Still thinking about the last interaction you had with your roommate or the barista at the coffee shop? Were you too rude or short? Were you not taking into account their nonverbal responses to what you were saying?
Since the pandemic and the lockdown, young girls’ brains have aged quickly causing increased concerns about their mental health, according to a recent The New York Times article.
The rapidly aging brain occurs because cortical thinning, the brain’s frontal and temporary subregions, both a part of its outer layer, become thinner. This process accelerates during stressful conditions and is associated with both anxiety and depression.
The pandemic increased this thinning process because of limited social interactions as the areas of the brain affected most include the processing of emotions, recognizing faces and comprehending language regions, according to The New York Times article.
With these areas affected, girls may begin to spiral easier as overthinking is a common response to stress, especially when social interactions are limited, according to Brenda Camacho in an article for Talkiatry.
These limited social interactions prompted teen girls and others to frequent TikTok for a way to connect with others. According to Cameron Flores, a writer for Adlucent, between March and January of 2020, the app’s visitors rose by 30.1% and reached 28.8 million individuals.
From this increased use of the app, a wide variety of aesthetics were born. BookTok, a subcoumminty on the app focused on reading, became extremely popular among users as they recommend viewers to read books like “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh and “Normal People” by Sally Rooney.
These books are important to make note of as these would later become popular reads among those participating in the “thought daughter” trend.
A few years later, around 2023, videos proposing the question if individuals would rather have a “thot” daughter or a gay son began to gain traction on the app.
The “thought daughter” makes an effort to reclaim the misogynistic meaning behind the term thot; however, it is important to understand what a thot is. Rafaela Navarro, a Her Campus writer, explained the origins of the term in her article titled “TikTok Trend: What Does It Mean To Be A ‘Thought Daughter’?”
“The term ‘thot’ is an acronym for ‘that h– over there,’ a derogatory term popularized in the early 2010s, referring to a promiscuous or sexually liberated woman,” Navarro wrote.
When TikTok users pointed the camera at their parents to answer the question about having a thot daughter or gay son, they appeared confused and asked for a “thought daughter.”
With the now coined phrase and pre-existing melancholy book recommendations from BookTok, the “thought daughter” trend was born.
Other staples of the “thought daughter” trend include reminiscing about the past, watching movies like “Before Sunrise” and listening to artists like Fiona Apple.
YouTuber According to Alina said in a video the trend’s emphasis on mental health topics like anxiety and overthinking led to its popularity.
“One of the great things about social media is that it can give people access to content that makes them feel seen and less isolated,” she said.
Although the awareness of these topics offers comfort to individuals, According to Alina also expressed concerns about solely associating the trend with mental health.
“People take this one mental health aspect of the ‘thought daughter’ trend, and use it to try to characterize the whole trend as a mental health awareness movement,” she said. “It’s taking it a little bit too far.”
Others like Tara Price, a writer for Neon Music, viewed the aesthetic as a “rallying cry” for those who have dealt with mental health issues to share their experiences.
With the rise of overthinking from the pandemic and the debate over the “thought daughter’s” place in the subject matter, it becomes important to find an outlet to ease one’s wandering mind.
In her third novel, “The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Mundane Irrationality”, author Amanda Montell writes about various topics she thinks about often ranging from UFOs to fans and celebrity’s parasocial relationships.
Throughout the novel, Montell provides a voice to those thoughts, which occasionally keep us up at night within her novel.
Being no stranger to podcasts, Montell also created the “Magical Overthinkers” podcast to share these thoughts directly with listeners and host interviews with professionals in those subject areas.
To help listeners manage overthinking, at the end of each episode Montell takes time to encourage the listeners to partake in activities, like identifying objects in their environment, to help calm themselves down and prevent continued overthinking.
“When you feel stuck in a thought spiral, it can be helpful to ground yourself in a sensory experience to remind you of what’s real and that you’re safe in this moment,” she said.
Although the pandemic has caused young girls to experience rapid brain growth, there are ways to manage anxiety and overthinking. So next time you’re overthinking something like an interaction or assignment, practice one of Montell’s exercises like the grounding one and remember to be kind to yourself.