Everyone Wants to be Weird, No One Wants to be Different

Every time I open my phone, I am met with a slew of videos asking the same questions. How whimsical are you? Did you whimsymax today? I see videos of women pasting jewels on their faces while opening Calico Critters. Hordes of brands moving to capitalize off the weird girl movement. It’s interesting to me that the push for individualism has so quickly led to uniformity. It’s cool to be weird now, but only in the confines of what has been pre-approved. Everyone wants to be weird; no one wants to be different.

I’ve noticed that the rise of whimsy comes after the three-year reign of the clean girl aesthetic. Young women are wanting to break free of the culture that emphasizes perfection. They want to find out who they are beyond the cookie-cutter archetypes for modern women. The term whimsy also intersects with girlhood. Since Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was released in 2023, there has been a cultural movement to protect girlhood. The drive for independence and the newfound want of getting in touch with your “inner child” culminated in the perfect storm for whimsy to flourish. 

The whimsy movement did not appear out of thin air. It has roots in the resurgence of aesthetics that defined 2010s Tumblr: coquette, party girl grunge, and twee. Through Pinterest and TikTok, the aesthetics are finding new footing in a younger audience. 

Women’s fashion is a never-ending feedback loop. Everything goes out of style at some point, but it always resurges. With social media, the cycle is moving faster than it ever has before. This leads to shorter burials of past trends. As soon as they die out, someone rediscovers it again. In the case of the coquette aesthetic, it has risen and rebranded a multitude of times. The coquette aesthetic has roots in both the Victorian era and the mid 20th century. It then resurged in the early 2010s. Singers such as Lana Del Rey and MARINA used the coquette aesthetic to launch themselves into stardom. Twisting the defining characteristics to reflect both their melancholic and upbeat music. In the past couple of years, hyperfeminity has regained popularity. Every item of clothing comes in pastel. There are bows tacked onto anything and everything. Polka dots are becoming the dominant clothing pattern. All three of these were prevalent just over a decade ago. The coquette aesthetic has found a new audience in teenagers.

The rise of party girl grunge is a direct outcome of Charli XCX’s brat era. Her album and image relied on her messy attitude. She was wearing tattered clothing and slept in her makeup. She made her perfected persona seem effortless. Many other women in the hyperpop/electronic scene (Adéla, Slayyyter, and Kim Petras, to name a few) have adopted this aesthetic. An aesthetic that took over Tumblr in the early 2010s because of Ke$ha. 

Twee is a word of British origin that has taken over social media. Twee fashion is very funky and colorful. Think Jess Day from New Girl and Taylor Swift in 2012. The outfits, usually thrifted,  are reminiscent of retro silhouettes worn by girls in the 60s. The structure of the clothing items are timeless and reflect the individuality of the wearer. The different colors and patterns add a playful edge to boring everyday wear.

The current whimsy fashion is a hodgepodge of all three aforementioned styles. My Pinterest is flooded with bright pinks, glittery eyeshadow, and funky patterns. The majority of these pieces are either thrifted or sourced from vintage shops. However, I have noticed a lot of ads from Amazon and fast fashion brands advertising their clothes as whimsical. Their marketing team noticed the whimsy trend on TikTok and decided to cater to that audience.

When an item is showcased on a fast fashion website, or reflected in the storefront of H&M, it signals to the consumer that those clothes are what’s socially acceptable. People, especially young women and girls, have an incessant need to fit in. Clothes can trigger implicit biases, so many people are nervous about being perceived as “weird.” But now, weird is trendy. Individuality is favored. It’s cool to be a little bit chaotic, although, the only reason why is because brands and influencers are giving us the permission to be.

I remember in elementary school hearing that one of my friends thrifted her clothes. Everyone turned up their nose and said it was a strange thing to do. Then during quarantine, thrifting and vintage shopping skyrocketed in popularity. Now everyone thrifts. Similarly, people who used to dress eccentrically were looked down upon. Now it is all the rage. The tides have turned, but only because someone influential deemed it cool. They eliminated the othering that happened in the past when people wore those clothes. 

I am in no way sitting on a throne saying that I’m exempt from these trends, because I’m not. I love peacoats and Mary Jane flats. I’ve found my own style through social media. The only difference is, I don’t drop my entire closet at the drop of a hat. I buy clothes because I love them, not because they’re trending on TikTok. My style has evolved and changed, but the changes are congruent with my growth as a human being. 

I love clothes and I love to bring whimsy into my life. I also love thinking for myself and determining what I love, not what the algorithm loves. It’s freeing to let yourself break away from the microtrends that plague society. In my opinion, being different is the coolest thing you can do.

• beauty
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• fashion
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• whimsy