The newest craze in Gen Z culture has been a glorified lifestyle of perfect fashion, perfect photos, and a perfect messy bun. Social media apps populated by young people, such as Instagram and Tik Tok, have pushed the popularity of this teenage trend. From social media pages to high school hallways, everything is plagued by VSCO Girls.

VSCO Girls tend to look the same and act the same. They all follow a basic criteria of fashion: oversized t-shirts that cover their Nike shorts, a pair of Birkenstocks, Crocs, or white Vans. These outfits are commonly accented with a Hydroflask water bottle covered in stickers and a messy bun tied with a scrunchie, adding additional scrunchies on the wrist of course. You can’t forget the stylish Puka Shell necklaces and reusable metal straws, an individual attempt to save the turtles. While these girls may have originated from apps like Tik Tok, they are called VSCO Girls for a reason. Their perfectly taken pictures must be edited perfectly, so they often use the photo editing app VSCO to fulfill their wishes. They even have common phrases, such as letting out a defeated, “and I oop- sksksks,” after dropping their Hydroflask on the ground.

Ellie Hugunin, ‘21, states that she follows some elements of the VSCO Girl lifestyle. She thinks that many of the components of VSCO Girls have been trendy for a while, but they’ve all been compiled into one big label. “I could be considered a little VSCO because I follow these popular trends. I’m not a trendsetter because I’m afraid to look stupid.”

“I think VSCO Girls might be hypocritical, they all advocate for metal straws but their Starbucks cups are made out of plastic anyway.” Zoe Barrett, ‘21 says. She thinks if you’re going to advocate to use no plastic, you should stick by it.

Us high schoolers are witnessing an important pop-culture event in front of our very eyes. VSCO Girls as a trend can seem so insignificant now, but they are just as significant to the history of fashion as “emos” and “Tumblr girls” were. Every time a huge, annoying crash from a Hydroflask hitting the floor is heard down the hallway, understand that it will go down in history.