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There’s a new It Female on TikTok.
Her title is the Vanilla Girl, and she’s marked by two features: She’s cozy and “clean.” Dressed only in neutral tones like white, beige, or a pretty mild brown, she could favor a free cozy knit sweater in excess of leggings with brief Uggs. Her hair is slicked back, and her skin is cost-free of major makeup — maybe just some lip gloss, eyebrow pencil, and product blush. When she welcomes you into her residence, she delivers you a residence-brewed latte, a white boucle chair to sit on, and a blanket to drape above your legs as the scent of sugar cookies wafts in the qualifications. She’s chic, polished, and, higher than all else, effortless.
She’s also just about really probable white. Of the seemingly countless TikTok movies tagged “vanilla girl” and “vanilla woman aesthetic,” approximately all of the most popular feature blonde gals. Some creators credit score TikTok megastar Alix Earle for popularizing the glimpse, even though she did not invent it and does not appear to use the hashtag on her movies.
But with her modern blonde hair and huge blue eyes, Earle definitely fits the mould, and it’s hard to come across creators who are into the trend who really do not conform to this search, while there are a couple video clips demonstrating how to do the design even if you’re a *gasp* brunette.
The attractiveness and specificity of the development have quite a few individuals on TikTok indicating the quiet component out loud: This feels racist.
“It just feels like WASP, tradwife, purity society repackaged for Gen Z,” one particular Black creator, @troublepuffs, explained about the trend.
A person notable Black TikToker, @OliviaLayne6, stated that the name “vanilla” and the illustrations being utilised to display it in mainstream media trend posts make it look like the pattern is only for “pretty, skinny, white women.”
Olivia claimed she saw responses on TikTok expressing that “anyone can be” a vanilla lady, but pointed out that the pattern just appears to be to be a repackaging of the exact same TikTok trends we have found just before, like the “thoroughly clean female” and “gentle female” aesthetic.
“And no shade, I’m not producing exciting of this model, I’m just asking how a lot of techniques are y’all gonna appear up with to say you like beige?” she reported.
Aiyana Ishmael, an editorial assistant at Teen Vogue, explained on TikTok that immediately after she received a PR pitch about the pattern, she determined to start off her own craze: the “chocolate girl” trend.
“New aesthetic just dropped,” she explained. —Stephanie McNeal ●
