Teen Gothic

From what I've seen and experienced in the subculture, there is a massive fear of making a mistake or not being "the perfect goth" as that happens in most communities and it especially intimidating to newer people. In truth pretty much all of us have made some sort of mistake or mess up at some point in our time here. So why not share some mistakes we've all made to make things seem less intimidating and to also help out others from making the same! No mistake being too dumb, and please be kind to others who share theirs!

I'll go first:

When I was twelve and first starting out, one of my friend's older sisters' was goth and recommended Sex Gang Children. She told me about how they were one of the first and how important they were to the subculture. I wanted to look into them more so I read an article stating that they were the ones who came up with the word "goth" as well as skimmed through their wiki page and majorly misread it. Culture Club was originally going to be named Sex Gang Children but renamed it and then the now actual band then got it officially. However, in my twelve year old short attention span mind I misread it as Culture Club was the same as Sex Gang Children and for a full year I thought that Karma Chameleon himself, Boy George, was the one who came up with name for the subculture. For some reason tween me just went on thinking this without double checking until I saw something about the actual band and it always gives me a good laugh looking back!

I completely forgot them. All I remember was an European show presenting them. The pretty girl show host talked with duck lips and she had awful posture. I even forgot the name of the show they were on. I know it's somewhere on youtube. Thanks,

Okay so I live in a urban area so I have always been the "emo girl" in my neighborhood. My family is hispanic/black so I grew up with a lot of them telling me "you just want to be into that white people s***"

So when I went to college and finally met another goth girl I was ecstatic. She came up to me and we hit it off and actually didn't talk about music taste deeply till a few days later.

So the mitski concert happened and I went to it because I like her. My friend had saw that post and texted me that she thought I was goth. I told her I was, but I like other music artist to.

Then she started asking if I've gone to a goth concert or a goth club and I said no. I'm like 19 my mom would never let me go to a club. Also I thought you couldn't go to a club under the age of 21. I'm so confused. Plus apparently since I've gone to other concerts for my other music taste that I'm not serious about being goth.

Anyway she told me that I should stick to calling myself alternative and not lying to people about me being goth.

So I'll be honest goth music is not my top genre atm. It's in my top 5 though. I listen to punk,metal,rock, indie AND goth music.

Can I not listen to other music and go to non-goth concerts?

Like I would go to a goth concert, but twin tribes isn't coming to my state nor city. Which is most likely the only goth artist who I like who can come over to my city.

Idk I guess I'm just looking for some advice and maybe some validation.

I really wanted to make a friend who didn't listen to rap/hip-hop/pop. I have nothing against those genres but I just wanted a friend who could listen to some similar music to me and go to concerts. Maybe even show me some more music.

Also I guess I kind of understand where she is coming from because now we have things like "clean goth" (idek) and people just marketing off the goth style now without listening to the music.

Though I'm not one of them. I'm just feeling like a poser right now, also kind of sad.

i know the contour is a bit out of place on one side but unfortunately my pigment refused to stick. first real time doing something like this so lots of firsts and learning to be done! (last pic is before)

All are either hand painted or have photo transfer fabric on them. The Specimen top took a little extra time to stud around the collar & add grommets with the ribbon. It's a little bunchy with how I'm sitting, but standing it looks pretty good. I had a lot of fun freehanding all the little designs on the Switchblade Symphony shirt.

I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out!

In my case that was Molchat Doma and Sisters of Mercy. They're not so gothic tho, yet they could lead me to the classics such as Siouxsie

For goths that are 40 or above, have you ever been dissed by someone, whether they were a goth or a non-goth, about you still being in the scene at your age?

I ask this as a 20 something babybat with bad skin, who is already self-conscious about whether or not I'm pulling it off or not.

Do you ever get self-conscious about it?