Be Cringe

It’s fun to be weird!

LYN QUINTANA

Growing up, I was a shy yet very talkative girl. I always wanted to have lots of friends but usually managed to have only one or two who were, for lack of better words, not the best people. I was socially awkward and never knew exactly what to say or how to “correctly” make friends.

I was weird and cringey, my jokes were lame, and I was into “childish” things. I was bullied and made fun of often, but usually I didn’t really understand that it was wrong. I was “friends” with people that didn’t really like me at all because I was a bit weird and liked different things.

In late elementary school I was still into “My Little Pony,” “Littlest Pet Shop,” “Shopkins,” and playing with toys and dolls. I had some friends with similar interests but they grew out of it.

In high school, I was able to make some good friends who were really into things that were considered cringe. They were huge theater fans, loved cartoons and making weird drawings, and had weird humor. I ended up feeling a lot more comfortable in being cringe and weird, accepting that there are weird, silly people out there who will watch shows with you and make cringey memes and fanart.

Social media became a great space for me in high school as a weird kid. I created an art account and began posting weird fanart and drawings that I was making after school. I didn’t really have many followers, but I did make one really close friend online. Me and my online friend would text daily, sharing new interests with each other and just being happy to have a good “cringey friend,” someone you could be weird and free with with zero judgement and just have a nice time. This was definitely the era when I was embracing my cringeness and weirdness to its fullest. I would post almost daily, making cringey “Beatles” fanart, writing dumb fanfictions with my friends, talking nonstop about our favorite weird memes, and interacting with others online about shows, ships, bands, and other things we were all incredibly obsessed with and cringey about.

My weirdness and cringe shaped who I became today. I slowly grew into my weird interests, I learned how to make better friends. I never hid being cringe or weird; sure, sometimes I felt a bit embarrassed, but I always felt proud of my interests. I loved the shows I watched like “BBC Sherlock” and “Supernatural,” and I loved games like “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” (which I still play to this day very actively). My fanart phase was silly, but it inspired me to actually commit to art and drawing and helped me improve my art and grow into an art style.

Once I got to University, making friends once again proved to be hard, but I kept trying and I stayed true to my weird self.

I ended up making great friends over a summer course that I feel comfortable being weird around, and they embrace that weirdness of mine. We can all be cringey together, talking about bands, making weird fanart, and being big fans of things considered “lame” or cringe! We can talk for hours on end about band lore, watching music videos, drawing characters from fandoms, and going on shopping sprees to buy silly t-shirts and clothes.

Everyone should be a little weird or cringe! Being weird is freeing. We shouldn’t feel embarrassed or scared about being cringe, everyone is cringe to some degree. And if somehow they aren’t, someone else will be weird and cringe! There will always be others like you, so don’t feel scared to stay true to yourself. Wear those merch shirts, post fanart, and be active in fandom spaces!

Stay weird everypony :)