In the summer of 2024, it felt like the whole internet turned lime green. Charli XCX’s album Brat came out in June, “brat summer” took over feeds, and within weeks it had spilled into presidential politics. This piece first ran on this site in July 2024, right in the middle of it. Looking back from here, the trend itself has faded, the way trends do. But some of what it gave young people, especially Gen Z, is still worth talking about, because it touched on things that matter for mental health long after a hashtag stops trending.
A quick note: this isn’t a political post, and it isn’t about any public figure’s character. It’s about what a cultural moment said about how young adults were feeling, and what we can learn from it.
- Brat culture celebrated being messy, honest and unapologetic, in contrast to the polished perfection of social media.
- At its best, it encouraged boundaries, self-expression and connection with chosen family.
- Trends fade. The needs underneath them, to be real, to belong and to feel okay as you are, don’t.
Charli XCX told the world that “kamala IS brat”
On July 21, 2024, the day President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign, Charli XCX posted three words: “kamala IS brat.” Within hours, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign leaned in, restyling its social media in the album’s lime green, and Gen Z ran with it. Around the same time, a line from a 2023 speech by Harris, in which she recalled her mother asking, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”, was turned into an endless stream of coconut memes. Put the two together and you get the “Project Coconut” in this post’s title.
By the end of the year, Collins Dictionary had named “brat” its word of the year. The election came and went, and the green faded from most people’s feeds. What I find more interesting than the politics is why this particular moment hit so hard with young adults in the first place.
Gen Z has grown up online, with a constant stream of curated, filtered lives to compare themselves to. For a lot of young people, that has meant anxiety, self-doubt and a steady need for outside validation. Brat culture arrived as a kind of permission slip. It embraced imperfection, threw out the rulebook, and made being a little chaotic and very honest look appealing rather than embarrassing.
But how did this translate to better mental health for Gen Z?
A trend can’t do therapy’s job, and it was never meant to. But culture shapes what feels allowed. When a whole generation gets the message that it’s okay to be messy, to have feelings out loud and to stop performing, that can loosen something. Here’s where I think brat culture did some real good.
Ditching the “good girl” act
For a long time, young women in particular have been taught to be agreeable, polite and accommodating, and to put everyone else’s needs ahead of their own. Brat culture pushed back on that. It encouraged people to show up as their real selves, including the messy, imperfect parts, and to say no without drowning in guilt.
In therapy language, a lot of that is about boundaries: knowing where you end and someone else begins, and being able to protect your time, energy and needs. People-pleasing often starts as a way to stay safe or loved. Learning to set limits is hard work, and seeing it celebrated made it feel more possible for a lot of people.
Fashion became part of it too. The brat look, with its band tees, tiny skirts and heavy dose of Y2K, was less about following a trend and more about dressing for yourself. The girls, gays and theys posting their outfits for their friends and chosen family turned self-expression into something shared.
Turning vulnerability into strength
Brat culture wasn’t about pretending not to care. A lot of the album itself is surprisingly vulnerable. A song like “Sympathy is a knife” is about insecurity and comparing yourself to another woman, the kind of feeling most people try to hide. Putting those feelings on a dance floor made them feel normal.
That matters. Honest, unpolished expression of feelings is one of the ways we connect with each other. When people see someone they admire admit to jealousy, doubt or self-consciousness, it gets easier to admit their own. And naming a feeling, out loud or even just to yourself, is often the first step to being able to manage it.
The flip side is worth saying too. “Not caring what anyone thinks” can slide into not letting anyone in. Real vulnerability isn’t just being loud about how you feel. It’s letting the people close to you see what’s underneath.
Finding strength in community
Brat culture was never about going it alone. It was about your friends, your people, the ones who show up when things fall apart. That sense of belonging is one of the strongest protective factors for mental health at any age. For many LGBTQIA+ young people, and for people of color who don’t always see themselves reflected in mainstream culture, the joke-filled, inclusive energy of that summer felt like a place they belonged.
The coconut tree line resonated for a similar reason. The full quote is about how none of us exist in isolation: we live in the context of everything around us and everything that came before us. That’s a pretty good description of how I think about people in therapy. Your family, your culture, your history and your relationships all shape who you are and how you cope. As a biracial therapist, I know how much it can mean to have that context understood rather than ignored.
Looking back: what lasted, and what helps now
Trends move fast. Brat summer gave way to the next aesthetic, and the internet moved on, as it always does. If you felt something real in that moment, a little more permission to be yourself, a little less pressure to be perfect, that feeling doesn’t have to fade with the trend.
A few things that tend to help, long after the hashtag is gone:
- Notice the comparison trap. If scrolling leaves you feeling worse about yourself, that’s useful information. You’re allowed to mute, unfollow and log off.
- Practice small boundaries. Saying no to one thing you don’t have the energy for is a skill, and it gets easier the more you do it.
- Invest in your people. The friends who know the unfiltered you are worth more than any number of followers.
- Name what you feel. Not to perform it, but to understand it.
And sometimes self-expression and good friends aren’t enough. If anxiety, low mood, people-pleasing or relationship patterns keep getting in your way, talking with a therapist can help you understand where they come from and what to do differently. I work with adults in individual therapy, in person in Highland Park and online anywhere in California. If the patterns are showing up between you and a partner, couples therapy can help too.
If you’re struggling right now, you don’t have to wait. Call or text 988 any time to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
If you’d like to talk it through, you can book a free 20-minute consultation. No pressure, just a conversation.
