Fanon

Bringing the fanzine culture to digital, Fanon is a magazine dealing with popular culture-related topics every Wednesday.

Going through puberty on TikTok as a queer Millennial

As a nearly 30-year-old Millennial, I would like to talk about something that makes me both sad and happy. A video I just saw got me thinking about some things:

Gay culture means living your teenage years in your 30s because your teenage years were not yours to begin with.

When I first read this sentence, I swallowed, closed my eyes, and went back to my teenage years—the days when all social media channels, especially YouTube, even the internet, were just beginning to appear.

At that time, I, 14-15 year old Nena, was “alone” trying to find her existence, who she is, her potential—I can't say that I've changed much now. The people she saw as role models consisted of heterosexuals who acted in cheap queer movies published on sites such as yabancidiziizle.com or t.A.T.u. That girl was trying to feel like she belonged to the world by watching a few minutes of fan clips.

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