The 'Literal Me' meme represents contemporary approaches to identity and self-expression online. The format allows people to describe themselves through existing fictional characters rather than creating original self-descriptions. This approach reflects how fictional characters often provide more relatable or layered descriptions of personality traits and struggles than direct self-definition. The meme format is straightforward: find a character description that matches your personality, share it with 'this is literally me' or similar text. The humor and relatability come from either the accuracy of the match or the absurdity of the comparison. The format works with any media, books, TV shows, anime, games, making it highly adaptable.

The 'Literal Me' format emerged from broader trends in how the internet uses fictional characters for self-expression. Young people have long used fictional characters to describe aspects of themselves, but the meme format crystallizes this into a shareable, recognizable pattern. The format represents the contemporary understanding that fictional characters can provide language and frameworks for discussing real-world personality traits and experiences. It also reflects how mediated and curated self-presentation grew into, even self-identification happens through reference to existing media rather than original self-description.

Find a character description from any media that connects with you or matches your personality or situation. Post the description with 'this is literally me' or similar text to suggest that the character description accurately represents you. You can be sincere about the match or ironic, depending on how you want to use the format.