How did you get into your interests?

[AntEater]

I got curious :3c

My interests are largely born from reading science magazines I stole from my dad and finding random stuff on the internet fascinating :>
Mix that with a not so great time with people in school and thus I started turning to the web n books for my interests.

Please do tell me about what led to your special interests, I like learning about people :]

(Side note but this is my first time doing this so pointers on how I am supposed to do stuff like this in the future would be great -w-)

[Cyber_Cyan]

My reply will be a bit long since I'm have a bunch of different interests haha

Music: My father is a musician, always has been, and he introduced us to a variety of genre from a young age. We also had a synthesizer at home that I would play with, and my parents saw that I could quickly reproduce the melodies I'd hear, so they made me take lessons. Now I play the guitar mostly because I don't have a piano at home.

Vocaloid: I used to be on a website where you could create your own animation, a french website called la Cartoonerie, that unfortunately disappeared with flash. I spent so much time animating original stories and clips, and one of my friend made a clip for "Alice Human Sacrifice". I discovered Vocaloid like that and listened to everything I could. 15 years later I'm soon going to my second Miku Expo, still a fan.

Books: My mother loved books and read to me from my youngest age up to the age of 7, every night before sleep. I learned how to read partly during those times, I'd read to my mom in return. And one Christmas, my aunt gifted me the novel "Mémoires d'un âne" (Memoirs of a Donkey) by La Comtesse de Ségur and it was the first book I read alone. I've been a bookworm ever since !

Video Games: We had a NES at home and after that, we got a PS1, when I was a kid. Before I could play I used to watch my siblings play a lot. My brother and sister would play Mario Bros 3 together, my brother and father would play Tekken 3 together and my brother alone would play Crash Bandicoot and Spiro. These were the first games I played when I was finally allowed to have the controller.

I started writing poetry when I was 10, after discovering in class the Fables of La Fontaine. I copied his style a bit and I never stopped writing poetry since then.

I have other interests but those are the main ones and it's already a waaaall of text so imma stop there haha

[girlblogzone]

I won't go on about all my interests but I love World of Warcraft so much, and I got into it because my mom watched a CNN special on it. She recommended it to me and helped me download it when I was little!!

She also got me into Toontown!! We used to play it together, shoutout my mom 💕

[IndigoGolem]

Constructed languages: I think thru Ta'agra, which i got into because i've long been a fan of the Elder Scrolls video games. For a while in high school i could read the script and knew some words, and even translated a book into the language. I've also tried Esperanto, and i was briefly practicing Klingon via Duolingo. But i don't actually know which of those was my first exposure.

Linguistics: Probably thru constructed languages, and it helps that phonetics and etymology are also fun. I've no formal training but if i ever do go to college it'll probably be for that.

Stained glass: Three months ago i visited family and my aunt decided we should make stained glass art. Mine still is not finished because i didn't have time while i was there, and i'm unwilling to get glass shards & dust everywhere until i have a workshop to keep it contained.

Video games: plenty of people on my dad's side of my family have been into these since before i was born. My dad had a Playstation 3, and my uncle a Nintendo 64, so there were plenty of nights in my childhood when i stayed up late playing Skyrim, Infamous, Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., etc. At some point i got a Gameboy, then later a Gameboy Color. I had the former until it broke and the latter until it was stolen.

Tabletop roleplaying games: I've long thought these sounded fun, and i think i first got into them when a couple of old friends invited me to play Dungeons & Dragons with them. It lasted a handful of sessions until our DM left for college. Now i'm back into it because a month or two ago my family decided they wanted to play and assigned me Dungeon Master.

Books: No idea. I've been reading longer than i remember.

Webcomics: I've been reading xkcd since i-don't-know-when. In middle school someone recommended The Oatmeal, and at some point i also found SMBC (probably from xkcd). I really started branching out when i read Paranatural and found that site's page of links to other comics.

Worldbuilding: in March of 2023 someone on a forum for a video game asked if i would be interested in playing D&D thru said forum. I said yes, but i want my own setting. And that's one thing i've been working on for the last 3 years.

Webcraft: in March of 2025 i wondered on a whim if i could make a website, so i found a copy of HTML 4 for Dummies and did. That story has been recounted in barely more detail on my website.

