The term 'hipster' is often considered to be derogatory and in some cases condescending towards the subject of the matter. Even the most fitting individuals are offended by the name. The question is, why?

I believe there is a long and winding road that has been paving the way to what we refer to and stereotype as a hipster, and it could not be further from the truth. There is a very fine line between those who are inherently different, and those who appear to be different. It's a clear divide that is illustrated blatantly in something as simple as our style. Think about the first person who wore ripped jeans on purpose. Everyone probably looked at them in disgust as if they were a degenerative idiot who lacked any sense of care for their appearance. Eventually, someone else must have joined in, followed by a few more people, and before you knew it, everybody and their brother had jumped on the bandwagon of ripped jeans. The first person to do this was the real hipster, or in actuality, an innovator. Everyone else after the first few people were just trying to catch up with the times, and I can guarantee you, they were at one point the ones in disgust.

When you sit down and really evaluate the word, this term is just a noun used to describe someone who is different. That could mean a variety of things. I'm not saying they are bad things either. If you take a look into the past, hipsters have been revolutionizing and sculpting almost every aspect of how we live today, from Lincoln and MLK in civil rights, to Presley and the Beatles in music, to Rockefeller and Jobs and Wozniak in business and technology. This just scrapes the surface of countless hipsters in the advancement and development of mankind. The pool of individuals who have been responsible for such monumental thoughts, creations, and discoveries reaches no ultimate depth, and will continue to dig deeper as time goes on. At certain times in their lives all of the listed colonizers as well as so many others could have been categorized as hipsters. They were all people who were proactively trying to make a difference in the world in unconventional, and sometimes unpopular ways. They all faced some controversy and several naysayers, as well as majorities who attempted to force them into conformity. Just take a second though to imagine what life would have been like without these types of people, these geniuses who were obviously way ahead of their time. Think about how you would go about your day to day activities had these dreamers decided to listen to the disbelievers. They would have been just that, dreamers. Maybe we should have taken Shia Labeouf more seriously when he said, "Don't let your dreams be dreams..." The man may not be famous anymore, but he was definitely on to something.

I'm not entirely sure where this negative stigma towards hipsters originated, but perhaps it's not such a bad thing after all. The next time you see someone purposefully trying to be unique and making an effort to stand out from the crowd, try your best not to scoff and think negatively, but instead, commend them on their efforts, and maybe even throw them a high five.