Thought Catalog Haters

Lena Dunham Turns The New Yorker into Thought Catalog

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:07:28 -0400

Lena Dunham Turns The New Yorker into Thought Catalog :

It’s spreading!

"The result? Apparently, hyper-achievers obsessed with being well-rounded at the expense of their..."

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:44:36 -0400

“The result? Apparently, hyper-achievers obsessed with being well-rounded at the expense of their souls. In the bellies of today’s recent grads lies an enormous void where something crucial is missing: The self. It’s no wonder the present wave of writers rebelliously prizes self-examination, the lavish indulgence of human experience, of clumsy sex, bad kisses, and — despite having no idea what grunge was — obsessive ownership of the 90s, the decade of the silly Nickelodeon childhood they should have had.”

- Welcome to the Age of Feelings

"The “I HATE EVERYONE” Feeling This is one of the most common feelings to ever exist and can be..."

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:25:27 -0400

“

The “I HATE EVERYONE” Feeling

This is one of the most common feelings to ever exist and can be triggered by a variety of different things, including but not limited to: spending too much time on the internet, talking to a stupid person, watching a fat person eat a hot fudge sundae, or finding out that someone you know is becoming more successful than you. There is no way to really get rid of this feeling other than to just, you know, love yourself. But that’s really hard to do. To love yourself is to know yourself and who the HELL really knows who they are?

”

- The Complete To Having Feelings

"But there is another viable option. A place where I could shirk all occupational, social and..."

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:24:47 -0400

“

But there is another viable option. A place where I could shirk all occupational, social and domestic responsibilities, have plenty of time to think and write, free myself from nearly all technology, and still be able to work my arms, legs and core on a regular basis.

Prison.

”

- Pondering Voluntary Imprisonment

"What is being in your twenties if it’s not musing over the drawn-out ten-year process of leaving..."

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:01:03 -0400

“What is being in your twenties if it’s not musing over the drawn-out ten-year process of leaving your childhood and becoming (shudder) an adult? If you can’t spend every birthday from 20 to 30 going, “Oh, my God, I am f-cking ancient. Tell those 19-year-olds in the corner to shut the f-ck up before I rip their fake IDs out of their Ring Pop-covered hands. Ugh,” then what are you doing with your life? This is the time for feeling inappropriately old, and here, the reasons why.”

- 7 Reasons We Feel So Old

"fml some mom srsly just mistook me for her 7-year-old daughter walking through the park..."

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:59:48 -0400

“fml some mom srsly just mistook me for her 7-year-old daughter walking through the park #littlepplproblems
— @tyrion_lannz”

- What Game Of Thrones Characters Would Tweet If They Had Twitter

"When I re-watched the premiere in April, I found myself examining the show in a different way. All..."

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:30:06 -0400

“When I re-watched the premiere in April, I found myself examining the show in a different way. All of the noise, all of the criticism that I had been inundated with for the past month, was marring the scenes I once found enjoyable. “Damn you, internet!” I thought to myself. “Must you ruin everything!” I thought of a show like Sex and the City and how it would’ve been affected if the internet had been as big as it is now. I mean, are you kidding me? It would’ve been skewered! Irate bloggers would’ve called it anti-feminist, stereotypical, classist, racist, and a lot of other “ists” I wouldn’t have understood. Thank God it managed to avoid the wrath of bloggers and exist on its own. Because all of this other stuff, all of this incessant buzzing from people who aren’t you, really does detract from your viewing experience. I shouldn’t have to feel weird about loving a show like Girls. I shouldn’t have to preface my adoration with “I know how you all feel about it but…” If I like it, I like it. I shouldn’t have to care about all the people who don’t or justify my reasons for enjoying it. Couldn’t I just love Girls in this pure way, in this way that it’s meant to be watched?”

- Looking Back On Season One Of Girls

"Writers are crazy. And I don’t mean crazy in the way people throw the word at anyone we disagree..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:48:00 -0400

“

Writers are crazy.

And I don’t mean crazy in the way people throw the word at anyone we disagree with, I actually mean insane. We’re often misunderstood and deeply troubled. We have to be at least a little bit mentally unstable, or we wouldn’t be any good at what we do. Really, who wants to read something a boring sane person wrote, anyway? Not me.

