Tumblr turned 19 in February 2026, and the microblogging social media heavyweight celebrated with a post on Twitter/X. Alongside the caption “19 years of tumblr!” the post included some of the most recognizable images, aesthetics, and memes from the site through the years.
However, one important aspect they forgot in the post was Halsey’s contribution to Tumblr’s overall user base. Halsey’s debut album, Badlands, dropped in 2015 during the neo-grunge Tumblr aesthetic. It began around 2013 with the release of Arctic Monkeys’ AM, and quickly added the likes of The Neighbourhood, The 1975, and eventually Halsey to the ranks.
“I keep your lights on for years and this is the thanks I get?” Halsey replied to Tumblr’s own birthday tweet. While Halsey’s claim could definitely be true, as her output fueled many aesthetic blogs mostly run by high schoolers at the time, there was still almost a decade where Tumblr existed without Halsey. Could we posit that it’s actually the other way around, and Tumblr kept Halsey’s lights on all these years?
Tumblr Posts Apology For Leaving Halsey Out of Birthday Post: “We Would Never Intentionally Swerve You”
After Halsey’s response to the celebratory post, Tumblr issued a “notes app apology” to the singer. “We are deeply sorry you were not included in our 19th birthday edit,” the post began.
“You are and have always been a pillar of our platform and yes for lack of better words ‘keeping our lights on for years,’” the apology continued. “We would never, as you once put it, intentionally swerve you.”
The post added, “At just 19, we’re still learning and growing. We promise this will never happen again. We hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us.”
Whether Halsey was serious in her initial response is unclear, but also doubtful. Whether Tumblr was serious in its apology is also unclear, yet doubtful. This is Tumblr, after all. Real golden age bloggers know what’s up.
Tumblr’s heyday can be narrowed down to a brief window somewhere between 2009 and 2015. In 2013, the platform was sold to Yahoo!. Quality began to decline as the company implemented content restrictions that bordered on censorship. By 2016, Yahoo! didn’t know what to do with Tumblr, which was subsequently acquired by Verizon when it bought Yahoo!. By 2019, the platform had lost 30% of its user traffic in just one year.
Tumblr is still alive and kicking, but the experience is much different from what it used to be. Many old-time blogs keep the torch lit, but an influx of users from Twitter has created a strange divide between the old heads and those who came to escape the new Twitter. Still, one can’t help but reminisce on the 19th birthday of one of the last remaining unique internet experiences out there.
Photo by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
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