This Meme Account Says What All Torontonians Are Thinking
Written by SOURCE on April 7, 2022
A new meme account highlighting the unspoken truths about life in Toronto has gone viral. Because misery loves company—especially on the TTC.
Toronto Affirmations is a tongue-in-cheek resource for residents and visitors of Canada’s most populous city who want to retain a supremely positive state of mind even in the most challenging, most Toronto situations.
Like being preached to at Yonge and Dundas Square.
Or suffering from tattoo envy on Ossington.
Or spending all of your disposable income on oat lattes.
The account’s creator—going simply by “Katie” at the moment because, as she puts it, “I don’t really know what’s going on with it yet”—has experienced or witnessed it all.
Katie is, by most counts, your average 25-year-old Toronto professional. She grew up in Kingston, took geography and urban studies at U of T, and now works a 9-to-5 doing fundraising for a local university. But while other commuters are sitting idly and watching the world go by out the streetcar window, Katie is hunting for content for her strange obsession: Memeifying the city.
“I was following a bunch of other ‘affirmation’ accounts online for other places, but there was nothing specific to Toronto,” Katie told Complex Canada. “It was just sort of something I started for fun, and then it recently blew up.”
The account takes aim at some more common Toronto occurrences like mispronouncing “Queens Quay” and getting along with resident racoons, as well as hyper-specific events only certain types of locals will be familiar with, such as cowering under the side-eye of the It Girls waiting to get into Brandy Mellville on Queen Street.
Posts are usually tagged with random location names and short, all-caps calls to action encouraging followers to tag “A FRIEND YOU ADMIRE PHYSICALLY” or “A FRIEND WHO HAS BEEN PERSONALLY VICTIMIZED BY A TTC LIQUID.”
“I pride myself in being a bit of a weirdo and that’s fine,” says Katie. “I just type whatever comes to mind and I’m like, ‘Cool, that sounds funny. Plug it in. Awesome’.”
Followers have started DM’ing her meme ideas on Instagram—and you can too!—but she says there’s no shortage of organic inspiration out on the streets of Toronto.
“I have a Notes app on my phone and so sometimes when I’m commuting I’ll just see something funny and write it down,” Katie says. “My friends love the account, too. We’ll be out at a bar having a beer and we’ll kind of brainstorm some ideas.”
Follow @TorontoAffirmations on Instagram for more funny-because-it’s-true Toronto content.
