the odd woman's guide to brat summer
brat and it's the same except it's an odd woman substack post so it's not.
prelude
As a girl who is chronically incapable of maintaining a clean girl aesthetic, brat summer is a prayer answered. I’ve always had a complex relationship with the word brat. It was often the first word I heard when I was badly behaved as a child. Undoubtedly, it packs a punch.
Yet, Charli xcx has reinvented the connotation I hold of the word. Like the Japanese art of kintsugi, she has repaired its reputation, elevating it into something beautiful. However, the lacquer used to mend it is neon green rather than gold. Charli famously values artistry above music itself, she holds the ability to curate a world above all else. True to her world, Brat created a world of contemplative club nights, of lost friendships and Lost Mary’s and of green-eyed monsters and green painted walls.
Brat’s makes a strong case for self-centeredness. Unlike other music that serves as a musically intoned affirmation, Brat lacks the gentleness of much self-care content. Rather than conjuring up images of a tranquil sanctuary, Brat places you in the middle of a mosh pit. Picture this: the room is dim but the strobe lights pass through you, painting you technicolor; you are in a room full of sweaty strangers, but they circle around you reverential; you have never felt so alive, so beautiful; you ignore the smudge of your eyeliner and the sweat down your back.
Despite the album’s self-appreciation (I can’t find it in myself to call it conceit), Charli pays homage to various muses in her life - Julia Fox, Gabriette and AG Cook, to name a few. I think that there is something so incredibly beautiful about the scraps of the people around us that compile our ideals of beauty. Charli perfectly encapsulates this idea of an idle muse, somebody that has that something, that effortless quality that we aspire to. Something I appreciate about Brat, is the unpolished, brash attitude that it encapsulates. She understands that sometimes the most beautiful moments are the ones in which we forget ourselves.
In honour of Brat, below are some mantras to carry with you as you roam the streets of your city, eyeliner running, tights ripped and feral.
360
“666 with a princess streak, I’m everywhere I’m so Julia”
forget about how you look, focus on how you feel
make a pinterest board, ask your friend how she does her hair
Club classics
“Never gonna stop till the morning light/ Put your hands up and dance”
indulge in nostalgia
hold your friends’ hands in the club
Sympathy is a knife
“Cause I couldn't even be her if I tried/I'm opposite, I'm on the other side/ I feel all these feelings I can't control”
quit the victim mentality
think about the things that make you strong, not soft
I might say something stupid
“But I'm perfect for the background/ Onе foot in a normal life”
elbow your way into the middle of the mosh pit
rewatch all of your favourite shows and realize how annoying the main character is
Talk talk
“I'm feeling like I'm on fire/ 'Cause we've been keeping this a sеcret/ And all your friends are still thеre/ And I'm just wondering what they know”
download duolingo
have a shallow, flirty conversation with another guy
Von dutch
“Yeah, I know your little secret, put your hands up/ It's so obvious I'm your number one”
wear your evil eye bracelet
cleanse your room with incense
Everything is romantic
“Fall in love again and again”
buy a disposable camera
start scrapbooking
Rewind
“Recently, I've been thinking about a way simpler time/ Sometimes, I really think it would be cool to rewind”
dig through your junk drawer
call your mom
So I
“Always on my mind (Every day, every night)/ Your star burns so bright (Why did I push you away?)”
have a good cry
light a candle
Girl, so confusing
do Not text the girl who ruined your life
pick up the phone and call the girl you’re drifting away from
Apple
get your parent’s to do the apple dance
check your family medical history and hit the vape accordingly
B2b
“I don't wanna fall right back to us”
run into your ex and and brush past him
get a haircut
Mean girls
“Think you already know her, but you don't/ This one's for all my mean girls”
make your eyeliner a little bit darker, ditch the concealer
hit up a kickboxing dojo, leave the pilates studio behind
I think about it all the time
“Same old clothes she wore before, holding her child, yeah/ She's a radiant mother and he's a bеautiful father/ And now they both know thesе things that I don't”
remember your future husband is not at the club right now
offer to babysit in order to quell baby fever
365
“Who the fuck are you? I'm a brat when I'm bumpin' that”
brat summer is 24/7/365
know your limits when you pick a fight at a bar.