Alex Suppan, MFA
Graphic Design + Copywriting + Creative Strategy
TUMBLR GIRLS
Exhibition Catalog + Poster Series / Digital Culture Preservation
This project argues for the treating of teenage internet culture as something worth preserving. There is no comprehensive record of Tumblr as a cultural phenomenon. This catalog does that work. Curating images, articles and song lyrics to both immerse and contextualize, letting assembled voices map the platform's rise and fall. Developed in Graduate Typography 3 with Gloria Kondrup at ArtCenter College of Design.
I've always been fascinated by Tumblr in the kind of way people love the music they listened to in high school. When I was prompted to imagine up an exhibition of anything, I chose Tumblr. Because I felt like it, of course, but soon enough I realized the value in documenting it. There's no sense of urgency to preserve digital culture, let alone treat the interests of teenage girls with any sense of seriousness. I decided to do both, before Tumblr effectively disappears from the internet like MySpace did.
Social media can feel like a cage.
1
Social media can feel like a cage.
1
Social media can feel like a cage.
1
Teenage girls pick and choose which parts of themselves to share, and after a time, get to believing that bodies are things they can edit like the photos they post, or the captions they write to go with them.
2
Teenage girls pick and choose which parts of themselves to share, and after a time, get to believing that bodies are things they can edit like the photos they post, or the captions they write to go with them.
2
Teenage girls pick and choose which parts of themselves to share, and after a time, get to believing that bodies are things they can edit like the photos they post, or the captions they write to go with them.
2
Cigarettes shouldn't look this cool.
3
Cigarettes shouldn't look this cool.
3
Cigarettes shouldn't look this cool.
3
Something's missing!
4
Something's missing!
4
Something's missing!
4
5
5
5
G-Eazy's song lyrics.
6
G-Eazy's song lyrics.
6
G-Eazy's song lyrics.
6
Emmeline Clein argues that the sad girl trope isn't just a media product, it's a script that girls absorb until they can no longer tell the difference between feeling something and performing it.
7
Emmeline Clein argues that the sad girl trope isn't just a media product, it's a script that girls absorb until they can no longer tell the difference between feeling something and performing it.
7
Emmeline Clein argues that the sad girl trope isn't just a media product, it's a script that girls absorb until they can no longer tell the difference between feeling something and performing it.
7
What a Tumblelog (Tumblr blog) actually looked like in 2013.
8
What a Tumblelog (Tumblr blog) actually looked like in 2013.
8
What a Tumblelog (Tumblr blog) actually looked like in 2013.
8
Tumblr founder David Karp wanted to create something looser than a blog, more like a place to share without obligation. The articles here map what his idea became.
9
Tumblr founder David Karp wanted to create something looser than a blog, more like a place to share without obligation. The articles here map what his idea became.
9
Tumblr founder David Karp wanted to create something looser than a blog, more like a place to share without obligation. The articles here map what his idea became.
9
Self-expression and self-destruction shared the same aesthetic, and for a while, the same hashtags.
10
Self-expression and self-destruction shared the same aesthetic, and for a while, the same hashtags.
10
Self-expression and self-destruction shared the same aesthetic, and for a while, the same hashtags.
10
One article describes Tumblr as a place where teenagers found community and political awakening. The other describes returning to an old blog and finding the personal emotional damage still there.
11
One article describes Tumblr as a place where teenagers found community and political awakening. The other describes returning to an old blog and finding the personal emotional damage still there.
11
One article describes Tumblr as a place where teenagers found community and political awakening. The other describes returning to an old blog and finding the personal emotional damage still there.
11
12
12
12
13
13
13
14
14
14
Jonathan Haidt's argument is that the timing, the gender gap and the international pattern all point to social media as a cause, not just a correlate, of the mental health decline in adolescent girls.
15
Jonathan Haidt's argument is that the timing, the gender gap and the international pattern all point to social media as a cause, not just a correlate, of the mental health decline in adolescent girls.
15
Jonathan Haidt's argument is that the timing, the gender gap and the international pattern all point to social media as a cause, not just a correlate, of the mental health decline in adolescent girls.
15
16
16
16
Sophia Brousset asks whether the girls who identified with the sad girl trope were mirroring culture or whether culture was reshaping them, and whether that distinction still matters.
