‘I’m not like other girls’ becomes a trend itself

“She’s so basic.” 

This term has referred to many different types of girls over the years from the early “Tumblr girl” to the “basic girl” with the rise of Instagram and finally to the “VSCO girl.” The meaning has remained pretty much the same — a girl who conforms to popular social media trends.

Social media inspires trends that people quickly adopt into their personalities. With every new app, there is the idea of a “basic girl,” who follows every trend in an effort to be what society determines as “cool” at the time. Girls who follow trends exactly are often criticized as unoriginal.

Recently, the idea of being a non-basic girl has gained popularity. In the generation of wanting to stand out, almost everyone is striving to be a certain level of quirky and unique. This has created a new trend to be a girl who can claim that she’s “not like other girls.”

In theory, being a non-basic, different girl seems like a positive trend that allows people to express their true personalities rather than adapting to fit social media’s criteria. However, this movement is often characterized by putting down basic girls as bland in order to highlight the uniqueness of the girl who claims she is different from everyone else. 

Although many hate on basic girls, they are just trying to fit in. Girls shouldn’t put other girls down for the sake of trying to be “cool” and “unusual.”

The current defining characteristics of a basic girl are Crocs, Hydroflasks, Starbucks, Fjällräven Kanken backpacks and other VSCO-inspired items. The trend started as an environmentally conscious movement and was initially the trademark of the unique girl. Slowly, people began to catch on, and VSCO girl became the new “basic.” 

The notion of being different from others has grown in popularity over the years. It originally began during the MySpace days, but was not very popular at all, with a few “Normal People Scare Me” tees here and there. Now it is a widespread phenomena that can even push someone to fame. 

For example, YouTuber Joana Ceddia rose to fame in 2019 for her signature videos that follow her doing unique things like following Bob Ross tutorials and cutting her own hair. She received praise and millions of fans  for being quirky and funny, but in a relatable “I’m still a normal teen” kind of way. 

In short, she’s popular for being a contradiction. This whole idea that she is relatable completely defeats the purpose of her standing out and being different. She acted as a normal teenager, but people projected their own ideas of being different onto her making her seem special. 

Ceddia’s fans and viewers made a trend out of certain aspects of her personality, making her the new basic girl.

Since people look down on others for following trends and conforming to society, it breeds a desire to be unlike other girls to draw attention to or away from themselves. 

That's just as bad, if not worse, because then they’re just using the trends as a baseline of what not to do instead of what to do, which breeds toxicity. They’re also feeding into the mentality that these baselines should exist in the first place, since they avoid them so religiously. 

For example, someone who exemplifies this idea might say “other girls go shopping and I eat chicken nuggets in my bed,” scrutinizing very normal things that people do and turning it into something negative. 

People try so hard to not be like other girls, but what’s the point? People have realized that others are trying to be edgy or quirky by rejecting every basic girl item, and that itself is turning into a concept that is basically the anti-basic, and becomes the new trend.

In the end, being different from other girls shouldn’t be made into another trend; instead, girls should focus on what they want for themselves without the influence of trends.