But, more than anything, Tumblr was known as the home of 'social justice warriors' and a bastion of online liberalism. Its lax moderation was part of the appeal: there was no censorship of pornography, erotica, or nudity in general, though this also allowed darker subcultures, like self-harm and pro-anorexia circles, to flourish. Back in 2013, 46 percent of its 34 million monthly visitors were between 16 and 24. Through the early 2010s, Tumblr was known as a haven for teenage girls, alternately mocked and curiously profiled. When he joined in middle school, those posts, sandwiched between jokes, became instrumental to his political development as a teenager: 'So I join Tumblr primarily because of the memes, but I notice that all the meme accounts would also frequently reblog'-Tumblr-speak for simultaneously reposting content to your own blog and sharing it with your followers, sometimes adding a comment-'some very new liberal ideas that I had never considered before,' he writes. 'Prior to Tumblr, I was a Republican asshole,' says Trace Pfaff, a 21-year-old white, gay man from Tennessee, in a text exchange.