17
Sophia Brousset asks whether the girls who identified with the sad girl trope were mirroring culture or whether culture was reshaping them, and whether that distinction still matters.
17
Sophia Brousset asks whether the girls who identified with the sad girl trope were mirroring culture or whether culture was reshaping them, and whether that distinction still matters.
17
18
18
18
A platform built around self-expression that nobody could figure out how to monetize, acquired for a billion dollars by a company that never understood what it had bought.
19
A platform built around self-expression that nobody could figure out how to monetize, acquired for a billion dollars by a company that never understood what it had bought.
19
A platform built around self-expression that nobody could figure out how to monetize, acquired for a billion dollars by a company that never understood what it had bought.
19
20
20
20
21
21
21
Michelle Santiago Cortés argues that body ideals don't disappear, they just go dormant, then come back, wearing different clothes.
22
Michelle Santiago Cortés argues that body ideals don't disappear, they just go dormant, then come back, wearing different clothes.
22
Michelle Santiago Cortés argues that body ideals don't disappear, they just go dormant, then come back, wearing different clothes.
22
23
23
23
The history of dieting in America is also a history of race, class and the body as "proof" of self-control.
24
The history of dieting in America is also a history of race, class and the body as "proof" of self-control.
24
The history of dieting in America is also a history of race, class and the body as "proof" of self-control.
24
25
25
25
The research that defined eating disorders in the '90s centered white, thin, affluent girls, and in doing so, made everyone else invisible.
26
The research that defined eating disorders in the '90s centered white, thin, affluent girls, and in doing so, made everyone else invisible.
26
The research that defined eating disorders in the '90s centered white, thin, affluent girls, and in doing so, made everyone else invisible.
26
27
27
27
Tumblr's content ban said more about what American platforms are willing to protect than it did about what they're willing to police.
28
Tumblr's content ban said more about what American platforms are willing to protect than it did about what they're willing to police.
28
Tumblr's content ban said more about what American platforms are willing to protect than it did about what they're willing to police.
28
When platforms solve problems at scale, the communities built in the margins are usually the ones who bear the cost.
29
When platforms solve problems at scale, the communities built in the margins are usually the ones who bear the cost.
29
When platforms solve problems at scale, the communities built in the margins are usually the ones who bear the cost.
29
30
30
30
The ASA banned FKA Twigs's Calvin Klein ad for being too sexual while leaving Jeremy Allen White's campaign untouched, and Twigs responded by naming exactly what she saw in the image of herself.
31
The ASA banned FKA Twigs's Calvin Klein ad for being too sexual while leaving Jeremy Allen White's campaign untouched, and Twigs responded by naming exactly what she saw in the image of herself.
31
The ASA banned FKA Twigs's Calvin Klein ad for being too sexual while leaving Jeremy Allen White's campaign untouched, and Twigs responded by naming exactly what she saw in the image of herself.
31
32
32
32
Eva Baron uses an allegory of a whale carcass drifting to the ocean floor to describe the way Tumblr impacted TikTok. Tumblr was never seen alive by most of TikTok's users, but it kept feeding the ecosystem anyway.
33
Eva Baron uses an allegory of a whale carcass drifting to the ocean floor to describe the way Tumblr impacted TikTok. Tumblr was never seen alive by most of TikTok's users, but it kept feeding the ecosystem anyway.
33
Eva Baron uses an allegory of a whale carcass drifting to the ocean floor to describe the way Tumblr impacted TikTok. Tumblr was never seen alive by most of TikTok's users, but it kept feeding the ecosystem anyway.
33
34
34
34
Tumblr sold for $1.1 billion in 2013 and for around $3 million in 2019. The internet doesn't preserve things so much as it loses interest in them. The end.
35
Tumblr sold for $1.1 billion in 2013 and for around $3 million in 2019. The internet doesn't preserve things so much as it loses interest in them. The end.
35
Tumblr sold for $1.1 billion in 2013 and for around $3 million in 2019. The internet doesn't preserve things so much as it loses interest in them. The end.
35
© 2026 Alex Suppan. All rights reserved.
© 2026 Alex Suppan. All rights reserved.