Taylor Swift’s Famous Fall Freak-Out Was One of Tumblr’s Best Moments
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To honor Taylor Swift’s latest rerecording, we’re celebrating 1989 (Taylor’s Version) Week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. That means we’re throwing it back to 2014, to relive everything that Taylor—and the rest of pop culture—was up to.
The Tumblr post began with a simple, relatable message: “I LOVE THE FALL.”
OK, same.
In September 2014, a Taylor Swift fan account shared this quick thought about apple cider and donuts in autumn. But back in the day, Swift used to interact even more with her fans online, liking their posts on Twitter and reblogging them on Tumblr quite frequently. Thanks to her simple love of all things autumnal, the user known as “simplysfans” became one of the lucky ones to attract Swift’s attention online.
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Swift reblogged the post, adding her own reasons to love the chillier season: “And hats and scarves and knee socks and wearing tights for the first time in months and when the mornings are all chilly and you can see your breath and draw little pictures on foggy windows and plaid stuff and ANKLE BOOTS and not caring when people make fun of pumpkin flavored stuff cause you LOVE IT and are happy it’s all the rage…”
The list goes on: “...and people who dress their dogs in costumes on Halloween and fires in fireplaces and maroon/hunter green/mustard yellow color combos and baking your first fall batch of cookies but you put too much cinnamon in it because you’re TOO EXCITED BECAUSE IT’S FALL.”
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This may sound over-the-top in hindsight. In fact, back in autumn 2014—when Starbucks cups were as much an outfit accessory as chunky necklaces, and Swift was about to release 1989—this post really spoke to the culture. When summarizing that year, historians should look no further than this Tumblr artifact.
In 2014, gone were the days of Ugg boots (which have, a decade after their peak, made a resurgence in the culture). Swift’s prose inspired a wave of combat boots paired with tights and that very specific button-up corduroy skirt. Really, we all wanted to look exactly like she did in those photos with Harry Styles and the fox sweater.
Like 1989, which is set to be rereleased as Swift’s latest Taylor’s Version on Friday, this post has found its way back to the zeitgeist in 2023, almost a decade after its conception. It started two years ago, when Swift recreated the post on her TikTok account. Red (Taylor’s Version) was about to hit shelves, so she used this as an opportunity to tease her autumnal album. She’s even seen writing “All Too Well” lyrics in her journal in the clip alongside a voiceover of her reading the post.
This year, though, Swift’s narration really took off on TikTok. Creators were using the sound on a handful of fall-themed videos to show off trees with orange leaves, cozy outfits, and recreations of Swift’s famous chai sugar cookies. Fall is always in fashion, but on the precipice of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), this year really feels like the right time to recirculate the 2014 viral post once again.
Although this trend has seen widespread popularity on TikTok, perhaps it’s indicative of something else: the need for a Tumblr renaissance. The social media platform was huge in the 2010s, but has since fallen out of popularity, as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have taken over the world instead. But as Twitter fizzles into the hellscape of Elon Musk’s X, we need that wholesome world back. Bring back fun text posts about fall and a safe place for celebrities to interact with their fans!
Swift remains active on Tumblr, sharing updates about her career the same way she does on all of the other social media apps. But I, for one, miss the days when she would reblog fan accounts, gossip about cats, and post passionate verses about fall. As the 1989 era is rebooted, so, too, should Swift’s presence on Tumblr.
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