As the wise Charli xcx once said, «I think the apple’s rotten right to the core / From all the things passed down from all the apples coming before». The apple in question? The internet. That ever-growing, overly-immersive, digital world, riddled with aesthetics and buzzwords. You’ve undoubtedly seen the «demure» meme everywhere. The term was coined by Jools Lebron, a TikTok personality and beauty content creator known for her comedic mode of expression. «Very mindful, very demure» is used to describe an individual who is sensible or prioritizes intentionality and modesty as opposed to spontaneity and recklessness.

If you’re feeling a sense of familiarity, it’s likely because society has been here before. To be blunt, all of these trends keep cycling back into the mix because of a larger overarching culprit: the «I’m not like most girls» phenomenon paired with the yearning for individuality in a hive-mind digital age. The recycled idea of not only attaching oneself to an aesthetic but also an aesthetic that promotes either extreme side of an internet personality coin has circulated around the internet ether since social media sprouted into the beast it is today. From the early aughts «Tumblr indie sleaze» era to the «clean girl» aesthetic, all the way through to the debut of 2024’s very own BRAT and its supposedly cooler, more «mindful» older sister, «demure,» it sparks the question: Why do these trends keep happening?