Tumblr aesthetic: What it is and how to get the look ⋆ The Aesthetic Shop

Update: Here’s a post I wrote about how to create tumblr photos yourself! Check it out!

Tumblr. Ahhh if you could imagine how much I L-O-V-E-D that thing! Back in the early days, when Tumblr was the largest blogging platform in the world (in number of blogs created) but at the same time a super exclusive and private place, the coolest, most creative and special corner of the entire internet… 💜

It is not like that anymore, unfortunately. The network has lost its shine more or less since the time it was bought by Yahoo, and, although it still exists, it’s just not as interesting as it used to be. But it’s fame (very fair, by the way) remains. As the cradle of everything cool.

What is tumblr?

A blogging platform mixed with a social network that peaked between 2009 and 2013, a time when Facebook was still very popular and had a lot of reach and appeal with young people but felt too invasive with your family, neighbors and childhood friends watching your every move, and Instagram still wasn’t around (when it bloomed, it killed Tumblr ).

Cool equalls Tumblr. And the platform insisted on positioning itself as a free space and encouraged users (among them many teenagers and young people in general) to be themselves, to interact intimately with their followers and to seek out people with whom they had a lot in common, to escape Facebook’s premise of being in touch mostly with people you already knew in real life.

In short, nowadays we call tumblr pictures those images that simulate something very natural or spontaneous, usually with a kind of indie, sort of poetic vibe. The spirit of youth, often referring to iconic retro or current themes of popular culture, or to the pleasures of life in general. And relatable or aspirational as hell.

Keep in mind though that Tumblr was, and still is, crowded with incredible texts, poems, music, memes, GIFS (!!!!), videos … It wasn’t just pictures. And everything was super cool, always!

Now, regarding the images, what I remember most were galaxies and space stuff, planets and astronomy and astrology, pizza and burgers, coffee, tv shows, cult films, books, high-waisted denim shorts back in the early days of the trends comeback, well before the rest of the world, very skinny girls, girls and boys looking sad, girls and boys covering their faces, long hair, messy bun, teen rooms full of polaroids and twinkle lights, netflix (more to the end), cigarette, alcohol, depression, free sexuality, rainbows and unicorns trending long before becoming popular everywhere else, in fact almost all the trends like that happened in Tumblr first. That’s for sure.