HIPSTER

By: Hannah Swinton

I’m pretty sure we all go through some sort of phase at some point during our teenage

years. For example, a lot of people go through an “emo” phase. Personally, I went through a

“hipster” phase (which is basically an emo phase with an Instagram filter and an insufferable

personality). If you are unclear on what a hipster is, think of Buzzfeed circa 2012, flannels,

independent coffee shops, folk music, slouch beanies, and gatekeeping. It’s bringing back

memories already. It’s somewhat odd to me that no one else seems to have had a hipster phase. I guess I was just the blueprint.

My hipster journey began in 2013 when I was on my way back from a Six Flags band

trip in eighth grade and another girl commented on my round red floral sunglasses I had gotten from a shop in Savannah. She told me I looked like “one of the hipster girls from Tumblr.” I was flattered despite being completely clueless as to what any of that even meant. So, when I got home, I did my research on the family desktop. I watched YouTube videos, looked at articles, and got style inspo from Google images. In my research, I found that being a hipster actually took a substantial amount of effort.

The first thing one might notice about a hipster is their distinctive wardrobe. This meant

making the switch from my English teacher style cardigans from TJ Maxx to oversized

flannels, the skinniest jeans possible, beanies, and sunglasses even in the most unnecessary

circumstances (at night on my way into the ballet studio). Unfortunately, my school had a dress

code consisting of khakis and polos. I was a contrarian, a non-conformist, I couldn’t dress like

all of these mainstream people, so I compromised. I wore skinny khakis and busted lace-up

ankle boots that looked like something a 19th century cobbler would wear.

Music taste is VERY important in hipster culture. Now, this aspect of hipster culture can

get a little tricky. By that I mean you can’t listen to any artist that’s even remotely mainstream. I

remember at this point in my life, if I was listening to an artist and I heard even one other person say they liked that artist, I would stop listening to their music and move on to something else. My music taste was so obscure that, for the longest time, I didn’t even use Spotify. When looking for new music, I would use an app called Indie Shuffle, an app that only contained indie music. It was kind of like Spotify...except it was not at all user-friendly. I didn’t care though. It was better than being like everyone else, even if it made my life more difficult. While everyone else was listening to “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap, I was listening to “Morning High” by La Luz (you’ve probably never heard of them).

Probably the most foul aspect of hipster culture is the attitude. For lack of a better word, I was a piece of shit. I just KNOW people around me were tired of me. So, that stuff about being a contrarian I mentioned earlier? Yeah, I let everyone know. Ironically enough, I still participated in group activities like marching band. I just let everyone know I didn’t want to be there and acted like I was better than everyone else because I wasn’t really into it. It got so bad that I actually judged other people just for enjoying mainstream things. Gatekeeping is essential to the hipster lifestyle. I was constantly gatekeeping. As I mentioned earlier, I hated when people would “discover” an artist I was listening to. Like, I judged people for liking mainstream things, but also judged them for liking things that I liked first. I let everyone know I liked things first, though. They probably loved that.

Eventually, I grew up and realized that this lifestyle took way too much work. No matter

what I did, I was never going to be the ultimate hipster. I didn’t own a unicycle, I hate the flavor

of coffee, and I found that record players are surprisingly inconvenient. As a teenager, I was just trying to find my own identity that made me different from all my peers, and in the process I just ended up alienating myself. I’ve now matured and grown to embrace pop culture, because a lot of things are popular for a reason. THEY’RE GOOD! I’ve replaced the obscure music with The Weeknd and the weird indie films with 2000s rom-coms, and I’m so much happier. Unfortunately for everyone else, however, I never grew out of the annoying personality.