Scrolling through @SighSwoon on Instagram is the equivalent of picking up a mysterious book at a thrift shop and falling into words that both enlighten and entertain.
Gabi Abrao, a 24-year-old Los Angeles native, is the mind behind one of Instagram's shiniest hidden gems. SighSwoon showcases self-reflective memes and guides on how to feelthings, whether it's simple pleasures or a broken heart. It’s a treasure trove of content tailored for millennials navigating creative lives.
Sighswoon began in the summer of 2016, Abrao tells Mashable over email. Heartbreak and the desire to make some changes drove her toward the internet as a medium for creating and connecting with others, mainly through memes. With an ever-growing follower count of 62.3K, she's connected with a lot of people.
“When I share a realization online and see that thousands of people are going through the same thing, it makes me feel less alone, less hard on myself. I want people to feel this way too — understood, empowered,” Abrao explains.
View this post on Instagram
The artist uses her platform to offer a plethora of self-care tips, from how to sunbathe ("a secluded location where you can get as naked as possible") to the best ways to "shapeshift," a visualization practice for when you're uncentered. Reading her is kind of like speaking to a caring physician who knows exactly what ails you and then gives you the perfect prescription, free of charge.
View this post on Instagram
With so much to do and see online today, it can be difficult to slow your scroll and ask yourself how you're feeling. Abrao's hyper-aware content offers a mirror with which followers can take a nice, long look at themselves. The focus falls on subjects like self-worth, illusions, success, and creativity. She utilizes extensive captions to explain specific ideas in depth — or even just to describe a sunset.
View this post on Instagram
“As a teenager, I used to do street art wheat paste posters around the city that said ‘sigh swoon sigh’ on them," Abrao says of her page’s unusual name. "It was a mini poem I made up and attached meaning to, and sharing it like that was a reason to run around and be bad. Years later, the phrase would come back around and feel like the most fitting title for what my page has become.”
View this post on Instagram
The Sighswoon feed is aesthetically pleasing, everything kissed with a tint of beige. It's light and welcoming, which is exactly the way Abrao wanted it. She blames her fascination with the hue on her time spent at the beach: “I was renting a bed and a balcony in a living room for $500/month. The building’s stucco was beige, the cheap '90s carpet was beige, and the sand was beige. I think I just wanted to match everything.”
SEE ALSO: I don't know who needs to hear this, but these memes are goodView this post on Instagram
“The cyborg in me recognizes the cyborg in you,” reads her bio, just above a link to her online store where she sells merch that features the saying on totes and sweatshirts. “It’s a claim to embracing the digital age,” Abrao explains, “the very human-meets-technology existence we all participate in, and are still wearily adapting to.” She admits that while it’s meant to be humorous, she also means it with her “whole heart."
View this post on Instagram
With just about three years of memeing under her (beige) belt, Abrao has figured out the formula for making a solid one.
“A good meme is funny, relatable, insightful, and healing. In that order. You should laugh, then feel connected to the creator or others who understand it, then experience some introspect, then leave with a healed feeling from those three processes,” she muses. Her delivery method varies as she utilizes many different meme formats.
View this post on Instagram
Occasionally, Abrao will post pictures of herself wearing interesting outfits made of neutral textiles and glowy silks. These portraits provide a face to the name (as well as maintaining her color-coded image). They also fuel fan encounters at her part-time book store gig: "A few times I have rung up a book, handed it to the person across the counter, and they’re just staring at me, and they say 'You make memes right?'"
View this post on Instagram
Abrao just wants to help everyone chill out. "I aim for my page to be accessible, empowering, and soothing," she says. And she wants to keep it up for as long as possible.
"I wish to continue my studies of the invisible and unseen — documenting my findings through paintings, writings, videos, memes, and other art forms," she says. Her end goal is literally out of this world: "I will operate a carousel in the desert some day, and I hope to re-spawn on another planet in my next life."
In the midst of all the noise that is Instagram in 2019, Sighswoon provides a light-filled digital oasis, a faraway page that's easy to get lost on. Be careful, though. You might just walk away feeling refreshed and renewed. And with an affinity for beige.
文章
14
浏览
5
获赞
935
Watch Kathryn Hahn stare longingly at Rachel Weisz set to the 'Carol' score
Kathryn Hahn and Rachel Weisz are made to be together, forever -- at least in queer fanfiction on TuA decade of dicks: How NSFW internet pics changed the world for the worse
Has Jeff Bezos' impressive exposure of Pecker finally broken the curse of Weiner? Oh yes, we all lauGoogle unveils Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL after so, so many leaks
Google finally unveiled its Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. After months of dropping details, Google liftedGoogle launches six digital wellbeing tools it's calling experiments
It doesn’t take much to be distracted nowadays: A ping, and you’re asking your friend to'SighSwoon' merges self
Scrolling through @SighSwoon on Instagram is the equivalent of picking up a mysterious book at a thrWill Smith shares hilarious footage of the time Jaden cut his own hair
Will Smith is a cool dad, but he's not above trolling his own celebrity children on social media.TheSenator has the perfect response to charge that she fell asleep at the State of the Union
Setting the record straight has never been so satisfying.During Trump's State of the Union address oReddit wants more teen users. Can Snapchat help?
Reddit might be the "front page of the internet," a hotbed of memes and viral videos, but the site'sTom Hiddleston's Chinese Centrum ad is a real wild ride
It was brought to the internet's attention on Friday that Tom Hiddleston recently starred in a CentrWhy the 'Brooklyn Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Ninehas always managed to skillfully tackle sensitive topics, and the NBC comedy's #MeUber buries its ride map to put Uber Eats front and center
The Uber app is getting an extreme makeover.For the first time, the hallmark Uber ride-hailing map wElon Musk describes Tesla pickup as 'armored personnel carrier from the future'
Tesla's upcoming electric pickup truck could be unveiled as soon as November, and the internet is teTom Hiddleston's Chinese Centrum ad is a real wild ride
It was brought to the internet's attention on Friday that Tom Hiddleston recently starred in a CentrHere's why Google's Pixel 4 doesn't have 5G
Google's new Pixel 4 smartphone doesn't have 5G because the technology "isn't quite ready for consumPeople are throwing cheese on their children now, and it's kinda great
Throwing cheese on your dog was good, but throwing cheese on a small child might be ... better?Yes,