What’s hot about ‘brat summer’, the movement sweeping pop culture and politics
Lime green is officially the shade of the season.
You may blame Charli XCX’s viral new album “Brat” for the current lime green craze.
From slime green merchandise to marketing efforts, the “brat” aesthetic—which includes the album’s characteristic Arial font—seems to be everywhere since the studio album’s June 7 release.
The energetic dance music album explores a variety of topics, including partying, Von Dutch, and femininity. It has influenced TikTok dances, memes, and fashion trends, prompting its devoted online following to create the phrase “brat summer.”
Brat summer takes cues from other related TikTok fads, such as feral girl summer and rat girl summer, with its freewheeling, chaotic feel.
As the now-iconic album cover gave way to a whole look, Gen Z and millennials alike have come to love the “brat” lifestyle.
Brat Summer: What Is It?
The British artist Charli XCX’s smash album “brat,” which was published on June 7 and debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts, is the inspiration for the brat summer craze.
The album’s unique yet understated cover art, which features the word “brat” in a low-resolution typeface on a lime green backdrop, really captured the attention of fans.
Gen Z dubbed the period after the album’s release the “season of the brat,” a style epitomized by cool-girl attire, party animal antics, and lime green everything.
TikTok was swiftly overtaken by the craze, as 41.2K posts were made under the hashtag #bratsummer.
Although the term “brat” typically conjures up images of awkward middle school kids, brat summer is all about embracing uncertainty and owning your flaws.
Charli XCX summed up the concept of the “brat” album as “me, my flaws, my f— ups, my ego all rolled into one” in an Instagram post on June 8.
Brat is now available! I sincerely appreciate all of your love and support for this song, this campaign, and for me—at my purest, charliest, and most brazen—thank you so much. To every angel out there… We all sense that something truly unique is occurring, I believe. I cherish each and every one of you. This record is the result of countless phone calls, messages, emails, discussions, arguments, and chats with the many incredible individuals that comprise my legendary, long-standing crew. We debated which production tools to forbid vs rely on, repeatedly examined hair textures to determine the ideal good, poor, professional, or unprofessional texture, and chatted nonstop while road testing fonts, pixelation, language, and autotune.
With pop theory, storytelling, the idea of desire, and, of course, reduced the palette of green to around 65 colors, the most brat green.
It would be hard to thank everyone who helped create the Bratosphere transcend because even a tiny effort may have a huge impact, but I have to give a special mention to @agcook404. Thank you for co-producing the brat with me; you truly get me, and I adore that we can now essentially write songs with our eyes closed!
Pop theory, narrative, the notion of desire, and, of course, narrowing the green color pallet to about 65 shades—the brat green—were all incorporated.
Although it would be difficult to express gratitude to everyone who contributed to the creation of the Bratosphere transcend, I must single out @agcook404 for particular recognition. I appreciate that you co-produced the brat with me; you really understand me, and I love that we can basically make songs together now!
Trends for Brat Summer Styles
Barbie pink was the color of the summer, but “brat green” swiftly took over as the go-to hue.
Charli XCX opened the “brat” album release with a live performance in front of a massive green wall in Williamsburg, proving that for certain New Yorkers, brat green is unavoidable.
Before displaying its last message, “ok, bye!” on July 2, the brat wall was painted again to promote remixes and deluxe copies of the album (“brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not”).
The brat attitude has permeated summer fashion in addition to the official album merchandise, which naturally includes a lime-green crop top with the word “brat” printed in large, low-resolution letters.
On June 10, Charli XCX discussed the brat fashion trend in an interview with “The News Movement.”
She commented, “It can be so trashy.” Similar to a Bic lighter and a pack of cigarettes. And something like a bra-free strapless white shirt. That’s really all you really need.
In contrast to the “clean girl” style that ruled viral fashion in 2022, the “brat” appearance is very different. It honors sweaty, wild party girl chaos: plenty of Y2K influence, smeared eyeliner, and gritty street style.
TikTok, Brats, and the Trending “Apple” Dance
An intense dance routine to the album’s song “Apple” has become one of the most popular brat trends on TikTok.
Longtime Charli XCX fan Kelley Heyer, a TikTok producer, made a dance routine to “Apple” that immediately gained popularity among the singer’s followers.
In many TikTok videos, Charli XCX can be seen doing Heyer’s “Apple” dance.
When Heyer saw her idol doing her choreography, she was “starstruck.”
She tells TODAY.com that it has been “amazing and at times overwhelming” to watch her dance become viral.
“It brings me immense joy,” Heyer declares. “It’s amazing how everyone has made my dance so much more powerful.”
“Brat is everything” to Heyer. She defines the brat ethos as having aspects of community, genuineness, and partying.
“A brat is sexy, filthy, lively, and entertaining. Anybody may be a brat,” she declares.
“Kamala is brat”—what does that mean?
The brat summer fad went beyond clothing inspections and viral dances, and it was linked to an unexpected person: Vice President Kamala Harris.
Charli XCX praised Vice President Kamala Harris in an X post shortly after President Biden said he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential race, showing her support for her:
The post, which has had close to 48 million views so far, went viral on social media and inspired several posts that combined Vice President Harris footage with tunes from “brat.”
In addition, a lot of those videos feature the “coconut tree” meme, which originated from a passage in one of Harris’s earlier talks.
The brat memes have also been adopted by Harris’s campaign staff.
With “kamala hq” printed in low-res font on a lime green backdrop, the Kamala HQ campaign account on X modified their banner to resemble the “brat” album cover image.
The Kamala HQ account shared a photo on Instagram that featured a slideshow of Charli XCX’s initial X post and was influenced by the brat look.
The caption on the post says, “And the internet will go crazy when we put this to bed.”
Even conventional political debate has been impacted by the quickly expanding “brat” speech, which originated on social media.
In a July 22 MSNBC broadcast, Rachel Maddow discussed the brat memes with senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
“Charli XCX tweeted ‘Kamala is brat’ last night,” according to Maddow. “To tell the truth, I’m not entirely sure what that means.”
Fortunately for fans of “brats,” Charli XCX has no intention of slowing down.
“Summer is just getting started, brat:)” On July 1, the singer wrote on X.
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