”

- Things You Should Know Before You Date A Writer

Possible Reasons These Dogs Are Drunk

Mon, 07 May 2012 18:14:35 -0400

Possible Reasons These Dogs Are Drunk:

“In which Thought Catalog believes that it is Buzzfeed.”

—TCH Majority Whip Tim Herrera

"And then when the summer ends, I’ll have to go back to my last year at graduate school, my last year..."

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:11:22 -0400

“And then when the summer ends, I’ll have to go back to my last year at graduate school, my last year before I have to grow up and go do real adult things. Dad will stand next to mom, with a look of pride on his face and that mischievous Ira Glass-twinkle in his eye that either means that he’s happy, that he put Terry Gross’ stapler in jello again or that he just farted. He won’t say it exactly, but from that look, I’ll know that he’ll know that I know how much he cares about me. With my backpack packed and my khakis perfectly ironed, I’ll smile and wave and promise to email or call every day, or at least text him pictures of strangers on the “L” train doing the darnedest things.”

- I Want Ira Glass To Be My Dad

"Lately, I’ve been wrestling with that self, and I don’t know why or who is winning or if it even..."

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:09:42 -0400

“Lately, I’ve been wrestling with that self, and I don’t know why or who is winning or if it even matters. The person I was, the person in the paragraphs above, she is a shadow, like in Peter Pan, constantly slipping away and dancing on the walls and mocking me. A shadow is mocking me. And worst of all, the two of us have an audience. Everyone I’ve met in the past seven months has been forced to watch me grapple with the shimmering oasis of myself, the self that had a gilded moral compass tucked in her back pocket at all times.”

- I’m Not Normally Like This

"A few months ago, I went “home” to California for a month. The official reason was to visit my..."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:20:20 -0400

“A few months ago, I went “home” to California for a month. The official reason was to visit my family for the holidays and do a speaking engagement I had been booked for at UCLA. The unofficial reason, however, was a little bit more complicated than that. For the last year I had been feeling like New York was a claustrophobic monster that was beginning to close in on me. It sounds so stupid and dramatic but, after almost four years of living in the city, I had started to feel unsafe for no reason. And not unsafe in the “Oh my god, I think I’m going to get mugged!” way. (I had been mugged before I even moved to New York, when I was looking at colleges to transfer to from California, and it didn’t scare me off one bit.) I mean unsafe in a vaguer sense. Like I would walk home alone from a bar on a Saturday night and get the overwhelming fear that I could just disappear, like I could just vanish and no one would even think to look for me. This anxiety stemmed from the fact that I felt very lonely and isolated at the time. I was experiencing detachment from most of my friends, so I would just go off the grid for a few days and become a total frosted flake. It was a vicious cycle. I would feel alienated, so then I would alienate myself and feel even more alone. There was no logic but, in my defense, I had pretty terrible coping mechanisms. I went through a lot of changes in a short period of time and, quite frankly, didn’t know how to deal with any of it, at least in a healthy way.”

- Why It’s A Bad Idea To Run Away From Your Problems

"But then I thought about what I would tweet if somebody saved my life, and I really have no clue..."

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:12:28 -0500

“But then I thought about what I would tweet if somebody saved my life, and I really have no clue what I would say. What can you say in 140 characters about something so… big?”

- What Do You Tweet When Someone Who Saved Your Life Dies Because He Saved Your Life?

"Emotionally, I haven’t even kissed anyone since he left."

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:24:00 -0500

“Emotionally, I haven’t even kissed anyone since he left.”

- Wherever You Go, There You Are

"It’s no secret that walking around New York can be a total nightmare. People shove, they scream,..."

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:20:48 -0500

“It’s no secret that walking around New York can be a total nightmare. People shove, they scream, they yell, they barf. Whenever I have to navigate downtown Manhattan on a day I feel stressed/ depressed/ exhausted, I’m pretty sure I walk around with the most petrified look on my face. It’s an expression that lets people know that I’m very fragile right now and to please send for help. If used in any other city, you would have a swarm of people surrounding you, asking if you’re okay. But in New York, it doesn’t merit a second glance. This all might sound bleak but it’s actually why I love living in this city. I can walk down 14th street looking like a total freak on the verge of a nervous breakdown, mouthing “PLEASE HELP ME!” to strangers, and that’s okay. I don’t have to pretend. I don’t have to smile for NO ONE. You know why? Because living here is expensive and hard. I’ve earned the right to lose my mind and make strangers uncomfortable by my violent sobs. Don’t like it? Move to LA where people only cry in their car or a hotel restroom.”

