A Note to the Dark Academia Aesthetic:

 Dear Dark Academia, 

You are forever the tragic, misunderstood genius. Though you have thousands of fans globally, you are still not appreciated, seen but not seen. People dismiss you as the aesthetic of “angsty college students with -tendencies-” or “moody oveprivileged brats with parent issues”, but you are so much more. 

You are firstly an aesthetic. A way of life. Fine, perhaps that’s a bit much. A way of Pinterest boards. A curated identity for social media culture. A way to shelve and label ourselves based on the clothes, books, movies and art we admire. A way for us to style ourselves, to arrange our chaotic personalities artistically for the world to admire. 

You, Dark Academia, are a student aesthetic, the aesthetic of bookish high-schoolers and undergrads.

Not the garish, dorky-yet-smug, STEM sort of bookish. The literature/law student kind of bookish. The one who reads classics outside of English class. The one who rolls their eyes at the unsophisticated interpretations online. The one dies a little every time they watch a vapid rom-com or a  flashy action movie. The one who wanders the library aisles alone. The one one who watches the elite and the well-read from afar,  and wants. 

(Again, a tad much. But more is always more, as you, dark academia, certainly know.)

You are Dark ‘Academia’, and you idealise the beauty of learning, of knowledge, and all the sophistication it gives you. Whether Greek classics, or Byron or Van Goh, your characters outrageously worship art and the refinement that comes with it. You started caged in the academic. You started as something that explores the dark sides of our prized educational institutions , boarding schools and universities, in the monumental The Secret History and The Dead Poet’s Society.

But you outgrew that. You were too big for that. You expanded past genres, you produced works of mystery, horror and fantasy. 

When you were freed from the chains of “institutions”, you spread even further. You evolved into crime shows like Killing Eve and thrillers like We Were Liars. You were still deeply introverted, fiercely psychological , and you looked inward where others looked outward. Your characters have vivid, delightful, violent, magnificent internal landscapes.  You examine people and societies, you pick apart their workings. 

You are free, you are wild. But most of all you romanticise, you romanticise things, people and concepts to the point of obsession. Your characters dream of more, being someone else somewhere else. Perhaps to different levels, as in the light Truly Devious and the fanatical Bunny. They desperately strive towards their ideal, sometimes shattering into violence on their way. Your characters are not shackled by ‘likability’, you are not tied down by our typical moral restraints. You are pure artistry, unshackled. You adore beauty for beauty’s sake.You are a wild, dark rose, only lovelier for your thorns.

But most just see the surface, in one way or another

Some criticise you. They call your characters “-angsty- teens with champagne problems.” They never have the empathy to look further,  see the depth of you. You are unabashedly dramatic, you are a hopeless romantic, you are perhaps a bit pretentious, but you are not -angsty-. They mistake your passion for need for attention.

Others like you, but only for your shallower charms.

You are classy. You are clever and academic, without being socially awkward. You are professional, without being too starchy. The kids who want to wear black, but do not have the panache required to pull off leather jackets and fishnet stockings love you. They bask in your dark layering, your trench coats and blazers and oversized sweaters (except those who live in warm climates.)

Dark Academia, I apologise on their behalf. I see you Dark Academia. The world will never truly understand you. You will always our tragic misunderstood genius, but perhaps a little less misunderstood after this. 

Yours pretentiously,