How did I miss Dark Acedemia being a thing? It’s because I’m old, right? I don’t spend enough time on Instagram or TikTok? (I have literally never used TikTok, actually.) How did I end up both late to the trend and waaaaay too early for it?

In case you haven’t heard, Dark Academia is a social media aesthetic centered around acting like a fancy college student from the 1930s or 1940s. Coffe shops with real mugs, beautiful museums and university libraries full of gothic arches, sweater vests, thin white girls reading Sartre and Dostoevsky and Keats. Basically it’s all the nerdy things I love (even sweaters!), except cleaned up and filtered for Insta or whatever.

Okay, I never dressed like a 1940s Harvard or Oxford student. But everything else is 100% me. I was that nerd who read The Tale of Genji (in English translation) for funsies one summer in high school.* I’m that nerd who goes to the library when I’m stressed, just because being around books is so soothing. I’m that nerd whose “religion” is a mix of pagan practice, existentialism, and ancient Greek ideas on wellness. I’m that mom who drags her kids to every museum and art gallery and historical site I possibly can. I’m even that nerd that doesn’t love jeans and t-shirts. And you already know I’m that nerd with a taste for the macabre and mysterious.

Of course, nobody thought it was cool when my friends and I did it. And now, even though I’m still totally like this, I’m kind of too old to become famous taking photos of my romantically nerdy lifestyle. It’s really weird to see my life being recreated by hot people in expensive outfits. It’s also funny to look at the wild mishmash of literary periods and styles that get all lumped together in some of the dark academic lifestyle lists. I’ve never seen people like Lemony Snicket and Alan Ginsberg on the same list as Sophocles before. I mean, I’m a fan of all three and highly recommend them, it’s just random as hell.

I’m guessing that dark academia, like most social media fashion trends, will be all but dead in a couple years. But anyone looking to put the ‘academic’ in dark academic should drop me a line. I will happily tour a museum and discuss existentialism with you. I’ll even teach you how to knit your own vintage style knee socks and sweater vests. Though I’m old as shit now, so I rarely stay up ’til the wee hours anymore.

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*My dad was that nerd who owned The Tale of Genji. He was also that nerd who watched opera on Public Television and dragged us to every museum and historical site on the east coast. Which is funny, because as a kid he was a country boy who roamed the woods and tried to keep a baby alligator as a pet. He basically went to college, fell in love with the learning life, and never looked back.