About

I Hid It Really Well Growing Up is a TikTok bait-and-switch trend where people show the difference between how they perceive their younger self to be, and how visibly queer they actually were growing up. The trend began in July 2022 and continued into September of the same year. It is commonly set to a mashup of the piano solo and chorus of Mary Lambert's "She Keeps Me Warm."

Origin

On August 25th, 2013, singer-songwriter Mary Lambert posted the music video to her song, "She Keeps Me Warm" to her official YouTube^[1] channel, gathering over 13 million views in nearly 10 years (seen below).

On July 11th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @judithbootith69 posted a video of herself saying "I had no idea when I was younger," and cutting to her saying "sobbing to this song at age 11." The post gathered over 600,000 plays and 170,000 likes in nearly three months (seen below, left). On July 20th, TikToker^[3] @stayafterclass posted a video following the same format, showing a picture of a younger self setting up a science exhibit to impress a female classmate (seen below, right).

Spread

On August 1st, 2022, TikToker^[4] @joebidensarmpithair posted a video following the same template, showing a picture of her younger self ecstatically hugging a cheerleader. The post gathered over 500,000 plays and 100,000 likes in two months (seen below, left). The trend continued to gather steam into September 2022, with TikToker^[5] @shreya.doshii posting a video following the same format and gathering over 500,000 plays and 100,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References