Written by Chloe Laws

These days, there’s an internet label for every interest and aesthetic, but have they gone too far? Chloe Laws explores the digital marketing and content creation of… simply being alive and having interests.

’Warm Girl’ is the term that really tipped me over the edge. Up until that point, I’d been enjoying the rise in the categorisation of aesthetics and interests that we’ve seen permeate the everyday vernacular (largely thanks to TikTok). I had a Hot Girl Summer a few years ago; I found Dark Academia a refreshingly sweet trend for teens to align with (for those not familiar, it’s an aesthetic concerned with art and classic literature). Goblin Girl particularly spoke to me, as did Feral Girl Summer because, hey, I like wearing big jumpers and not brushing my hair as much as the next person.

But these social media labels aren’t all as innocent as they seem. The Clean Girl aesthetic was polarising, with the ‘clear skin and perfect hair’ idealisation ostracising a lot of women. Or take the That Girl trend, which became damaging through its promotion of perfectionism and hustle culture. According to BACP registered counsellor Ruth Micallef, it “encourages women to constantly strive for perfection, which is unrealistic and unsustainable for any length of time. It can lead to burnout and when we inevitably fail at living like That Girl, we’re left with feelings of shame, guilt and disappointment.”

Every time I scroll, there’s a new label. A new category. And often, they make me feel like part of a club. It’s human nature to try to find commonality, to attach yourself to a tribe and identify areas of interest that bond us. Grouping together and labelling ourselves happens as soon as we socialise: at primary school, I found the other kids who liked fairies and rocks. At 10, my friends and I called ourselves the ‘dream team’. At high school, labels ramp up and become less about bonding and more about separation: aesthetics, music taste or subjects you enjoy feed into a popularity hierarchy. As we age, it can become less about what we genuinely enjoy and more about what image we project.

Marios Georgiou, a counsellor, explains the importance of group identities: “Group identities are important throughout the life of a person, not just adolescence. For example, you might go from being a ‘party girl’ to ‘career woman’ in the span of five years. Or perhaps ‘emo’ to ‘mother’. You hung out with specific groups for years, then you prioritised other areas of your life that became important. 

“The group does not need to be a specific selection of people; it’s more like a group of norms and ambitions that the group holds as important. For example, if you are a career woman and you meet someone new of similar seniority in a different industry, there’s a shared sense of experience for getting to where you are in your working life. 

“Equally, if you are a young mother and meet other parents in a park with children of the same age, you get the same feeling of connectedness and shared experience. It’s not always about being able to define exactly which individuals are part of the group – it’s about staying connected with others through shared experiences and values.”

What we’re seeing on social media is an evolution of this projection and categorisation. Growing up, Tumblr became a home to teens of various subcultures who felt misunderstood in their everyday lives: scene kids, emo kids, indie kids, the fashion-forward. Internet aesthetics have been around since the 2010s, but now that Tumblr has been replaced with Tiktok, things have changed. It’s not just about style anymore, it’s about lifestyle. These labels apply to everyone, for everything, and can change with the seasons. Aesthetics have become more trend-driven, more interchangeable and ever-moving, more about marketing ourselves than making connections. They have also become more gendered. 

Jacqueline Carson, a clinical hypnotherapist, spoke to Stylist about the safety net labels provide: “As humans, we need a sense of belonging to feel safe and secure.From a very young age, we get that from our parents/caregivers; we are part of a family, a group.As we grow and develop we seek independence from our parents, from our family, so that we can make our own way in the world.Biologically, though, we are social creatures and we still need those connections; we need to be part of a tribe of some sort.

“In our current society, we get that from social media. The problem is, though, how many of these connections are genuine? Likeminded people gather together in groups on social media platforms, people who may never meet in person.There are many advantages to this, opening up whole new communities, networks and support.Certainly, through the Covid pandemic and lockdown restrictions, these communities were lifesaving for some people.

“Joining a group or a tribe is not a bad thing provided you are able to keep a sense of self – that you see it as fun and you don’t allow it to take over your life or zap your confidence.” 

Barbiecore, born out of the resurgence of Barbie (thanks to Margot Robbie) and Valentino’s popular all-pink-everything fashion, has been a media-favourite term. I love pink, I grew up with Barbie and I live in a home with pink walls. Does that mean I’m in my Barbiecore-era? Or does it mean I just like the colour pink and have preferences, like all human beings?

The lines of consumption and digital marketing have become so blurred, so accepted, that even our core identities have been branded. Even our mental illness have been editorialised. ‘Sad Girl’ shorthand for depression. Maybe you’re not manic, but simply abiding by the Fleabag-era rules of life. We are now a ‘type of girl’, not a complex entity.

And… it feels kind of good. To feel seen. To be able to point at a TikTok and go ‘that’s so me’. This feeling might be why the popularity of label culture has been so female-centric. In 2021, women made up just 13.7% of film directors. When someone can’t see themselves in the majority of films they consume, the books they read or the music they listen to, it’s understandable we cling to the few ‘accurate’ representations available (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and craft ourselves around them. It’s the perfect storm of girls and women not being heard, being reduced to stereotypes and frequently objectified, and the rise in social-media consumerism. Everything is content, everything is sellable. 

Social media has democratised what we consume, with women able to create as much as men on the internet, and so we’ve gathered together to relish in our similarities and enjoy a space where that’s allowed, but the popularity of personal branding and commodification of normal people (not just the realm of celebrity) has quickly turned into labelling. 

Social media has shifted our social models dramatically. How we presented ourselves was once about building communities, now it’s about audience building: humanity replaced in favour of trend.

The era we’re in now? The digital marketing and content creation of… simply being alive and having hobbies.

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