CLEAN GIRLVS.
REAL WORLD
C
lean Girl Aesthetic is defined as “a beauty, fashion, and lifestyle trend based around a look that’s intended to appear elegantly casual but also minimalist and effortless.” This aesthetic has taken TikTok by storm in the past year and has become the pinnacle of femininity for many young women. The “clean girl” wakes up before sunrise to go to her pilates class. She greets the morning with a green smoothie and a perfected skin care routine. She changes into her Aritzia Super Puff and Lulu Lemon leggings before setting off for the day. Her lunch of a garden salad is accompanied by her pastel Stanley cup filled with ice-cold detox water. She pulls her hair out of velcro rollers to reveal a perfect, silky-smooth blowout and slips into a corset top before hitting the town with her closest girlfriends. She returns home after her night out, she takes off all her makeup and she wakes up bright and early the next day to do it all again. You might be thinking, “The Clean Girl has her shit together. So why can’t I?” Why can’t we all just be girls in our twenties making thousands of dollars for putting on Drunk Elephant tanning drops and Rare Beauty blush before a night out? Why can’t we document our “day-in-the-life” that people envy? The idolization of the “clean girl” has set unrealistic expectations for what life should look like, especially in your twenties. There is a mutual understanding that your twenties exist for having existential crises, trying to hold onto your inner child, partying too hard and faking it ‘til you make it. Something that doesn’t seem to concern the “clean girl” is the significant reality that is hustle culture. This has become the secret to success, even at the expense of mental health and work-life balance. Since the revolution of hustle culture, it has become standard to disregard personal care and put “distractions” on the shelf that could get in the way of our achievements. BBC describes hustle-culture as a “narrative [that] promotes the idea that there’s always more to strive for.” It’s constantly reaching for more, giving into greed, and losing ourselves in the idea that fortune equals success. It’s always staying ahead of the curve and sprinting at the blast of the starting pistol, to the point where your endurance gives out before you can finish the race. When this is the daily regimen, it becomes difficult to squeeze in that 6am spin class and ten step skin care routine every morning. The truth is, hustle-culture is real and burn-out is real! These realities make the life of a “clean girl” appear as a fantasy world that only exists within the confines of my phone screen. ALIGN 94
Not only does the clean girl speak to us as we enter true adulthood, she also has an influence on the tweens of today. Sephora-10-year-olds have become a classification of species. Young girls are spending their parents’ money on unnecessary anti-aging moisturizers, Summer Friday’s lip balms and concealers to cover up blemishes that do not yet exist. They are wearing Zara jeans and Brandy Melville crop tops and painting their faces with Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter. When I was ten, I was wearing plaid bermuda shorts and Justice tees. My only makeup was compact in a glittery, plastic flip phone. Afternoons were spent playing with American Girl Dolls long after it was socially acceptable. It feels impossible to stay young in an era where growing up seems so desirable. Who wouldn’t want to go to yoga class every morning before meeting your besties for brunch and shopping? Why wouldn’t you want a closet full of LuluLemon and Aritzia? The clean girl aesthetic sets up an unrealistic expectation of the reality that is adulthood. These Sephora-10-year-olds are in for a rude awakening. Before you know it, they will be counting how many Linkedin connections they have, experiencing complicated relationships, and finding ways to make rent. I could argue this younger generation has grown up too fast due to the media influence in their lives. But, we had our own influencers that were rushing us out of our adolescence. Youtubers like Macbarbie07 and Stilababe09 had me dying to go Black Friday shopping, wear cut-off jean shorts, muscle tanks, and rock a smokey eye to the middle school dance. The trends of the mid 2010’s may seem juvenile now, but I had no business begging my mom for bandeau tops and flower crowns for a Coachella weekend I definitely wasn’t attending at the ripe age of eleven. The “clean girl” feels like a mockery of my life. While she comes home from the bar to take off her makeup and drink a cold glass of water, I’m ordering a large family’s worth of Taco Bell and falling asleep in my bar clothes. While she’s making her bed and cooking some avocado toast in the morning, I’m sleeping through alarms, running out the door on an empty stomach and an insufficient amount of sleep. She is everything we all hope to be. She is the “it girl.” In reality, I know the “clean girl” struggles to get up at the crack of dawn or drunk cries after one-too-many G&T’s. Maybe she doesn’t make her bed every morning. Seeing is not always believing. I’d like to think if me and the “clean girl” sat down for lunch we’d find a lot more similarities than differences between us.