“Hear me out.” This single phrase has left the mouths of just about every teenage girl in the modern day. It’s that one crush, usually a fictional character or a polarizing public figure, that requires a 20-slide PowerPoint presentation to justify. It’s a rite of passage for those born in our generation. 

When someone says those words, they are serious. They’ve seen the vision, they’ve done the mental gymnastics, and now, they are inviting you to see the world through their (very specific) lens. According to Wiktionary, a “hear me out” is defined as such: “Noun; (Internet slang) A positive opinion, favorite, or crush that could be considered controversial or embarrassing.”

Let them eat cake

The true “Hear Me Out” experience isn’t meant to be kept secret; it’s meant to be shared over a sweet treat. In 2024, a viral trend took this discourse from group chats to the kitchen with the rise of “Hear Me Out Cakes.” These cakes usually consist of a store-bought sheet cake and a group of printed photos taped to toothpicks or popsicle sticks. The cakes serve as a physical gallery of questionable taste.

The Ritual

The process of creating a “Hear Me Out” cake is as much about the performance as it is about the photos:

1. Start with a blank, store-bought cake

2. Print out photos of your most secret, controversial hear me outs.

3. Gather your friends and record the ceremony. Each person takes a turn stabbing a photo into the cake, announcing the character’s name, and offering an explanation of why they need to be “heard out.”

It’s a chaotic, extremely funny, and great activity for girls’ night. 

Why?

Hear me outs fall into one of many archetypes. These specific qualities often explain the unexplainable in terms of: Why is that attractive to you?

1. The Non-Human: Characters that are literally animals, monsters, or objects 

(Daniel Tiger’s mom, Kermit the frog, a double-decker oven, a hockey puck, a literal chair, Slenderman, Nick Wilde from Zootopia).

2. “I Can Fix Him”: The villain who is objectively terrible but has a tragic backstory or a face card. This includes controversial online figures. 

(Scar from The Lion King, The Joker, Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter, Shrek)

3. The Background: A character with two lines of dialogue who somehow stole the entire show for you.

(The Cabbage Man from Avatar, Any Elf in the background of Lord of the Rings, the pink guards from Squid Games)

4. Numbers: Any kind of equation, mathematical formula, and number ranging from 0 to infinity.(The number 9, 7×7=49, F(x), The number 7)

Is this a New Phenomenon?

While the term “Hear Me Out” is a product of modern internet slang, the feeling itself is as old as time. Long before TikTok trends, people were quietly harboring crushes on unconventional characters, usually keeping them tucked away for fear of judgment from their peers.

“Once I found my community, the people who also say and think strange things, I started being honest about my odd Hear Me Out characters,” said Alexa Hickman, senior. For Alexa and many other people, finding attraction in characters we surround ourselves with in media is a very common coming-of-age experience.

Ultimately, “Hear Me Out” is more than just a gallery of questionable crushes or a viral excuse to eat a grocery store cake. It is a modern ritual of honesty. In a world that often demands perfection and woke opinions, there is something deeply liberating about standing in front of your friends and defending an inanimate object or a Disney villain. 

So, the next time a friend leans in and whispers those three fateful words, don’t judge too quickly. Put down the pitchfork, eat a slice of cake, and just listen. You might just start seeing the vision, too.