2024 has been the year pop music made a strong comeback, cute aesthetics reigned supreme, and everyone discovered Sonny Angels. Being a girl has reached peak cultural saturation, and girlhood is no longer confined to children—legal adults are getting their girlhood fix too. While the reclaiming of girlhood and celebration of all things girly is often seen as a way to take back feminine frivolity from a patriarchy that has long looked-down on cultural practices and interests associated with girls, it’s important to note that this return to the girl coincides with the rise of trad wives and waves of feminine conservatism. Girlhood is undoubtedly more complicated than cute bows and saying "I’m just a girl" at every minor inconvenience. As 2024 draws to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect: what happened to girlhood in 2024, and what might the girl be up to in the next year?
Cailee Spaeny - Priscilla (2023) - NY times
The year’s aesthetics have been defined by images of beautiful women in pretty, romantic dresses, starting with Sofia Coppola's vision of girlhood in Priscilla and ending with Ariana Grande’s extravagant portrayal of Glinda in Wicked. In 2024, everything was soft, feminine, and pink. In contrast to the heavy makeup and artificial aesthetics of the 2010s, "effortless" femininity and a youthful, somewhat desexualized girliness have taken centre stage, framed as liberation from the male gaze: “I don’t dress for men. I dress for little girls who have been told life is not a fashion show.” However, there’s something about the recent trend toward looking “natural,” dressing modestly, and emphasising traditionally feminine, modest looks that feels closely aligned with the "trad wife" grifter mentality. This trend is especially notable among white women, a sharp shift after a decade of blackfishing in overly sexualised clothing (Ariana Grande, I’m looking at you).
Girly, white, feminine aesthetics have long been associated with thinness, so it’s unsurprising that we’re now seeing an Ozempic epidemic, with stars sporting cheekbones that are almost dangerously sharp. Alongside the rise of trad wives and conservative pick-me's on TikTok, and the ever-present policing of whose body is deemed a "woman’s" body at this year’s Olympics, there’s a growing sense that, with the return to girlhood, we’ve also returned to the same old teenage body anxieties. While body positivity efforts in the past decade weren’t perfect, it’s worth noting that, for the first time in a long time, thinness wasn’t universally glorified in the media. That the American Society of Plastic Surgeons described the trend toward a thinner frame as the “ballet body” in June underscores the aesthetics that surround this recent shift away from body positivity. For those of us who experienced our first girlhoods on Tumblr, listening to Lana Del Rey and reposting #nymphette pastel soft girl images, there’s an uneasiness surrounding the aesthetics of girlhood, especially when they often seem tied to a desire to shrink one's body.
For the pop historian of girlhood, Sabrina Carpenter’s rise in 2024 was the year’s standout. Her popularity embodies the contradictions around how we perceive femininity and girlhood, leading to an undeniably fascinating take: “You guys are disgusting and weird for defending a literal weirdo. I’m 17 and AFRAID of Sabrina Carpenter when she’s performing. You guys need help.” This tweet captures the conflicting emotions we have toward girlhood. Carpenter, who gained fame through the family-friendly Taylor Swift Eras Tour, has transitioned into a more sexualized image than Swift will ever attempt. Yet, her aesthetic remains sweet and girly, which has drawn criticism—she’s seen as a sexual woman disguised as a little girl’s Polly Pocket doll. But many of Carpenter’s infamous tour outfits are inspired by sex icons like Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn—women whose styles were never meant for children. It’s telling that we now view these aesthetics, once associated with the most sexualised women in popular culture, as childish.
The line between a girl and a woman is blurring, but it’s hard to say if it was ever anything more than an arbitrary distinction. Femininity is being weaponised, and women are being denied access to the cuteness and traditional femininity of our time if they don’t meet certain moral standards. As girl culture continues to enter adult spaces, the debate over whether all culture, especially feminine and girly culture, should remain PG will undoubtedly persist.
Altogether, there’s a predatory trend online that follows the Girlboss politics of the 2010s, the girl power and ladette movements of the 2000s and 1990s, pushing us toward a more conservative vision of womanhood that infantilises women. Whether the aesthetics of girlhood began trending before or after conservative grifters realized they could capitalise on it is difficult to pinpoint. This year has seen women cooking for their husbands, embracing divine feminine energy, declaring themselves "just a girl," and promoting the endless marketing of various types of "girls" and the "stay-at-home girlfriend" lifestyle.
These trends are often wrapped in pink, cute aesthetics, drawing from mid-century old Hollywood styles à la Miss Carpenter, using these images to obscure a more insidious side of girlhood. And this isn’t to say girlhood is inherently bad—some of the earliest visions of girlhood, from the late nineteenth century, involved tomboys, girls like Anne of Green Gables playing lacrosse and hockey after centuries of restricted movement, and young women decorating college dorms after winning their hard-earned right to higher education. But these alternative, more empowering visions of girlhood rarely come up today, perhaps because they don’t encourage women to police their bodies or focus their lives on men in the same way that the current aesthetics of girlhood do.
So, in the time-honoured tradition of "what’s in and what’s out," here are my girlhood predictions for 2025:
What’s Out for 2025:
Talking about divine feminine energy as if it’s an innate product of your XX chromosomes
Centring your life around men
Blaming every minor inconvenience on being a girl
What’s In for 2025:
Playing sports and getting muddy
Appreciating that women and girls have more rights than ever before in history
Calling yourself a woman, because you’re an adult
Edited by Charlotte Lewis
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