This week on TikTok: Practicing “Lucky Girl Syndrome” in 2023
Gen Z loves to manifest their perfect future through mantras, and it’s even become a huge wellness trend. Last year, it was all about making affirming videos and claiming financial success with a supposedly lucky audio. This year, the affirmation to recite is “I am so lucky, everything works out for me,” which will supposedly incite “Lucky girl syndrome.” It began with a TikTok of two girls eating takeout in their car, discussing how through manifestation, things have simply gone their way when they need them to. Since they posted their video, the hashtag #LuckyGirlSyndrome has amassed 40.2M views, full of others sharing how the mantra and attitude of believing good things will happen just because has changed their lives.
Many explain it like this: by believing good things will happen to them, the universe matches their positive energy with the opportunities they’re hoping for. Maybe it’s that Gen Z is just that lucky, or maybe their For You Page was cosmically bound to bring them the secret to success. YPulse data shows 21% of young people are interested in manifesting as a wellness trend, and they’re using it to help them grow the main character energy we know they aspire to.
Alix Earle Is Taking Over TikTok—But She Also Ignited a Hair Oil Controversy
TikTok creator Alix Earle is a 22-year-old college student from Miami who blew up in recent weeks for her “get ready with me” content. Coming from a wealthy family and previous relationship with Yankee’s player Tyler Wade, Earle is basically “That girl.” Recently, she shared her top Amazon purchases from 2022 and on the list was the wildly popular Mielle Organics‘ Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening Oil, a product well known and used in the BIPOC community and designed for curly and textured hair. White women have been using the product after being influenced by Earle, but have found it doesn’t quite work for their hair type, prompting some to post complaint videos.
But the bigger (and more important) complaints center around the cultural appropriation yet again at the center of a TikTok trend. The Black-owned brand specializes in natural hair products and since Earle’s video, everyone wants to get their hands on the rosemary oil (regardless of the negative reviews). Now, the hair oil is selling out on store shelves everywhere. The “curly girls” and women of color are sharing their thoughts on how, once again, cultural appropriation is trending, and now their go-to hair product is literally being security locked in Target for its virality.
Store sections for textured hair and BIPOC women are already smaller and now their products are flying off shelves (similarly to what happened with Shea Moisture) because White women are discovering them and using them improperly. Black women are posting their fears that the formula may potentially be changed or watered down to accommodate thinner hair types, but Mielle has assured them in an Instagram statement that the brand will “remain forever committed to developing quality, efficacious products that address the need states for our customers’ hair types.”
Beauty TikToker Mikayla Nogueira shares “How to be Fabulously Fat”
Gen Z and Millennials are over toxic diet and wellness culture and the rigid beauty standards that come with it. And they’re always ready to set the record straight. Case in point: This week, comments on videos by viral beauty TikToker Mikayla Nogueira’s video accused her of Photoshopping her body. Nogueira is known on the app for her glam makeup tutorials, product reviews, huge makeup giveaways, and perhaps most recognizably, her thick Massachusetts accent. But her content wouldn’t be what it is if her 14M followers didn’t love her personality as much as her makeup, as she laughs her way through videos and tries every viral technique.
She candidly addressed the comments, and says she’s being falsely accused, in a video she captioned “How to be fabulously fat,” showing how to be “gorgeously fat, but snatched.” She shows her body, sharing her height and weight, saying, “I actually love my body, which I used to never be able to say.” She goes on to show herself using shapewear under a body-con dress, showing how it “snatches” her from the front, and her stomach is still visible from other angles, remaining confident all the while. The video has 1.9M likes, and over 50K comments expressing love for the creator in helping them to embrace their own bodies.
Links we’re passing:
TikTok: Kim Kardashian is getting backlash for a TikTok where North dressed like Kanye
Creators are sharing their pop culture predictions for 2023
The “Vanilla girl” aesthetic is…just “clean girl” repackaged
Creators can make just about anything look like a Borzoi dog
Music: Fans are enraged that Celine Dion did not make Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Singers list
Twitter: Millennials are pledging to not look the way 45-year-olds did in the ‘90s
Movies: The opening scene in Netflix’s Glass Onion shows certain video games are just cultural knowledge now
Video Games: H&M has joined the metaverse with their “Looptopia” Roblox world
Rebranding: The infamous board game Clue has updated their cast of characters to be more diverse
