--- title: The "Me vs. My Childhood Fear" Meme Brings Back the Memories description: These "me vs. my childhood fear" memes are reminding Twitter of what used to frighten us when we were young. canonical: https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-01-28T21:27:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:15.500Z og:title: The 'Me vs. My Childhood Fear' Meme Brings Back the Memories og:description: These 'me vs. my childhood fear' memes are a nostalgic nightmare og:url: https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 'Me vs. My Childhood Fear' Meme Brings Back the Memories twitter:description: These 'me vs. my childhood fear' memes are a nostalgic nightmare twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Your Old Scary Memories Live to Haunt You Another Day All Thanks to the 'Me vs. My Childhood Fear' Meme  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 28, 2020 9:27 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 28, 2020 9:27 PM UTC We all had irrational fears growing up: monsters under the bed, scary cartoons, the girl from [_The Green Ribbon_](https://time.com/5640186/scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-alvin-schwartz/). (It’s just a book!) But a [new meme](https://time.com/5763852/best-the-office-memes/) making the rounds on Twitter this week is reminding us all of those roots. In “me vs. my childhood fear,” users are posting nice, glam selfies — alongside images of the strange throwback items or pieces of pop culture that kept them awake at night all those years ago. The [Blue Man Group](https://time.com/3813729/blue-man-group-game-of-thrones-theme-song/)? Prancing cartoon cats? The movie version of helpful house elf [Dobby](https://time.com/4056853/people-are-trying-to-free-harry-potters-dobby-in-london/) from Harry Potter? A belt? Cherry-flavored medicine? The girl from _The Ring_? It’s all fair game as users are calling back to those objects and obsessions that haunted their dreams — or rather, nightmares — back when they were young. It’s hard to trace the meme back to its originator, but it appears to have [started popping up](https://twitter.com/kaynah1227/status/1220572711287689218?s=20) on Twitter on Jan. 24, and then continued to pick up steam as bigger accounts like those of Quenlin Blackwell, a YouTube and Vine star, and rapper Rico Nasty decided to share their own versions on Jan. 28\. They were quickly followed by even more celebrities like Tierra Whack and Lil Yachty, giving the meme even more publicity. > [](https://twitter.com/quenblackwell/status/1221989045519077377) > [](https://twitter.com/litlayaa/status/1221998185448640513) > [](https://twitter.com/AllyFreeman%5F%5F/status/1222000587513962496) > [](https://twitter.com/Rico%5Fnastyy/status/1221990827746119681) > [](https://twitter.com/%5F%5Fterraeee/status/1221999708547309570) > [](https://twitter.com/lilyachty/status/1222258429991038976) > [](https://twitter.com/TierraWhack/status/1222263054383157250) Luckily, we’ve all mostly outgrown these fears and their power to bring us down — but that doesn’t mean Twitter won’t still have a field day enjoying (well, maybe not quite) the memories. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/"},"headline":"Your Old Scary Memories Live to Haunt You Another Day All Thanks to the 'Me vs. My Childhood Fear' Meme","datePublished":"2020-01-28T21:27:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:15.500Z","description":"Gollum, anyone?","url":"https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5773242/childhood-fear-meme/","name":"Your Old Scary Memories Live to Haunt You Another Day All Thanks to the 'Me vs. My Childhood Fear' Meme"}}]}] ```