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Ideas That Light Things Up

Monte Mader

Recommended by Monte Mader

The official visualizer for “True Believer” by Hayley Williams

Written by: Hayley Williams, Daniel James, James Harmon Stack, Eli Teplin
Produced by: Daniel James, Jim-E Stack

Doodle design by: Jordan Short at LUUM Studio
Nashville footage captured by: Jonah Lund

Stream new music from Hayley Williams

Follow Hayley Williams

  • yelyahwilliams
  • hayleywilliams

LYRICS:

Tourists stumble down Broadway
Cumberland keeps claiming bodies
All our best memories
Were bought and then turned into apartments
The club with all the hardcore shows
Now just a greyscale Dominos
The churches overflow each Sunday greedy Sunday morning

Gift shop in the lobby
Act like God ain’t watching
Kill the soul, turn a profit
What lives on? Southern Gotham

I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
With my belief
And I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
Cause I’m a true believer

They put up chainlink fences underneath the biggest bridges
They pose in Christmas cards with guns as big as all the children
They say that Jesus is the way but then they gave him a white face
So they don’t have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them

The South will not rise again
Til it’s paid for every sin
Strange fruit, hard bargain
Till the roots, Southern Gotham

I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
With my belief
And I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
Cause I’m a true believer

I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
With my belief
And I’m the one who still loves your ghost
I reanimate your bones
Cause I’m a true believer

Notes

I think that approach is exactly how you reclaim the steering wheel.

Keeping the same images but changing the captions works because, on DA, the caption is the frame: it tells the algorithm and the reader what they’re supposed to be seeing. If you swap “body/embarrassment/coercion” language for “identity/social optics/choice/relationship,” the very same picture stops reading like a setup and starts reading like a scene.

A few guardrails that will keep it subtle and still sharp:

What to lean into

1) Make it about social meaning, not anatomy

Instead of “you have boobs / can’t hide,” go for:

  • “You can’t hide behind oversized clothes anymore.”
  • “You’re becoming visible in a way you didn’t plan for.”
  • “The line between costume and self is thinning.”

It keeps the theme while removing the fetish “body-fixation” hooks.

2) Keep Celeste’s power in interpretation

Celeste doesn’t need to say “wear this.” She can say:

  • “That look says something. Decide what you want it to say.”
  • “You’re not being punished. You’re being edited.”

That reads as confident and psychologically astute rather than kink-coded.

3) Keep the humour, but aim it upward

Mock the social script, not Charlie’s embarrassment.

  • “People will label you either way. Pick the label you can live with.”
  • “If you’re going to be stared at, at least be intentional.”

That’s the kind of wit that tends to land with women readers.

What to avoid (the “subtlety killers”)

These are the words/beats that turn subtle into “oh, it’s that genre”:

  • underwear talk
  • “reluctant / forced / punishment / training”
  • humiliation beats (“exposed,” “everyone will laugh,” etc.)
  • parent/authority coercion as the engine (“mum made you,” “teacher insisted,” etc.)

A simple template you can reuse

For each captioned image, try this 3-line structure:

  1. Observation (neutral, visual)
  2. Meaning (social/psychological)
  3. Choice (agency line)

Example:

  • “She stared at the mirror too long.”
  • “Not because she looked wrong — because she looked different.”
  • “And different meant she’d have to decide who got to name it.”

That’s subtle, but still unmistakably your theme.

If you paste one of your current “old style” captions and tell me what you want the new takeaway to be, I’ll rewrite it in 3–5 variants: (a) wry, (b) tender, (c) icy Celeste, (d) minimalist.

Important Note: All my so-called artwork, including any descriptive text, depicts adults doing whatever: no images involve minors. I abhor depictions of harm or violence, towards anyone in general, but most particularly towards women and children. None of the images reflect actual events: all depictions are imaginary. As CelestesGrl, I reserve exclusive ownership of the artworks that I post on Deviant Art. Downloading is permitted for your personal enjoyment as well as creating derivations if so inspired. Please be kind and acknowledge where your derivative was inspired. © 2025. Some non-derivative works are openly licensed via CC-BY 4.0 Saying all that, please STEAL. You like the idea: it's YOURS. Run with it.