- 5 Things You Should Do While Living In New York In Your Twenties

"Pro-eating disorder websites do not cause eating disorders. Sure, people look at thinspo and then..."

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:18:51 -0500

“Pro-eating disorder websites do not cause eating disorders. Sure, people look at thinspo and then barf up their food, but you don’t think they do that after listening to Wale’s ‘90210’ or getting dumped? It is very difficult for some people not to drink, but Tumblr isn’t shutting down blogs that glorify drinking, share cocktail recipes or teach people how to conceal an alcoholic drink while they work.”

- Tumblr Is Wrong For Censoring Eating Disorder Blogs

"5. Ask questions. Why does this keep happening to me? How could there be anyone better than him? At..."

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:16:22 -0500

“5. Ask questions. Why does this keep happening to me? How could there be anyone better than him? At what precise moment did I go wrong? Weren’t we happy? Do I have to join eHarmony? Singles yoga? How could anyone ever love me with my weird toenail thing? And the scariest one of all, what do I do now?”

- 5 Things I Do The Weekend After Getting Dumped

"It’s liberating when you realize that someone doesn’t love you anymore. Well, at first it’s..."

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:13:54 -0500

“It’s liberating when you realize that someone doesn’t love you anymore. Well, at first it’s devastating. At first you’ll be stricken with grief and question what’s wrong with you. You’ll ask yourself what you can do to make yourself more lovable, as if changing one thing will suddenly make you more appealing to a mass group of people. There must be something you can fix inside yourself that will bring all the men and women who loved you back, who once held you like a boa constrictor in bed and delighted in your every movement. You were a gold star they stuck on their bedroom wall until the edges started to wilt, and you fell down. Gold star, little star, crumbled up piece of sticker on your foot that you can’t seem to get off.”

- Why You Can’t Make Your Ex Fall In Love With You Again

"I only have one year of legal adulthood under my belt, but I feel pretty mature for my age (even..."

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:02:58 -0500

“I only have one year of legal adulthood under my belt, but I feel pretty mature for my age (even though saying that gives me a ‘real age’ of, like, 13). Or at least “mature” (maybe just boring…) enough that I don’t really like boys who are my age, and don’t really get along with them as far as dating stuff goes. I prefer men. But men (~25-29 yr old men… men/ guys. I don’t know, f-ck) have this tendency to immediately friend-zone or write me off completely because of my age. Once people have an opinion/ first impression, it’s nearly impossible for that to change. I don’t want to lie to guys when I meet them about my age, or skirt around the question (because that’s obvious). I’ve been trying the “just wait until they realize how on-their-level I am” tactic, but that only works if I’m friend-zoned — not if they write me off — and it takes forEVER for them to realize, “Oh, maybe she IS ‘old’ enough to date.” Is this just something I have to deal with because I AM younger? Or is there something I can do (or say) to show/notify them that they shouldn’t immediately put me in the too-young category? That’s really what I’m wondering — what (if anything) can I do when we first meet to stop them from automatically forming that too-young-for-me impression and putting me in the non-date pool? Am I doomed to guys my own age?”

- Ask A Princess, Vol. 2

"Things were different back then, I was less broken, and so was the internet. It was just a baby; now..."

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:06:30 -0500

“Things were different back then, I was less broken, and so was the internet. It was just a baby; now it’s an angry teen. Tonight I’ll go back to all my likes, like a sick dating site only I’m taking part in. It’s easy to obsess about strangers. You just pour nothingness outward, as if, through some accident in the universe, that very act could somehow fill you. I will look for warm clues scattered behind her — the blurry spines of books I sort of recognize; the posters of vaguely alternative bands everyone knows too well; the clothes hanging in her closet I can almost touch and smell; the plant she nurtures in place of me, its soil darkening with care — as if the mystery of why she liked this, why she liked me, could ever be solved.”

- Internet Like Story