Although…
It might possibly be an unintended source of intimidation for some – that is, if you’re actively engaged in exploring the dating scene.
Some people in my city know me as ‘The Bug Girl’.
You manage to base your Environmental Science science fair project on watching insects at night, tie it into light pollution, and somehow get first place :)
My index finger is 8 cm long. As a medical student this was an essential piece of knowledge on a gastroenterology placement.
You are taking pictures of a bug while in a conversation with someone else:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359112017
Copied from the “You know you’re seriously into iNat when…” thread:
…when you lament that you can’t take your macro lens to school, because the bugs are so much cooler there (symphylans, poduromorphs, Campodea, all sorts of neat flies and wasps…)
…when you get your mum to drive you somewhere (I’m a minor, hence why I can’t drive there myself) specifically for ONE insect species (Meloe violaceus, specifically)
…when you reminisce on the cool bugs you saw years ago before you knew of iNat (like a stick insect I saw on the front wall when I was really young)
…when you get so many observations of a species you quit taking pictures unless they’re next to something you do want a pic of (orthoclad midges are especially guilty of this, also because there’s like 27,630 different species of them that are almost all impossible to differentiate without a microscope)
…when you’re planning to make a Berlese funnel with tupperware and window-mesh, so you can get more of the cool soil mesofauna from school (especially those annoying pauropods that keep escaping into the dirt before you can get a picture)
…when you go on walks solely because there’s probably lifer insects in the area (unfortunately the nearest spot is in the awkward situation of “a pain to walk there, but still too close to be worth driving”)
…when you go up to neighbours’ houses to check for anything in their front gardens, then your mum tells you not to do it again without asking them first (fair point, since someone going up to your house with a camera is a bit suspicious)
Some extras:
…when you get really good pics of a random fly (since basically all muscoids are really similar græyish flies that can only be told apart by seta locations and some wing venation) that buzzed onto your car window, and it turns out that so few people got IDable pictures the species isn’t even on iNat
…when you look for soil mesofauna under pebbles in a car park (and are successful, finding a symphylan and several juvenile chordeumatids)
…when you take your macro lens everywhere, to have the best chance of species-IDable muscoids, and are even thinking of taking it to school
It’s late at night, and the lights are on at the tennis court where you are serving as a ball kid for the Little Rock Open (ATP 75). These lights are massive, and hundreds of insects are swarming them. Eastern bluebirds are occasionally swooping for an easy meal, despite the fact that they themselves may be an easy meal for an owl.
Even though this match is televised, you still go out into the middle of the court to get a beetle to safety during breaks, despite strange looks given to you.
You are desperately upset when a big, beautiful moth resting innocently just outside of the alleys you’ve been eying is crushed beneath a players foot. You are ashamed of yourself for not finding a way to save it despite several opportunities because it is the finals and you’re nervous.
You feel even worse after carefully removing the moth, still alive but with innards trailing from it after the match has finished, hoping to photograph this lovely lifer the size of your palm and then pin it, since only the abdomen was somewhat crushed and it would be a great addition to your collection. But as set the moth downyou are reaching for your camera, you get called back onto the court to get photos and be a part of the finals ceremony. When you get back, it’s gone. And since it’s midnight, you’re are immediately called away to go home…and you never even get to find out what species of moth it was. 
I like the concern for the moth’s safety followed by the pragmatic “Now I may as well have it for my collection”.
Someone said “When you let mosquitoes drink your blood, because you can’t bring yourself to hurt them.”
I agree. I would take it a step further and say you know you love entomology when you, like I, are not just allowing the mosquitoes to drink their fill because you can’t bring yourself to hurt them, but also go out of your way to take pictures like these.
When a cockroach surprises you by dashing across the bathroom counter in front of you while you are brushing your teeth, and you burst out laughing.
Please don’t study sharks
…when you don’t rescue some bugs from the pool (not all of them, just the aphids since they’re really tricky to ID without the host plant) to try and attract scavenging species
…when you get sad seeing black millipedes, because you know they’ll be part of that unidentifiable mess of julines.
…when you want to get a microscope almost exclusively to figure out what those damn ants are (Definitely subgenus Lasius, and not alienus based on habitat, but can’t tell whether they’re platythorax or niger)
…when you see an ant that looks “off”, and lo and behold it has a rare parasitic mite on it
…when your immediate first thought upon seeing a small black dot moving around is “Pterygota indet.” and you often think of scientific names instead of common ones when you see bugs (e.g. thinking “Dolichopodidae, likely Sciapus platypterus” instead of just “long-legged fly”)
…when you, on multiple occasions, think a black spot on a wall is an insect, only to realise it’s debris when you get closer
…when you’re learning to walk quietly, solely so the particularly flighty insects don’t see you coming and book it out of there
…when your first thought upon seeing a shot of the nature someplace else is “I wonder what cool bug species there are there?”
(not entomology, but similar)…when you would fully be willing to give up living on land if you could iNat the life underwater (deep sea included, through magic shenanigans)
The frustration of not having your macro gear for stuff like school and such? For me, a lot of that vanished when I picked up a slightly battered, but fully functional, used Olympus TG5 a few years ago.
I take it with me almost everywhere. Even while I have my main gear with me, it’s there as an emergency backup. Sure, it’s not as good as my bigger gear and lens, but so many times for me now, it’s what I have in my pocket for those ‘you never know’ moments that have made it a real, faithful treasure.
Like this shot I got while walking down the street last fall. Spotted on a utility pole.
https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/312773859
As for limiting yourself to walkable parks, etc., I know what that’s like! I’m on the other side of the human lifespan than you, but a medical condition has severely curtailed my driving ops. But to be honest, I’ve been blessed by an abundance of great little walkable parks since joining iNat 4 years ago. They’re not big, but they are very diverse.
Oh, if you’re looking for a very low-cost and semi-pocketable (compared to TGs) macro setup, you might want to check out an older, used Powershot or Coolpix and pick-up a Raynox macro clip-on. This was my first entry into decent macro. (A sampler page I put together from that time: https://broacher.wixsite.com/cheapseat-macro).
I used this bridge cam/ Raynox combo once with an even older model camera that I picked up for 45 bucks at a thrift store and scored this one on my first field test: https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/241353860
A real rare species in my location.
Good luck. I only wish I had as many affordable options available when I was a youngster. Just the cost of film back then, never mind the gear, made macro a real expensive luxury. Enjoy the reality of affordable digital macro!
All the best, and happy list building.
Your google account profile picture is a goofy shot you took of a mantis:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/327448299
…when you try and gauge whether it’ll be worth it to put the mothing setup up on a night by turning on the outdoor lights and seeing what comes to them
…when you come to car shows in the countryside because there’ll be lifers there
…when you almost pass out from the heat going up a hill in Monaco, but it’s alright because you spot your first Nezara shieldbug while recovering
…when you bug your mum to go buy flowers, to try and attract bugs (sadly most of them are either dying or attracting nothing but aphids and the occasional bumblebee)
…when you come to an Airbnb while your mum’s at a festival because there are cool bugs there (so many leafminers…)
…when you judge potential locations to go on holiday based on what species are obseved on iNat there
…when your mum stops you looking for lycophytes [not bugs, I know] in Switzerland because it’s getting dark and the restaurants are going to close soon… only for you to find one the moment you turn around!
…when you dream up entirely fictional insects that could reasonably live in places you’ve been to (like a hangingfly-convergent cranefly in a sister subgenus to Odonatisca)