What’s summer without an overarching theme that defines what everyone’s up to? Last year, everyone went Barbie-obsessed amid the Babenheimer phenomenon at movie theaters, but before that, it was all about having a hot-girl summer.
This year, you may have heard of an even cooler summer trend: Barbie’s mean sister, flicking cigarette butts and spitting at the very idea of pink: Brat Summer.
Though it has nothing to do with Bratz dolls other than a similar spirit, this latest summer trend follows the critically acclaimed release of cult musician Charli XCX’s album “Brat,” which took the world by storm.
What started as It girls like Chloe Sevigny and Julia Fox celebrating their best friends’ successes has since gone viral with celebrities like Glen Powell, Lisa Rinna, and even Brooke Shields doing TikTok dances to “Apple.” Even Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have adopted the Brat theme for her presidential campaign.
But what does it mean to be a Brat? And will it help Kamala Harris get into the White House? Find out more below…
Charlie XCX album
Brat is the name of Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, which was released on June 7, 2024 and received critical acclaim. According to Metacritic, the album is the highest-rated album of 2024 to date, and also ranks highly among the site’s recognized greatest albums of all time.
The bright green album cover, featuring the word “Brat” in low-resolution Arial font, was quite different from the singer’s usual album covers, but there was a good reason for that: “I wanted it to be an aggressive, unfashionable shade of green to evoke the idea that something is wrong,” she told Vogue Singapore..
“I want people to question our expectations of pop culture. Why are some things considered good and acceptable and some considered bad? I’m interested in the stories behind them and I want to inspire people. I’m not doing it to be a nice guy.”
The album is deeply rooted in dance music and club culture, with songs that explore themes of heartbreak, femininity, love and party culture.
Star Reel
What is Brat’s aesthetic?
Charlie defined the brat aesthetic as someone with “a pack of cigarettes, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.”
According to the Instagram account Data, But Make It Fashion, Brat Summer coincides with the rise in popularity of white tanks and the color green, which isn’t surprising: The simplicity of this aesthetic, what defines it, barely scratches the surface of what it means to be a brat.
When Charli released the music video for lead single “360,” starring It girls like Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, Gabriette Bechtel, and Emma Chamberlain, it became clear that the aesthetic was imbued with an inexplicable cool and irony. In many ways, it was a rebuttal to the TikTok-inspired “clean girl” trend.
There’s also an emotional dimension to Brat’s aesthetic: There’s a trendy element to an album written by an artist who’s acutely aware of his own bad behavior, one that invites listeners to revel in their imperfections.
“You’re a girl who’s a bit messy, who likes to party, who says stupid things sometimes,” Charlie said. “You feel like yourself, but you might be mentally drained. But you get over it and you party, you’re very honest, you’re very forthright. You’re a bit quirky. You do stupid things. But that’s sassy. You’re sassy. That’s sassy.”
Kamala Harris’ Presidential Campaign
Whether or not he was joking, Charlie couldn’t have imagined the reaction when he called Kamala Harris a “brat” in a tweet that has been viewed 48.4 million times.
Still, Kamala Harris welcomed the pop star’s endorsement and revamped her campaign’s online presence: Her campaign account was renamed “Kamala HQ” and features a lime green photo of a Brat album cover and the words “kamala hq.”
Does this mean we might see presidential candidates wearing white tank tops and lime green power suits anytime soon? It’s unlikely, but the strategy seems like a way to reach younger voters.
The brat aesthetic, which has come to mean “cool,” is especially popular among young people. This seems especially important since one of the main criticisms of Joe Biden has been his age and whether he’s fit for the job given his slew of public speaking gaffes.
But he also acknowledged that even though young voters make up a significant part of the Democrats’ natural base, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that Biden was trailing Trump by 11 percentage points among voters ages 18 to 34 as of April 2024.
Memes are an important part of media literacy – in fact, before the Democratic Campaign X account changed to Kamala HQ, it was a page centered around memes about President Biden.
Shortly before President Biden dropped out of the reelection campaign, the vice president became the subject of a number of memes, particularly those related to retelling the story of his mother in 2023.
“My mother would sometimes scold us harshly, saying, ‘What is wrong with you young people? Do you think you just fell from a coconut tree?'” she said, laughing, before adding, “We exist within all the circumstances in which we live and what comes before us.”
Initially, the video seemed to be primarily intended as a way to ridicule her and claim that what she was saying made no sense, but it has since been remixed by many, especially her supporters, resulting in numerous popular songs and other memes.
So will Kamala’s Brat-inspired campaign help her win the election? Only time will tell, but it certainly seems like her presidential campaign is off to a spectacular start.
