Home Lifestyle Meet the women embracing Brat Summer and redefining the clubbing scene

Meet the women embracing Brat Summer and redefining the clubbing scene

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Charli XCX’s new album Brat has inspired the hottest trend for this summer (Picture: Getty)

If you’ve been on the internet recently, you’ve likely encountered the term ‘Brat girl summer.’

Stemming from Charli XCX’s pioneering new pop album, Brat, it’s come to encompass the mood of the moment. And it’s everywhere.

In many ways, ‘Brat girl summer’ – or simply ‘Brat summer’ – is 2024’s answer to Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Hot Girl Summer’ of 2019. It’s got an element of je ne sais quoi, and a simultaneous messiness and realness to it.

‘You’re just that girl who is a little messy and likes to party, and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but kind of parties through it,’ Charli said of its meaning in her #OffTheRecord TikTok series.

‘It’s very honest, very blunt, little bit volatile. It’s Brat.’

It means everything and yet, at the same time, nothing specific. But, despite its vagueness, it’s come to encompass an entire way of living – at least for now – not just for her lifelong fans, but for her new ones, too.

‘To me, Brat Summer feels like the collective energy we were yearning for post-pandemic. I saw someone on TikTok describe it as “audacious fun” and I think that’s a pretty good summary,’ lifestyle creator Lucy Moon, who is 29 and lives in London, tells Metro.co.uk.

For Lucy, who has extensively documented her sober journey across her social channels, the collective response to Brat shows that, increasingly, being a ‘party girl’ isn’t about getting drunk or taking illicit substances.

It’s a mentality for everyone – and one that’s been steadily brewing since the pandemic, when many reassessed their relationships with alcohol and clubbing after the world and all its venues momentarily shut their doors.

Lucy Moon is sober and resonates with the Brat girl summer mentality (Picture: Lucy Moon)

For some, lockdown increased their dependency on alcohol – and studies have since shown that this was linked to poor mental health.

But in the same vein, one study showed that 48% of UK respondents reported drinking the same during lockdown as they did before, and though 26% said that their drinking increased, 26% actually consumed less.

As such, changing attitudes towards alcohol post-pandemic have led people – many of them Gen Z and Millennial – down a path towards either a more mindful relationship with alcohol, or towards cutting it out completely.

And, for Lucy, that’s where Brat fits in.

‘I think people can develop a binary approach to going out, they see themselves as either a party girl or an 10PM bedtime introvert. Brat is reminding people that we can hold space for both,’ Lucy adds.

‘It’s helping people tap into the feeling of freedom and letting loose that comes with going out.’

Elsewhere, Brat wrestles with the heavy expectations placed on women when it comes to navigating motherhood and careers.

At 31, Charli explores her complicated relationship with wanting to have children in her song I Think About It All The Time, narrating her journey towards meeting the love of her life – fiancé George Daniel, drummer of The 1975 – and whether they might have a baby together.

‘I finally met my baby, and a baby might be mine. ‘Cause maybe one day I might, if I don’t run out of time, would it give my life a new purpose?’ she muses.

That very thought is one that’s so prevalent amongst so many women of a similar age – who think they do want children but worry about the impact it might have on their career. Lucy resonates with these sentiments.

Lucy is also a certified Club Angel member (Picture: Lucy Moon)

‘Last year I had a bit of a crisis about when I was going to feel ready to settle down. I couldn’t shake the ick around the societal implications of being labelled a wife or mother, and seeing my friends take their partner’s last names sometimes felt like I was grieving their old identity,’ Lucy shares.

‘It can be isolating to feel like everyone around you is growing up but you’re not mentally there yet, or you just haven’t figured out what you want.

‘Lyrically, the whole of Brat is about feeling out of sync with people. Friends, lovers, observers, parents. I think that’s why everyone feels so seen by the album – we’re realising it’s a universal feeling in your late twenties and thirties and accepting that is freeing.

‘Even if you’re not a party girl, you can still channel the party energy as Brat is more of a vibe. Joyful, free, honest and a bit messy.’

These sentiments are something that 31-year-old Rachel Craft, who lives in Leeds, shares. Being the same age as Charli, she shares the same questions – whether to settle down and start a family, or to just go wild and let her hair down.

‘To me personally, it’s about being in your 30s and embracing the dichotomy of this time in your life,’ Rachel tells Metro.co.uk.

‘Some of my friends having their first kids, the question of whether to have kids at all, increased self-awareness compared to my 20s, still wanting to feel vital and hedonistic and go out and party. It’s about being a bit messy and having fun, with some introspection thrown in.’

For Rachel, clubbing is making a comeback – but she’s reshaping what it means to her as a woman in her 30s, which is exactly what Charli hits into with the Brat mentality.

‘Among my friends, we had already started to discuss 2024 as the “year of dancing” as we came out of that Covid mindset and realised we’re not quite so old and serious that we don’t want to still go to the club every now and then,’ she adds.

Rachel is approaching clubbing differently in her 30s (Picture: Rachel Craft)

‘I think the added self-awareness of your 30s means we’re approaching clubbing differently too. We don’t want to get wasted necessarily or even always feel the need to drink.

‘It’s more about the community and freedom you can feel on a dance floor listening to your favourite music, not necessarily drinking or taking substances. I think the club can be just as much a space for sober people as those who aren’t.

‘I think we’re all trying to figure out a balance and what that looks like for us and Brat reflects that.’

Naturally, there’s branding and marketing appeal in the concept of Brat girl summer too – even though some have argued that this is exactly the kind of mentality Brat fights against.

But the concept of Brat has tapped into the cultural consciousness so successfully that everyone wants a slice of it.

‘The appeal of brat is part of a wider rejection of anti-corporate and polished branding that so many companies have adopted – and some, particularly younger, consumers struggle to connect with,’ Eilidh Cunningham, head of brand at POTR, tells Metro.co.uk.

The branding of brat is pushing against something that’s seen as a bit corporate and stale. It shouldn’t be nice, and it shouldn’t make sense, but it does. There’s a sort of rebellious spirit there.’

And, increasingly, brands are under immense pressure to connect with the younger generation – one that, as Eilidh explains, ‘famously does not embrace brand loyalty, values genuine authenticity and rejects poor attempts at it.’

‘The impact of brat can’t be understated. It’s become a noun and a verb, it’s just iconic. From the specific hue to how it’s impacting fashion – it’s the album of the summer and people are reeling from it.’

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