[MrsMoe]

I've always loved movies throughout my entire life. Even as a super young kid, I would pretty much spend all my time sitting in my room watching whatever DVD or VHS we had playing on the TV while my babysitters ignored me. I can't really trace that interest to a specific moment in time, but I remember how I first got into horror stuff in particular.

When I was thirteen years old, I wanted to start watching more "adult" movies but didn't know how. The first thing I resorted to was using a random movie generator someone made, and the very first movie I got was Black Swan. Going into it, I had absolutely no idea it was a horror movie....which was a nasty shock. The movie stressed me out to the point of tears and genuinely horrified me.

And yet I would constantly go back and watch it over and over again. Specifically the scenes that upset and unnerved me.

A few years past and I never really thought about all that as signifying anything. Horror wasn't really a part of my identity until my 17th birthday, when my mom took me to see Hereditary in theaters. I won't spoil it for anyone who still hasn't seen it, but there's such a specific moment when shit gets real. I remember sitting in that theater and experiencing this shared energy amongst me and all the other people watching it. There was this silent but collectively felt feeling of "oh my god.." that you'd really have to be present for to understand, like multiple strangers watching a car crash outside. After that, I realized pretty quickly that I loved being disturbed and wanted to experience that feeling constantly. And most importantly, I want to make something that'll give similar feelings to somebody else.

[fablefound]

oooogh let's see...

books: they were easier than people. i liked being in another world.

film/tv: they were a way of making people easier, and a lot of the stuff i started with were either predictable sitcoms or the same things i could watch over and over, so i liked the predictability.

music: like @Cyber_Cyan, music was big in my family. my father and grandmother both play guitar, and both my parents are big on classic rock onwards into grunge, alongside an unusual soft spot for classical music. when i discovered that making music was a way to self-regulate, explore my emotions, and connect with others, that was also really special, but i think at least a bit of that is owed to the comfort music always gave me. 

fashion: my mom always took me thrifting and gave me her old clothes. i developed a personal style pretty young, and when i was closeted/dysphoric/higher-masking, fashion was a safe-ish way to express myself.

toy collecting: also born from my love of thrifting. i had an ex who was really into it, and that opened my eyes to the fact it was very fun and fulfilling.

writing: been writing literally as long as i can remember. it's something of a compulsion--i can't not. my ocs live rent-free in my brain and there's always an essay itching to be typed out. i can't imagine not having a head full of story ideas

fibre arts: i love clothes and plushies, so i figured it could be nice to learn how to make and mend them. i am, mind you, not very good, but it's nice to have a screen-free hobby. (kinda makes me wanna get back into drawing, too, which i was never good at but found fun enough)

plants: my girlfriend peer pressured me into getting a pilea back in '24. i now have seven plants hanging out in my room. haven't killed one yet... knocking on wood as i say that.

gaming: pokemania hit my school and it was all downhill from there.

tarot: kid you not, my grandmother gave me her own tarot deck from the 70s. i find them fun to use for reflection and journalling purposes.

[RNotteLovesOwls]

animation: i grew up watching cartoons almost all my life, and preferring them to live-action TV and films. there's just something about drawing a character, object, or what-have-you, and making them do whatever you want them to do that's very freeing

experimental music: it all started when i attended an experimental jazz concert back in 2023. from then on, i have gained a massive appreciation (and friendship) towards musicians who don't let anything restrict how they play their instruments. even i'm giving it a try myself

e-bikes: i care a lot about my health. i've been doing more biking around my neighborhood to support the local businesses, get more exercise on my body, and save money (and the environment) by not driving. besides, an e-bike doesn't need gas, insurance, or a license to operate

retro tech & web revival: i watched polygon donut's video on frutiger aero, which led me to join the frutiger aero archive forums last year. being part of their community helped me appreciate internet spaces that weren't the big 7 social media platforms, and enticed me to seek used "older" technology and not let it go to waste, rather than constantly buying the hot new thing

tabletop games: there's a tabletop game shop in town. they have game nights once a month. i love going to them, and i'm hoping to play them more when i have get-togethers with the family, because not only are they easier to set up than video games, but there's far more social interaction and individual input

the little twin stars: my favorite sanrio characters. i saw them on a t-shirt from depop, and it was love at first sight. they represent exactly the kind of art design i love: cuteness, night themes, happy stars and moons, pastel pink, blue, and yellow, too... AAHHHHH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

[sleepyhare]

Most of my interests have grown with me since childhood, like movies and music, but some have interesting backstories...

