“I think that building these ‘aesthetic’ communities ... with a handwritten love letter, wax-sealed, from the character. When she discovered the dark academia hashtag on TikTok, she knew ...

These are just a few buzzwords to describe the Dark Academia aesthetic that has taken on a life of its own since its inception in 2015-era Tumblr. You might also associate the social media-viral ...

Old fog-shrouded buildings, tweed jackets, yellowing collections of poetry, and classical music are staples of the academia aesthetic, which has taken over the internet in the past year.