Growing past the cringe

I would say thee cringiest thing I have done when I was younger was... destroy all of my socially unacceptable hobbies, keep all my interests a tightly kept secret, and suppress my natural behaviors in order to appease cringe culture. I loved My Little Pony! And anime! And Harry Potter! And Supernatural! And Doctor Who! But it became cringey to like those things, to openly like those things.

Despite all of my attempts to rid myself of everything cringey, I rarely had any friends and the friends I did (do) have still do not hear much about my interests. Only recently have I been opening up more.