Furry art: When I was in middle school, I was OBSESSED with the book series "Wings of Fire" and started making dragon OCs and drawing dragons almost religiously. Eventually, I branched off into drawing canines, felines, and other non-dragon animals, and I've stuck with that ever since! I guess I connect more with animal characters; it's a creative and fun way to represent human personalities, and animal art just scratches my brain in the right spot haha

Journaling: My first journal entry was from grade 7. It was in my brand new, Paris-themed journal (that I got because I went to Paris a couple summers earlier), and I just jotted down ideas for stories, goals, and future careers, which spiraled into rambling about my friends and opinions. Since then, my entries have become more streamlined (I have a method now lol), but I still love having a personal record of my life!

Acting/improv: As a kid, I had this character that I made up, the "NEWWWWWWS REPORTER," that I made silly videos pretending to be. In middle school, I joined the school play ("Oliver Twist") and did a bunch of puppet shows. Back then, drama class was literally just improv games, which I loved so much that I eventually joined the improv team in high school while taking theatre classes and acting in more school plays. Now I'm doing a BA in theatre, and I feel right at home! I'm just sad my university doesn't have an improv team (maybe I should start one...)

Rollerskating: My best friend in high school (who I had a massive crush on shhhhhh we don't talk about that) encouraged me to buy rollerskates with her, and I'm glad I did! Every week, we went to the community centre for "skate night" and had a blast learning how to spin and dance and "walk backwards" to various disco songs. We learned fast and became really confident at it; the old ladies there were so impressed that they let us control the music haha. I don't skate much anymore, but it's still a fun hobby to whip out every now and then.

Tabletop games: I used to think board games were tedious, but then I got invited to "board games club" in high school by a guy who's beyond passionate about them and decided to check it out; I learned how to play a huge collection of interesting games, and it was really fun! I kept going every week, and the club slowly turned into a massive group of friends who I still play tabletop games with! My favourites right now are Flip 7, Catan, and Flamecraft :)

Ultimate frisbee: During high school gym class, two of my friends from the ultimate frisbee team taught me how to throw a frisbee forehand-- I didn't even know that was a thing, it was awesome. They needed girls to join the team, so I did! It was a lot of running, but fun. I roped my nerdy board-games-club friends into it too; at lunch break, we'd go outside and pass a frisbee around in a giant circle. It's still one of my favourite outdoor activities when the wind is calm!

Making CD mixtapes: I have a friend who loves the same kind of music that I do, so a few years ago I learned how to make a CD mixtape, burned a bunch of our favourite songs to a disc, decorated it, and gave it to them for their birthday (I think they liked it!). It unlocked a cool new hobby, and now I have a collection of personalized discs that I'm very proud of: Jack Stauber, the 1975, Her's, Lord Huron, and Finn Wolfhard to name a few.

Urbanism/walkable cities: Recently, I noticed just how noisy, boring, and isolated North American cities are (especially in rural Manitoba where I live) and now I can't stop thinking about where it went wrong and aching for better urban design. It's become a real passion of mine; I've written multiple poems about it and a short scene script. Maybe someday I'll move to Europe, I hear the cities there are more pedestrian-friendly lol

Writing: I've always been writing stories in my head, but recently I've started branching out! My university english classes-- studying classic poets like William Blake and Emily Dickinson-- got me interested in writing poetry. Having terrible DMs for Dungeons and Dragons got me writing my own D&D campaign lol. And playwriting is an even newer development; a few of my theatre class friends encouraged me to write something for an event, so I did! Now, I'm brainstorming ideas for a play about an atheist dealing with nihilism... we'll see where that goes!

And wowwwwwww I didn't think this post would become so long but yeah, those are my interests :)) it's cool to see that other people like a lot of the same stuff!