I first heard about VSCO girls because Dr. Phil was trending on Twitter. In a now viral video, the talk-show host played the perfect clueless grown-up, asking with just the right pitch of confusion what memes like ?and I oop? and ?sksksksk? mean.
As commenters laughed about how out of touch he is (OK, boomer?), I read through the thread feeling similarly out of the loop. I was surprised to find out these memes had something in common?they were both connected to a popular teen ?type? known as a ?VSCO girl.? What was clear from the comments was that being a VSCO girl was a bad thing.
A quick search informed me that VSCO (pronounced ?visco?) girls are both a subculture of teens and a derogatory term for referring to that subculture. The name comes from the popular photo-editing app VSCO, which many teens use because of its artistic photo filters. VSCO girls are easy to recognize. They typically wear oversized T-shirts, tie their hair up in messy buns and sport scrunchies on their arms as bracelets. In stereotypical depictions, they carry around a metal water bottle known as a hydro flask and use a metal straw in order to protect the environment and save the turtles.
Brands are incredibly important to VSCO girls. You?ll find them wearing Birkenstocks, Vans or Crocs and Fjällräven Kånken backpacks. They put cute stickers on everything from laptops to water bottles and are known for making friendship bracelets. They are often depicted as overly friendly and attention-seeking b...