Reliving Your Childhood Harry Potter Fantasies Through TikTok? You’re Not Alone

Collage by Yinne Smith

If you’re a person who regularly goes through their TikTok For You Page, you’ve most likely seen the Harry Potter TikToks, POV’s, and edits. There’s #HarryPotterTikTok, #DracoTok, and even a rising hashtag for the Weasley twins. Everyone seems to be falling back into their childhood Harry Potter phases -- myself included -- because of TikTok, but it raises the question of why? Why now, is everyone using TikTok to insert themselves into scenes, show off their newly bought merch, and give appreciation to the characters that shaped so many of our childhoods? A lot of it has to do with the current state of the world, including politics and social distancing, and for so many of us, Harry Potter TikTok has become a safe haven, pulling us back into a fantasy world in which we can escape our own lives -- or maybe mirroring our current lives. 

Anymore, the act of just existing is political. There seems to be mayhem in the news everyday, with tyrannical leaders, hate speech, and governmental controversies. Sound familiar? In the Harry Potter series, the titular main character is at odds with the Ministry of Magic for most of the series. The Ministry is constantly choosing not to believe the claims of Harry and numerous others that Voldemort has returned, and this mirrors how in the U.S., there seems to be many government officials who do not believe the cries of citizens that there are terrifying things happening in the country. A particular scene in Harry Potter when Hogwarts professor and Ministry employee Dolores Umbridge says, “This is a lie,” in response to students believing Voldemort has returned, has been compared to a similar moment at the Republican National Convention in which Nikki Haley said, “That is a lie,” when speaking about the outcry from the public that racism is only getting worse in America. In the book series and movie series of Harry Potter, the characters fight against the Ministry and take matters into their own hands, which is exactly what so many people are doing in the U.S. right now, organizing protests for criminal justice reform, anti-racism, and combating climate change, among many other issues. Harry Potter has become a sort of inspiration in this trying time, in part because of all the similarities we can all see between the series and our everyday lives. 

Another huge reason that has contributed to the rise of Harry Potter on TikTok is the need for hope in a world that is plagued by social distancing and isolation due to the Coronavirus

Pandemic. Many of us read Harry Potter and watched the movies when we were younger in order to escape our own lives, find something magical, and believe in something fantastic, and that is exactly what we need right now. Using the filters, backgrounds, and audios of TikTok to make us feel like we are living in a world that gave us hope when we were younger has been a beacon of light, a shot of serotonin (a patronus, perhaps?), in this unusual time. I don’t know about everyone else, but scrolling through Harry Potter videos on TikTok is an escape from everyday life for me. My college courses are all online, most of the fun places I used to go are still closed, and large gatherings are a bad idea. The only place I have to go is work, and even though I try to keep myself occupied, it can feel as if we are in a never ending cycle in this pandemic. Harry Potter TikTok inspired me to reread the books and rewatch the movies, it’s given me something fun to speak about with my friends whose For You Pages look similar to mine, and it’s made me feel hopeful and less lonely in this pandemic, and I’m positive that I’m not alone in saying that. 

Harry Potter came back into our lives in a time that many of us needed it, and through a more updated app that allows us all to have fun with our newly resurfaced obsession. With so many cancelled plans and closed places, it’s given us all something to occupy our free time, while also being socially relevant to the world we are living in right now. The resurgence of our childhood fantasies is something we should all revel in if it makes us feel even a little bit better, understood, or inspired in this turbulent time.