Rooting for the Underdog

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to the underdog. It has never been intentional; if anything, I think I subconsciously avoid whatever happens to be trendy at the time. Strangely, though, many of the things I’ve loved eventually end up becoming popular years later. Maybe that makes me a trendsetter, just a few years early.

As a child, I was obsessed with computers and the internet. I felt like I was the only one in my school class who was more interested in that stuff than things like football. It wasn’t until I got to high school that computers started to feel cool rather than nerdy, and browsing the internet became something everyone wanted to do.

Similarly, when I was about 10 years old, I started using online chat rooms and instant messaging. At the time, I was considered a bit of a freak for doing this. A few years later, though, MSN Messenger became the trendy way to talk to your friends after school. Something I’d previously been humiliated for was suddenly normal.

Growing up, I was always obsessed with the Australian soap opera Neighbours. In primary school, it actually felt quite popular; it aired directly after the children’s programming on BBC One, so it almost felt like an extension of that. By high school, however, it had suddenly become niche. “You still watch that?”. My peers would rather watch EastEnders or, at a push, Coronation Street. Neighbours just wasn’t considered cool anymore. As an adult, it never again reached the level of popularity it had in the ’80s, but it also wasn’t something people openly mocked you for enjoying. If anything, it would be “That’s still going?”.

Around the time the Pokémon craze first began, I ended up diving further into that world and got sucked into anime. I was obsessed, and happily consumed as much of it as I could. But again, I was made to feel like a weirdo for enjoying Japanese cartoons so much. Yet here we are decades later, I’m no longer an avid fan, and anime is everywhere. Children and adults alike are familiar with it, whether through a children’s series on TV or a Studio Ghibli masterpiece. It’s no longer seen as strange.

Then there’s the Marvel stuff. I was only ever really interested in X-Men. I didn’t care for characters like Spider-Man, who was arguably the face of Marvel when I was growing up. X-Men were admittedly pretty trendy at the time, thanks to the 1992 animated series, but that popularity eventually fizzled out.

When the live-action X-Men films launched in 2000, I became obsessed. Among many Marvel fans, though, they were seen as disappointing adaptations. I didn’t care. I still loved them. Then, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched, X-Men became even more overshadowed in comparison, yet I still stuck with them. Ironically, many of the characters who became the centrepieces of the MCU, such as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, always felt like the less interesting Marvel heroes to me growing up. Now that X-Men are finally set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, part of me hopes they’ll become hugely popular again.

Another soap I’m heavily invested in is Hollyoaks. I wasn’t a regular viewer growing up; my earliest memories of watching it are from 1999, but by 2008, I was watching consistently. Hollyoaks has always felt like the underdog amongst the big four soaps. It’s often looked down upon by both viewers and critics, especially when compared to the so-called big three. But I choose to see its strengths while recognising its flaws. It’ll probably always be the underdog, let’s be honest, but it always feels satisfying when it wins awards.

Then you’ve got technology. Apple iPhones are obviously the trendy handsets; the status symbol people want everyone else to notice they own. But I’ve never been a fan of Apple’s closed ecosystem, where everything feels designed to push you into spending more money than necessary. Ever since smartphones became mainstream, I’ve preferred Android. Sure, it’s flawed, but it gives me freedom and choice. In many ways, it still feels like the underdog, despite dominating the worldwide market share and powering most smart devices worldwide. That’s just the perception surrounding it.

And then there’s streaming. Since the early ’00s, I was already watching TV at my own pace through not-entirely-legal online downloads. I liked being able to watch what I wanted, when I wanted, rather than when TV channels dictated the schedule. I even set up my own device filled with a library of content to play on my TV. Nowadays, of course, that’s completely normal; most people watch all their TV through streaming services.

There’s a subtle sadness and loneliness that comes with liking unpopular things. These are passions I’d love to share with friends in real life, but often only online spaces contain enough like-minded people to make that possible. I keep trying to work out why I naturally lean towards the underdog. I sometimes wonder whether my autism diagnosis plays a part, where niche interests and deep investment in specific topics are more common. Maybe it’s also connected to how I root for overlooked people in real life, too, siding with outsiders and feeling protective of things that get mocked unfairly.

Sometimes I question whether mainstream success changes my relationship with the things I love. I have to admit, it can occasionally feel like something personal has been taken away from me. It’s great seeing something achieve wider appreciation, but at the same time, it can make it feel slightly less special. I don’t like to think of that as gatekeeping, but maybe there’s a small element of that there, too.

I’ve realised over the years that I don’t actually care whether things I love are fashionable or respected. If anything, I enjoy loving them before everyone else does. Maybe supporting the underdog is really about seeing value in things before other people do. Or maybe it’s about refusing to let popularity decide what’s worthy of enjoyment.

I’ve spent most of my life watching people dismiss things as weird, nerdy or uncool, only for those same things to become widely accepted years later. It’s like watching the world slowly catch up. There’s something strangely vindicating about that. Trends come and go, but genuine enthusiasm tends to outlast them. And even if something never becomes popular? Someone still has to support the underdog. It might as well be me.