Don’t try to steal attention from the light.

Happy World Goth Day 🖤🖤🖤 (thanks to my Master Of Dates and Occasions, @rebeccaamyfinch for reminding me!) It was providence then, that I put on my black lipstick today 😂.

I decided to share one of my 17-year-old-Goth-me thoughts (below). My opinions have probably changed and evolved since then (with regard to views on my own evolution of Gothic subculture), but at the time, it felt like all too often I (and my friends, though I was probably the worst) were accused of acting out — kids seeking attention.

No one stopped to think that perhaps the kids who didn’t dress like the other kids weren’t actually trying to seek attention, maybe they were setting themselves apart from popular culture at the time, and proclaiming (in all their teenage angst and awkwardness) that they actually saw beauty in a different way.

Rather than a cry for help, maybe it was a bold statement that while all the other kids were striving to fit in, it was worth making a stand to let them know they didn’t have to.

Then again, maybe I was just acting out. And fifteen years later, I must still be acting out….😆

Back to the words above. Don’t try to steal attention from the light; it was common to be asked why I chose to wear all black, especially as a teenager who believed in God (and yes, I did once argue that even nuns wear black 😅).

My first argument was always that black is my favourite colour. Duh. Obvs.

“But yellow is my favourite colour, and I don’t wear it everyday.”

That’s great for you. And if you wore all yellow everyday you’d look like a great

big canary (hello Sesame Street – What is Big Bird supposed to be anyway?!) Jokes. Ninety-five percent of the time I’m not that judgey (but I am human). If you want to wear your favourite colour all day, everyday — do it. I do, and I quite enjoy it.

Anyway, assuming the favourite colour card didn’t win the debate, my seventeen year old mind cooked up the quite thrilling notion that because the world is so full of wonder and colour and light and beauty, I did not want to steal attention from it, so I chose to wear black to absorb the light and heat and warmth (another, slightly less philosophical answer was that black is the colour you get if you mix all colours together. Black is the strongest colour.)

All in all, so many fun thoughts on the topic — some right, some wrong, all thrilling to debate, but the fact remains that I see beauty differently to you, and that’s okay.

And, if you do see beauty similarly to me, then today is a day someone has deigned for us to celebrate that fact.

Happy World Goth Day!

🧛🏻‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧛🏼‍♀️🧛🏽‍♀️🧛🏾‍♀️🧛🏿‍♀️