Welcome to Scene Weekly!

I am Zombie Stardust and I'll be your host for these weekly updates on everything new and up incoming in our 2000s inspired, scene, emo, and alternative community! This post will be my formal introduction and mission statement as I dedicate my time to creating a hub for all things Scene.

My hope for Scene Weekly is to upload weekly blog posts pertaining to the current scene culture, interviews with independent artists, fashion breakdowns and tutorials, and answer a number of community questions. I will be hunting around for new music to add to the playlist on the home page. I want to write music reviews to spotlight new artists and get names out to the community. My biggest goal for this project is to make something positive for the world! A space for the community to show off its amazing talented creators, musicians, artists, designers, models, I want everyone to have the opportunity to feel at home here. I am, of course, just one person and I don't expect me to be perfect at this right off the bat, but eventually, I think Scene Weekly can be something amazing, if you all would like to join me!

As for me, I thought you all might want a little backstory.

My interest in scene, emo, and alternative culture started young. I was a little kid in the 2000s, and because of that I missed a lot of the Scene at its peak, but that doesn't mean I didn't have an awareness of it on some level. My parents listened to a lot of rock and metal when I was growing up so never in my life have I been without its influence, secondarily my older brother was my first introduction to the emo genre.

It's a complicated story so I won't delve into it, but I met my older brother when I was in middle school and he was a hardcore dedicated emo boy. Dyed his hair black and straightened it, had piercings, he wore women's skinny jeans and black eyeliner. Needless to say, my older brother was the coolest person on earth to me when I was 11. We bonded a lot over music, he introduced me to bands that I never stopped listening to; Fall Out Boy, Pierce The Veil, Black Veil Brides, Sleeping With Sirens, Set It Off, All Time Low, A Day To Remember, Mayday Parade, My Chemical Romance, I could probably go on forever. I adopted the emo aesthetic almost immediately, I got bangs for the first time, dyed my hair red (because my parents didn't want me to dye it black), bought a bunch of band t-shirts, and was gifted my first pair of converse high tops on Christmas. My brother gave me my first studded bracelet because it didn't fit him anymore.

After having the world of emo gifted to me on a silver platter, I found the scene aesthetic by accident, by googling the words “emo girl”. So, I feel the need to explain that despite being a ‘digital native’ gen Z, I didn't know how the internet worked at 11. I didn't know YouTube existed, I don't know about Myspace, or Newgrounds, and I barely knew about Facebook because my older sister had one. The only thing that I knew you could do with a computer was look at pokemon on Google Images (and play on CoolMathGames), and because the only thing about the internet I could understand was Google Images, I started looking at emo people online. It was there in the recommended searches that I found scene kids and fell immediately in love.

The big hair, the colors, the makeup, the accessories I was absolutely enraptured by it all. Sadly I was an anxious child who was incredibly insecure at the time and wouldn't have dared do anything to draw so much attention to myself. So I was what I'd call a “casual emo” through middle school and high school.

In high school I found my confidence in Theatre, I worked on every play our troupe produced whether I was on the stage or back stage. I found out I was queer, had my first kiss, went to my first concert for my 16th birthday, and met my long term partner (who I am still with today <3).

It was after high school that I was brave enough to fully embrace both my desire to be emo and my queer gender identity.

I cut off all my hair, dyed it black, learned how to put on eyeliner, bought a bunch of black skinny jeans, and I was so happy. I'd never been so happy, which seemed to confuse a lot of people on the internet who assumed I was extremely depressed because I was emo. It wasn't until genuinely one year later, that in a sper of the moment decision I shaved my eyebrows off and teased my hair for the first time. And I felt in that moment the most euphoric gender ever. I felt with pencil thin brows and big teased hair and outrageously applied eyeshadow the way I remember feeling looking at those girls when I was 11, and suddenly I had found myself for the first time.

I threw myself head first into the Scene. I devoured the music, I thrifted tutus, I bought my own makeup for the first time, I hunted down as many people I could find who similarly wanted to revive the Scene. I made Kandi for the first time, I drank a Monster for the first time, I embraced femininity for the first time, I made a lot of genuine friends that for the first time I felt knew who I really was. It felt like coming home.

Now, four years later, and here I am! I'm a fully-fledged Scene Queen dedicated to doing my part in helping this community thrive! I'm really happy to be here with all of you, and I hope that this little page of mine will become something great!

Thank you all so much!