Ten steps to becoming a hipster

1. Cats. Love them. Pet them. Draw them. Own them. And most importantly spend hours looking at adorable videos and photos of them.

2. Get your grunge on: The style that says “I don’t care; I just rolled out of bed.” But in reality you’ll spend an hour and 30 minutes mastering your messy hair and “effortless” layering of clothes. Also, 50 percent of your clothes must be from a thrift store, the other 50 percent from Urban Outfitters.

3. Drink massive amounts of coffee and tea. Preferably purchased from ‘underground’ coffee places, none of this Dutch Bros. and Starbucks nonsense. However, when all else fails Dutch Bros. or Starbucks is better than no coffee or tea in hand. Remember: It is important to spend more time taking pictures of your fancy lattes, to turn into vintage-esque photos, than actually consuming them.

4. This brings me to the next step: photography. To be a hipster one must document all the artsy and obscure things they do in an artsy and obscure way. In other words take a picture of your food or beverage (preferably local products), a flower or a sunset, put a filter on it, and voila you’re a photographer, and an artsy one at that.

5. If you’re a man striving to be a hipster one word: Beard.

6. If you’re a woman striving to be a hipster be bold and wear red lipstick. Don’t forget to document a photo of the lipstick print on your coffee cup on Instagram.

7. Consider investing in a record player and records. If this isn’t doable at the moment go hang out at the nearest record shop for a bit, take photos while browsing around, and Instagram the photos for others to see. This will give the illusion that you are cultured in the realm of oldies. For modern music it’s okay to listen to Mumford and Sons as long as others don’t know about it. Publicly you must listen to indie bands with weird names that no one knows about.

8. BEANIES! Wear them…a lot.

9. Tattoos and piercings, they will add edge to your hipster persona. Although the majority of the American population has one or both of these it does not make you mainstream to have them too.

10. The final and most important step: When someone stereotypes you as a hipster, deny it to the death. Hipsters never admit to being hipster, because that would make them too mainstream.