I Can’t Stop Talking About Brat Summer — Here’s Why Everyone Should Embrace It

1. Express yourself – in the mirror or otherwise

KidThe opening track, “360,” was an instant hit. In this song, Charli asks: What would happen if we shifted our focus from women’s self-confidence to outright bitchiness? It’s a bold question in an era where women must provide meticulously collected evidence of their accomplishments to be deemed worthy. If you’re determined to adopt a Brat mindset this summer, know that sometimes you need to ditch your resume writing and protest journaling in favor of just looking in the mirror and feeling really sexy. Being a brat means bypassing the false treadmill that women are put on to succeed. In other words, you don’t care what they think.

“Sometimes you have to give up writing a resume and journaling about protests and just look in the mirror and feel really hot.”

2. Fight your demons publicly

Kid is an incredibly vulnerable album, peppered with several songs that highlight some of Charli XCX’s biggest insecurities. Famously, “Sympathy is a Knife” reveals how insecure Charli feels when faced with another female artist who “exploits her insecurities” with false niceties and overly gentle sympathy. “I Might Say Something Stupid” is a more direct analysis of Charli’s position in the music industry, as a cult pop star. And “Girl, So Confused” laments a sense of imagined competition between Charli and another artist to whom she is constantly compared.

Summer of Brats means we’re done pretending we’re not insecure, have intrusive thoughts, or suffer from imposter syndrome. We are done pretending that we don’t feel competitive with other women in a capitalist, patriarchal system that we all have know forces us to be competitive. Having a Brat Summer means being as vocal about your insecurities as your accomplishments. It’s an active self-awareness that’s refreshingly frank, much like a toddler’s tantrum. Do you have someone in your life who bullies you regularly? Be honest about it. Pissed that you haven’t had a chance at number 1 yet? Now is the time to express your frustration loud and clear. This summer, let go of the worry that thoughtfully criticizing other women isn’t feminist; you’re smarter than that, and Charli knows it too.

“The summer of kids means we’re done pretending we’re not insecure, have intrusive thoughts, or suffer from imposter syndrome.”

3. Grieve what you have lost

We all remember that summer 2023 was about barbiebut times have changed in 2024. The cultural transition of Barbie has Kidfrom neon pink to neon green, shows what we have lost in the last twelve months. A Brat is just a Barbie who’s seen some shit. This year the world seems scarier and more disturbing than ever, and pretending that it isn’t doesn’t help. These feelings of nostalgia, heartbreak, and loss of innocence are captured perfectly on Brat with tracks like “Rewind” and “So I.” In “Rewind,” Charli returns to a simpler time, when she cared less about her appearance, critical acclaim, and commercial success. “So I” is a tribute to Scottish producer and songwriter SOPHIE, Charli’s late friend and collaborator. Both songs capture the gentle sadness of mourning in a different time.

Unlike the girl-filled summers of years past (“hot girl,” “tomato girl,” etc.), A Brat Summer isn’t about pretending everything is fine or having a sunny outlook at all times. There’s a twinge of sadness throughout Charli’s album, reminding us that it’s okay to cry, even if we do it on the dance floor.

Source: Getty

“There’s no way to please everyone, so you might as well tear shit up.”

4. Question the conventions of femininity

If your Roman Empire is motherhood, Charli XCX has a song for you. For those of us who spend our days thinking about how our lives would be different with or without children, Kid » delivers “I think about it all the time”, a reverberating stream of consciousness that asks: what is my life worth if I don’t become a mother? In this track, Charli reflects on a visit to an old friend who is also a new mother, baffled by the fact that she seems little different when everything in her life has suddenly changed. It’s a song that addresses what promises to be a central question of womanhood in the 21st century, exploring the nuances of a choice that sometimes hardly feels like a choice.

If you can’t relate to the motherhood journal session, you may be more attracted to “mean girls.” It’s an ode to all the cool, intimidating girls who have ever been unnecessarily labeled as cruel. It also features one of the catchiest piano riffs I’ve ever heard. In this song, Charli wonders if being labeled a “bad” girl is really such a bad thing, wondering if the ability to “break your boyfriend’s heart” or attract an obsessive audience makes the figure the villain less feminine girl.

On Kid, Charli plays with cultural conceptions of what a “good” woman is supposed to be. She concludes that there’s no way to please everyone, so she might as well tear shit up. To have a Brat Summer is to question the expectations that have been placed on women – especially ambitious women – and to throw your own existence away in the face of those expectations.

5. Crush your beef in the most iconic way possible

Remember when female musicians used to argue over each other instead of coming together to criticize the system that pitted them against each other in the first place? Yeah, me neither, because Charli XCX and Lorde performed a true cultural reset last Friday by releasing “Girl, So Confusing Version Featuring Lorde.” After much speculation that the original track “Girl, So Confusing” was about Lorde, the two artists reunited on the remix to squash their beef in what may be the most iconic co-writing moment of the year. In her verse, Lorde answers Charli’s original questions about their friendship with her own history of intrusive thoughts, eating disorders, and patriarchal pressure. It’s a collaboration that puts the Tumblr girl in me in an absolute state of ruin.