We all have been watching the resurgence of Twilight on TikTok. All the funny memes and nostalgic memories attached to the franchise. But it’s not just Twilight that’s been on the rise again. Many of our favorite vampire franchises have seen an uptick in engagement with the second wave of COVID-19. Why, you may ask? Simple. Vampires are hot.
Here, let me explain. There is a reason that vampire books, movies, and TV shows enthralled us during our tween and teenage years. For the most part, they focused on a human, teenage girl that wasn’t perfect. She was plain or was the new kid or had family issues, the list goes on and on. It didn’t necessarily matter what her ‘thing’ was, other than it made her different from everyone else. These flawed characters gave our younger selves a relatable heroine, one that we could see ourselves in and who understood how awful growing up can be. You could copy and paste most main characters into this mold, such as Bella from Twilight or Elena from The Vampire Diaries.
Then in walks the vampire. A gorgeous and mysterious guy who notices our flawed heroine. Usually he is a new kid himself at school or something of the like. (Side note, why do vampires repeat high school? Like I know it’s to relate to the target demographic, it just never made sense to me.) She alone is the center of attention, in a way that she might not have had before. This makes our main human girl feel special and important, a feeling we all strived for when we were younger. When it is revealed that the guy is a vampire, our heroine is thrust into an unknown world and must learn to adapt to survive. More importantly, she learns that she is important and vital to fight and defeat the big bad, giving the girl both an escape from her imperfect life and a purpose to propel her forward. I believe that this is what captured me as a 12 year old girl. Not the hot and sexy vampire boyfriend, though that didn’t hurt, but that a girl like me could fight, be strong, and make a difference. It was the idea that I wasn’t just a single girl among millions, all trying to figure out who we are and what makes us unique. By reading and watching these series, I could pretend that I was the hero of the story and saving the day.
I think that Twilight and other vampire-centered media have had this resurgence because all of us who read and watched them when we were younger yearn for that sense of importance and purpose that we used to carry. Today, we live in a world where nothing is going right. Between the declining economy, the destruction of the environment, and the COVID-19 pandemic, we 20-somethings are at a loss for how to move forward with our lives. So, we reach back to the media of our tweens and teens for a sense of nostalgia and a remembrance of what it was like to be a kid and dream of saving the world.
What I’m saying is that life is hard and vampires are hot. Read the vampire book from middle school and know that all will be okay.
