Why Everyone is About to be Nostalgic for 2014-2015

Looking back on your photos from 2015, it’s hard not to feel just a little bit charmed by the innocence. Long before slick-backs, clean girl makeup, and Ozempic, we were wearing statement necklaces and Coachella was still at least pretending to be about the music. We were coming of age on grainy Instagram feeds and taking the era of millennial optimism entirely for granted. 

If you’re starting to feel the urge to log into your old Tumblr or buy a penny board, you’re not alone. This summer, our collective attention is starting to drift backwards. From expressive and playful fashion to a renewed appreciation for offline community, the qualities that defined the mid-2010s are starting to resurface.

Of course, trends are cyclical by nature, and it’s not a surprise that millennials would want to revisit their youth. But astrologers have noted that this sort of cultural nostalgia corresponds strangely well with a certain twelve-year cycle: that of the lunar nodes, which spend approximately eighteen months on each zodiacal axis. 

The last time the North Node was in Leo and the South Node in Aquarius, it was November 2015, where it had been hanging out since early 2014. We’re right back there now, having slogged through an intense period of isolation and convalescence. If you’re like most people, you’re feeling grateful that the worst is over and emerging from this chapter ready to start a new chapter.

There’s just over a year to make the most of this electrifying energy, and it might feel a bit overwhelming to even consider how to channel it in a positive way. There’s a sense of wanting to go crazy after a period of very hard work, but thankfully, since we’re older and wiser now, we’re unlikely to make the same mistakes we did in our youth.