Brat summer was the big trend this summer. But what exactly does it mean?

Just as ‘brat’ as Charli XCX

The album Brat is about how Charli XCX parties her way through a young woman's difficulties. Club culture is the outlet and salvation for the messy, chaotic and selfish party girl, as she portrays herself. An imperfect woman, who acknowledges her problems but can also let them go for a while in the club: that appealed to millions of fans. And they all wanted to be just as ‘brat’ as Charli XCX. That is not having to be at your prettiest, a bit sleazy even, and partying a lot. That laissez-faire attitude is the way for (especially) young women to shake off the worries of the day for a while. Nothing is required, everything is allowed.

A reaction to the situation of today’s world 

Brat seemed everywhere, at least to people who are chronically online, says Julian Schaap. ‘To them it is very real, but outside the online world, the brat phenomenon is quite invisible.’ Simone Driessen explains that the trend is, for example, a countermovement to the ‘clean girl’, but even more a reaction to the situation of today’s world. ‘If you ask people who participate in this trend why they do it, it turns out that their behaviour partly stems from fear of the world they live in,’ says Driessen. 'We know the end of the world is coming, so: party like there's no tomorrow, only to protest again the next day. That is the unique contradiction in this trend.'

Brat is escapist or even healing

According to Schaap, brat is not necessarily a cultural shift, but still a hopeful phenomenon. At a time when part of the younger generation is facing a mental crisis, lack of meaning and direction in life, an artist who manages to get people out of that, at least temporarily, and chase them out of their homes to party, is worth something. With that, brat is not so much hedonistic: rather escapist or even healing.