We all have skeletons in our digital closets. But this Los Angeles woman is winning the internet for her bravery in airing out her humiliating “pick-me” teenage phase.
TikTok creator Celeste (@celesteriemersma) has reached over 5.3 million viewers with her cringe teenage story. It has former teenagers everywhere clutching their hearts in secondhand embarrassment. Her story involves high-stakes Snapchat polls, proxy arguments, and a level of dedication to validation that is both horrifying and deeply relatable.
The video serves as a transparent window to how we all thought we were cool before the age of twenty. But it proves that the quest for a crush’s attention can drive a person to do the unthinkable.
Celeste’s friend posted polls to help measure her clout
In the video, Celeste explained what she calls her “low-level pick-me” phase. Back then, she would spend up to an hour posing for the “perfect” photo to be posted on her friend’s Snapchat story. The photo would always be accompanied by a poll with a simple, high-stakes question: “Can she pull you?”
In Celeste’s head, a “yes” vote from the guys on her friend’s list was the ultimate metric of her attractiveness. She thought it would be a potential gateway to being asked out. But did that happen? Quite the opposite, actually.
A crush voted no on Celeste’s ‘pick-me’ poll
The story took an even more embarrassing turn when Celeste’s actual crush at the time saw the story and decisively voted “no.” Instead of taking the L and moving on, Celeste was so incensed that she sat next to her friend and dictated a series of messages to the guy. She demanded to know why he thought she couldn’t “pull” him.
The guy, understandably baffled by the awkward confrontation, didn’t even know how to respond to the aggressive questioning.
The pick-me phase lasted for an entire year
Perhaps the most hilarious part of the story is that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Celeste admits that she had her “real one” of a friend post this same poll at least four times over the course of a year.
Despite the constant search for a “yes” from the right person, she admits she never truly got the validation she was looking for. At the end, she concluded that her “attention-seeking” behavior was just a phase she eventually had to come to terms with. Thankfully, she grew out of it.
Was she really a ‘pick-me’ or just a teenager?
The comments section has sparked a debate over whether Celeste’s behavior fits the “pick-me” label. While she uses the term to describe herself, many viewers argue that she was just a normal, albeit desperate, teenager.
Classically, a “pick-me” girl is someone who seeks male validation by putting other women down or claiming to be “not like other girls.” Most viewers point out that Celeste wasn’t attacking other women. She was simply projecting her insecurities onto a Snapchat poll.
As one user put it, “Cringe? Yes. But not pick me… we were desperate”. The consensus is that this was less about social sabotage and more about the raw, unpolished “main character” energy of puberty.
The internet is hailing her bravery for admitting to her ‘pick-me tales’
The comments are a mix of absolute horror and immense respect for Celeste’s willingness to go public with this info. “You’re so brave for admitting this lol,” one viewer remarked, noting the high social cost of such a story.
“You could not waterboard this info out of me,” another added, expressing the sentiment of the millions who have taken their own cringe stories to the grave. A third joked that, “Your friend needs a raise,” highlighting the extreme emotional labor of the friend who had to manage the fallout.
Cringe is the price of growth, and Celeste is clearly not ‘pick-me’ anymore
Celeste’s viral story reminded us all of our own embarrassing things we did for the plot when we were young. Whether it was manufacturing a “pull poll” or arguing through a friend’s DMs, those embarrassing phases are what eventually lead to a more grounded (and hopefully less desperate) adult self.
We hope Celeste’s friend is still in the picture, because that’s definitely a real one. Until then, if you’re thinking about posting a poll to see if your crush likes you, maybe just order Postmates instead.
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