much better than their peers because of their clearly superior and refined tastes. I just don’t have the heart to spoil their fun and tell them that their interests will change, everyone is actually super lame when they’re fourteen. In four years time, everyone will be seriously embarrassed by the person they used to be.
Image Credit: Tumblr, Juliana Delsante