Beatrice Fleurant
Online Editor
Bright lime greens, check. Burry text, check. Electropop, check. Combine all these things and what do we have? Brat summer.
If you have been active on social media at all during the summer, you, like myself, have probably had your For You pages flooded with this term.
If you don’t know what “brat summer” is, its origin came after Britih singer and songwriter, Charli XCX, released her highly anticipated album “BRAT” on June 7 of this year. On the day of its release, it quickly amassed 15.4 million streams, as well as debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard charts. The album then made its way to social media, becoming a majorly trending topic, especially on TikTok.
Under the hashtag #bratsummer, there are over 135K posts and millions of posts using songs off of the album as TikTok sounds, with the most popular being Apple at 1.6 million posts. Many people have come out praising Charli’s album for embracing the chaos, flaws, and overall freedom that comes with being authentically yourself.
But why did this album become the ideology that many young adults would choose to live their summer by?
As a fan of Charli XCX’s music, I was thrilled when she announced the release of a new album. After its release, my socials became filled with all things brat. From album reviews, to memes, and most importantly the undeniable feeling that this summer would be a “brat summer.” It honestly was refreshing to be able to connect to friends and strangers on these “rules” we seemed to be following this summer. It also gave me an excuse to do things just for the sake of brat summer.
In true brat summer fashion, I did some self-reflection and came to realize that this connection I felt to others because of this summer’s theme is an experience I’ve had before. The first time was when American rapper and songwriter Megan Thee Stallion released her song “Hot Girl Summer” in August of 2019, which of course made the theme of that summer “Hot Girl Summer.” Over the last couple of summers, other themes have become popular. “Rat Girl summer”, “Tomato Girl summer” and “Feral Girl summer” are some of the other themes at have made it across my FYP.
While I know not everyone knows who Charli XCX is or what a “brat summer” is, the trend of coming up with these themes for the summer, or really any season (i.e. “Christian Girl” autumn), comes from the human need to find commonality and community.
Summer for most college-aged adults is a break from academic settings and frees up time for themselves. Summer themes have become a way for people to really take charge of changes they want to see in themselves. Being able to blame the “rules” doesn’t give time to overthink and allows for more time in the moment.
Sure, the idea of having themes for the summer may seem unserious, but the shared look between peers when a professor says they’ve had a “brat summer” makes it all worth it.
