A quick and demure guide to the trending Internet buzzwords

Confused why everyone is suddenly demure? No idea about a brat summer or why men resembling mice are in now? Can’t tell the difference between a hawk tuah and a Chappell Roan? If so, David Ho is here to make it clear

Brat summer

Summer 2024 will forever be remembered as brat summer. In short, it is inspired by British singer Charli XCX’s brat album, which was released on June 7. Gen Z and Millenials alike have embraced the record’s 365 party animal ethos, it-girl aesthetics and the campaign’s signature sickening lime green colour.

In the words of Charli XCX herself, if you have been someone “who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like, parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile,” then you likely qualify for a brat summer. Her endorsement of Kamala Harris as brat also proved to have some political power. Read more about this trend here.

Chappell Roan

Chappell Roan is an American singer-songwriter, who started gaining buzz after she opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour in the United States and Canada from February to April 2024.

Streams have increased dramatically for Roan’s 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and her latest song “Good luck, babe” which is “about wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate.”

Demure

Demure is an adjective defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “affectedly modest, reserved, or serious.” When TikToker and grocery store employee Jools Lebron @joolieannie uploaded a TikTok about the way one should present themselves at work on August 5, it blew up. “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very mindful, very demure,” she explains. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work. The way I came to the interview is the way I came to the job,” she explains.

 

 

 

 

 

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“A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job like Patty and Selma. Not demure,” the plus sized trans influencer added, referring to the matriarch and the two chain smoking antagonists from The Simpsons. Since then, brands and celebrities alike have been mindful to be as demure and cutesy as Jools Lebron. We love a positive influence on the world!

Hawk tuah

Now this is the opposite of being demure. YouTube channel Tim & Dee TV ran a street interview with 21-year-old Haliey Welch aka Hawk Tuah Girl. During the NSFW interview, she was asked for one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time, to which Welch suggested that “you gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang,” referring to spitting on a man’s penis during oral sex.

The clip went viral and has been shared and remixed. The enterprising Welch has used her Internet fame to sell over US$65,000 worth of Hawk Tuah merchandise, amassed over 100,000 followers on Instagram in one day (now 2.4 million followers), established her own company, and courted a number of celebrity admirers. She’s gone from spitting to milking that thing!

Hot rodent men

The hot rodent man or sexy rat boyfriend is a trend that began with the Zendaya-led tennis film Challengers. Memes began emerging that compared the looks of the film’s two male leads (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) with cartoon mice characters.

Soon, netizens began connecting the dots on how many of the current male celebrities shared features similars to rodents. Stars like Barry Keoghan, Timothée Chalamet, Jeremy Allen White, Kieran Culkin, Glen Powell and many others have since been compared to rodents ranging from chinchilla to capybaras.

Also see: Sexy and provocative makeup lines to match your freak