We also managed to get in touch with the people taking care of the subreddit, and one of them, a moderator who goes online by the nickname cestrumnocturnum was kind enough to tell us more about it. They said the mods have to do a fair share of policing to keep the community and its content neat and tidy, and that includes manually approving each post.

"Our most common reason for rejecting a post is that some people don't want to play along with the title rules," cestrumnocturnum told Bored Panda. "We ask posters to come up with creative titles that will suggest a story to go with the photo. You don't have to be Tolkien, but a little imagination is appreciated. Things like book quotes, snippets of poetry, or song lyrics also work."

The mod said there are many subreddits for sharing beautiful scenery, "and if we accepted titles that were, for example, nothing more than a location name, we wouldn't be any different from [a community like] r/itookapicture. Our users have a lot of fun with this, but some people complain because they find it corny. We don't mind being corny. If you can't be fanciful in a fairytale-focused community, where can you?"

We at Bored Panda really appreciate the creative input that went into presenting these pictures, so we included the posts where we could too.

"Most people [here] are chill and just want to enjoy a bit of escapism," cestrumnocturnum said. "It's not uncommon for commenters to start geeking out about folklore and fantasy, especially when a photo reminds them of certain stories or characters that they love. Sometimes people are even inspired to write their own original fiction, taking the post as a story prompt. I love it when that happens."

Every now and then, people need timeouts. As social science writer and researcher Jeremy Sherman, the author of Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves, told Bored Panda in a recent interview, we are uniquely anxious. "Just compare the range of worries a human could have compared to any other critter. No contest. To cope, we need denial, escapism, entertainment," Sherman then said.

But if you want to survive, you must, as Paramore's Hayley Williams sang in Brick By Boring Brick, keep your feet on the ground when your head's in the clouds.

According to studies, approximately 4 to 6 percent of people spend large chunks of their waking time in a fantasy world—these fantasies become maladaptive when they produce shame, loneliness, and emotional pain, and interfere with one's ability to engage in normal life activities. Research also suggests that maladaptive daydreaming first appears in youth and is more likely to affect individuals exposed to childhood trauma.

'All things that seem straight out of a Fairytale' accepts all kinds of submissions. "Somebody's foggy backyard can be just as enchanting as a French castle, and anything that sparks people's imaginations can make it to the top post," cestrumnocturnum explained. "Posts that evoke lovely daydreams about a more magical life, or those that reframe an ordinary scene or object as part of a whimsical tale tend to get popular."

As much as the subreddit appreciates the true beauty of the world, it also welcomes digitally "beautified" pictures; it considers technology to be a modern form of magic.

'All things that seem straight out of a Fairytale' is still a kid, even by Reddit's standards. It was created in April 2018. But despite its young age, the community already has 187,000 members.

cestrumnocturnum thinks the reason for this success is quite obvious. "We are bombarded by bad news and divisive issues every day, on a global scale. It's not just your own neighborhood you have to worry about. You hear about a corrupt politician coming into power half the world away, and it's upsetting, but what can you do about it when your country has its own struggles? Especially with the pandemic, there's just this pervasive sense of helplessness and frustration, as well as anger and anxiety, wherever you go on the internet," they said. "People need a respite."

Which is exactly the niche 'All things that seem straight out of a Fairytale' is aiming at. "We've taken a stand not to allow any form of bigotry, but we also try to steer clear of political debates. And the fact that every submission has to be manually approved means that no one can even try making inflammatory posts. We just want to offer a little bit of an escape, a chance to breathe and think of something else other than our problems, and it turns out a lot of people appreciate that."

The moderator wanted to end our chat with a quote from American author Ursula K. Le Guin, paraphrasing Tolkien: "Yes, he said, fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the know-nothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can."