What is ‘Rat Girl Summer’? Hilarious new trend sees women reject ‘hot’ stereotypes in favor of a ‘wild’ lifestyle that celebrates ‘chaos, nibbling on small snacks and killing the cringe’
The sweltering summer months of recent years have brought their own defining mood.
Each year’s high-temperature season is fused around an up-to-date viral identity in a tradition that brought us 2019’s Hot Girl Summer, which took its inspiration from Megan Thee Stallion’s hit song of the same name.
Since then, it has become something of an annual ritual for social media users to unite around a particularly catchy concept that best represents the form of lifestyle they hope to manifest during the summer period.
And the consensus this year is that it’s all about having a joyful, unapologetic mindset while looking for food and adventures – known as Rat Girl Summer.
Creator Lola Kolade conceived Rat Girl Summer as a framework to adopt a joyful, unapologetic mindset as she searches for food and adventures
In a follow-up post, she established four essential rules, including “go outside” and “NOT OVERTHINK”
The phrase was coined by writer and content creator Lola Kolade, who declared in TikTok in early June, “We’re having a Rat Girl Summer, okay?
“We run through the streets, nibble on our little snacks, and generally find ourselves in places where we have no business.”
In a follow-up post, she established four essential rules. She began, “You have to go out … you can’t run in bed, you can’t run on your couch.”
But those who embrace this way of life are allowed to “rot in bed,” “scroll,” and “binge-watch” two days a week.
The next line was about “nibbling our little snacks.” Lola revealed, “That means we eat and enjoy food.
Starving yourself to be skinny for summer is out. Eating nutritious meals to get into mischief and cause chaos is in.”
Third, she said Rat Girl Summer involves “killing the cringe,” which means, “The part of you that’s embarrassed when you want to do certain things — kill immediately and bury the body.” That’s over.’
And, last but not least, the last rule was ‘don’t think too much’. She concluded, “Do you think a rat would think twice before stealing a slice of pizza and rushing down the subway platform?” No. We go with our feelings, we go with our intuition.’
The results are chock-full of posts like the one from user Meg Moon, which depicts a designated driver handing extremely messy cans of nachos to her three giddy-drunk friends
Subsequent updates to Lola introduced a wave of “affirmations” essential to Rat Girl Summer.
Among them were ‘being alive is actually good’; “This is my reality. You exist only when I say you exist’; as well as “Shyness is fake, and I’m real.”
On TikTok, the hashtag “Rat Girl Summer” has been viewed more than 26 million times in recent months.
The results are packed with messages like one from user Meg Moonfeaturing an image of a designated driver handing extremely messy cans of nachos to her three dizzyingly drunk friends.
The term even popped up in a discussion on the Today show, with guest Naz Perez, host of the podcast I Don’t Get It, a summary of the concept of Rat Girl Summer to Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb: “We’ve all heard of Hot Girl Summer, right? Well, according to TikTok user Lola, we are now embracing rodent energy.”
Some have suggested other kinds of summers with animal girlswith user Gabriel Hartman also brought up the idea of flying squirrel girl summer – ‘a rat’s heart, but she somehow flies to Europe … you don’t know how she does it, but she likes to party and drink champagne’ – Alix Earle as an example.
According to Gabi, a seal girl’s summer is for “the girl who just wants to sit in the sun… (with) golden retriever energy,” while a sloth girl’s summer means “inside all day in sweatpants,” too. even if it is 90 degrees. ‘
It’s no secret that city dwellers, especially New Yorkers, have long had a contentious relationship with their city’s little furry, sewer-dwelling residents.
Pizza Rat, who rose to fame in 2015, is probably as close to being a mascot for Rat Girl Summer followers
After Jessica Tisch, NYC’s new sanitation commissioner, addressed her department’s mission statement at a press conference in October 2022, one soundbite went viralbuoyed by her no-nonsense delivery: “The rats will absolutely hate this announcement. But the rats don’t run this town, we do.’
Still, there’s no denying how the unassailable tenacity of the little critters over the years has also charmed many of their human counterparts.
Pizza Rat is perhaps the most iconic example – with the rodent becoming an overnight meme in 2015 after it was caught dragging a slice of pizza much larger than its body down a subway staircase.
You could even argue that Pizza Rat is something of the Rat Girl Summer mascot. As documented in a “Rat Girl Summer Check-in,” Lola reminded supporters to take part in ‘shenanigans’ and keep up with their ‘dilly dallying agenda’.
In November 2022, another rat stole the spotlight as it calmly walked through a display window of high-end leather bags at the West Village luxury boutique Il Bisonte.
And last July, the “Ratatouille” rat turned up in Washington Square Park, so named run for artists in the park in broad daylight.
The performers, in turn, began cheering it on with a rhythmic chant of ‘Ra-Ratatouille, Ratatouille! Ra-Ratatouille, Ratatouille!’ until it disappeared into the nearby greenery.