“It’s okay that I’m alone.”
“But maybe there’s something wrong with me?”
“Maybe I’m just too picky.”
“I’m young, I should be having sex.”
“But I hate having sex with people I’m not really attracted to.”
“Except when I’m traveling.”
Thus were the questions plaguing San Franciscan Sasha Cagen that lead her to coin the term “quirkyalone.” It started as a concept, then became an essay, an online community, and later a book, Quirkyalone: a manifesto for uncompromising romantics (HarperCollins 2004). Above all, quirkyalone is a movement.
Quirkyalone, Cagen defines, is “a person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating for the sake of being in a couple.”
To some, the term “quirkyalone” may conjure the image of an eccentric weirdo who embraces lifelong singledom for lack of dating opportunities. Quite the contrary, Cagen emphasizes: quirkyalones are not loner Jane Eyre-types, she says; they are often active, attractive, extroverts who are simply anti-dull relationships and anti-settling.