I’m curious about being goth. How do I become one?

Gothic style is synonymous with fashion and music nowadays. However, it has its roots in the Old Continent’s history that date several centuries into the past. As a style, it was pretty popular in the late 19th and early 20th century in Western Europe.
Back then, architecture and literature were all about gloom and doom. Numerous classic literature of that period is goth — from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to numerous short stories and poems by the great Edgar Allan Poe.
By the second half of the 20th century, goth made a great comeback in popular culture. Bands like the early Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Sisters of Mercy were all about black lace and depressing themes.
The style is still present. From high-fashion to moll posers, being goth can help people find their inner selves or even climb the cool scale on campus. So, read the rest of our article on how to become a gothic girl or boy yourself.
Share It With Your Friends
To make the most of any change, it’s best to share it with your friends and family. This will help avoid confusion once you stroll down the stairs in your all-new look. Therefore, talk about your style change with close friends. They might also have a couple of unique ideas that you can borrow to make your new goth look even more interesting.
On the other hand, there’s another reason to share before you go gothic. Most laypeople associate this style with something wrong. As if everyone who dresses up as a goth has personal problems and is depressed. Although we’re sure your normie friends won’t have any bad intentions, it’s best to share before they start bombarding you with questions.
Do Your Research
To be a true goth, it’s key to research this subculture. This means fashion, music, books, and anything else you can associate with the way you interpret being goth. Therefore, you should search for cool clothes in your local stores, check out Spotify or YouTube goth playlists, and buy both classic and contemporary gothic literature.
For classic books, do check out the ones we’ve already mentioned. So, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, and Poe’s poems like “The Raven” or “Annabel Lee.” For a more modern approach towards this style, we recommend Anne Rice’s vampire novels, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (both the books and the first two films).
Change Your Makeup and Clothes
Changing your clothes and makeup are major parts of becoming goth. It’s key to say that you don’t need to chase brand goth clothing, though. One, it’s expensive, and two, it actually has no purpose inside the culture. It’s something posers will chase after, and you don’t want to be one of them, don’t you?
Just think about wearing black — from long sleeves and black pants to leather jackets, coats, and dark color eye makeup. You can dive into body piercings, but that’s not necessary to be part of the goth subculture. Once you combine this with a great playlist on your headphones, you’ll be ready to leave traces of misery everywhere behind you.
Read and Explore Goth Fantasies
Listening to goth music and reading traditional gothic literature will make you well-aware of what this subculture is all about. From death and misery to pessimism and often nihilism, the goth scene is full of obscure ideas. However, none of them need to make you a less happy person. It’s, moreover, a way to escape the reality of everyday life.
Some of the most common goth fantasies revolve around themes and characters you find in horror movies. From classic Hammer production flicks with Christopher Lee as Dracula to morbid, exploitation flicks such as Jörg Buttgereit’s Nekromantik, there’s a ton of sources to check out and explore. So, take your time and enjoy.
Habitual Practice
Listening to gothic rock and EBM, reading Poe, and watching morbid movies won’t make you a goth if you don’t walk the walk. By this, we mean that you need to incorporate a habitual practice in your everyday life to be a true vamp. But what characterizes goths? Do they walk or talk differently? Nope.
Like others, goths do pretty much the same stuff. They sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, and go to work/school. However, the way they go about it is different. Some are extreme, so they sleep during the day and prowl nightly like vampires. Others don’t eat that much to be skinny and have a pale look — not recommended.
Be Mindful of Your Style
Being a goth doesn’t mean that you must act a certain way. That’s what posers do. The point is to follow the style but always remain true to your personality and interests. For example, if you love sports but want to be a goth, that doesn’t mean that you should stop following your favorite team or league. Keep at it while drinking cranberry juice instead of blood.
Furthermore, experiment with your identity, interests, and even sexual orientation. Break the rules and mix stuff that doesn’t belong in the culture in a traditional sense. Be a romantic goth, a healthy vamp, or even a poetry-loving jock if you need to. The whole point is to not conform to standards. So, don’t surrender to other people’s ideas about being goth.