The web historian preserving our weirdest moments

An Auckland teenager’s YouTube channel has taken on the mammoth task of explaining 2010-era internet to the world. Josie Adams spoke to Izzzyzzz.Izzy* is a 19-year-old with more than 13 million views on YouTube. She lives with her aunts, like Sabrina. She has the same haircut and everything. But instead of being filled with dark potential, her magic power is understanding the chaos of the adolescent internet.“I wouldn’t say any of my family understands what I do, but they’re supportive,” she says.When we meet, she visually embodies the past two decades of web activity: she’s wearing Garfield earrings, face sequins, and a Kurt Cobain badge. “I pretty much grew up terminally on Tumblr,” she says.Tumblr is a blogging platform that’s still running, but had its heyday between 2009-2013. It was anonymous, easy to use, and is often considered an originator of what some folks call “cancel culture”.“I never saw the worst of Tumblr because I actually had quite a sheltered childhood in terms of the internet,” she says. She would have been about 10 years old during its worst years. Izzy’s mum banned her from reading popular urban legend website CreepyPasta after seeing something on the news; she can’t recall…
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