Sksksksksk and I oop-

If you’re wondering, no I didn’t have a stroke. I’m just trying to fit in with the VSCO girls.

A VSCO girl is any teenage girl who wears oversized T-shirts, Crocs, seashell necklaces and drinks out of a reusable water bottle, namely a Hydro Flask, according to Urban Dictionary.

It’s a trend that rose to popularity on the photo editing app VSCO and has been made fun of mercilessly since its debut.

Twitter is full of starter pack memes, outlining everything that one might need in order to become part of the trend. On Halloween, Instagram was covered in VSCO girl costumes.

VSCO girls have become particularly popular on the social media app Tik Tok, an app where people post short videos of themselves, often dancing or doing comedy skits.

Many of these sketches mock VSCO girls about their concern for the environment, their obsession with scrunchies and addiction to Glossier beauty products.

In one of these videos, posted by user @koobydoobydoobydoo, she mocks the girls’ fake personalities and enthusiasm for shell necklaces and friendship bracelets. It’s a dramatization that I have yet to see in real life.

This parody of the trend supports making fun of teenage girls, because people take them as an easy target. It’s easy to pass them off as fake, dumb and annoying, because that’s how people are depicting them in media.

I guess what I don’t understand is why people love to hate VSCO girls.

They support saving the environment, with their metal straws and beloved Hydro Flasks. While their priorities may be a little skewed, you can’t say that they aren’t dedicated to the cause of saving the turtles.

They don’t dress for the attention of men, or anyone for that matter. Their oversized T-shirts and Crocs aren’t exactly “sexy” clothes, and their colorful barrettes and thread bracelets are similar to juvenile accessories.

VSCO girls aren’t the problem, however annoying they might be. Society and its dislike of “mainstream girls” is the problem.

We need to start teaching our young people that it’s okay to have the same interests, and  remind young girls that their interests aren’t jokes.

I may be a VSCO girl. I steal my roommate’s Crocs to take the trash out. My favorite shirt is two sizes too large. I own enough scrunchies to supply half of campus.

Am I embarrassed to be associated with the trend? No, I see no reason to be.

And I oop-