... to ask WTF a VSCO girl is!?

[crisscrosscranky]

12 year old DD has just announced to me she's a VSCO girl (followed by a peace sign) then gone upstairs to FaceTime...

Google has not helped my lack of understanding. Please, someone far cooler than me, explain in layman's terms!?

✌🏼

A lot of teens need to be part of a tribe (my treasure went through a goth phase and even in her 30s still has some traces of goth in her style. Yes they might end up as clones of one another but it’s a really important stage of development for many. This trend at least sounds wholesome. I think it’s mean to be contemptuous of teens and the phases they go through.

Thanks Henny

All the people talking about how it's nice not to see excessive makeup are ignoring the fact that this trend is completely exclusionary. It's all thin, white, pretty girls with clear skin who are rich enough to buy Birkenstocks and other expensive brands.

I am all for teenagers not feeling obliged to cake themselves in makeup, but this isn't a less problematic trend than any other just because it celebrates conventionally pretty girls whose natural looks are the celebrated western ideal anyway.

How odd, started reading this yesterday and this evening my 10 year old son has just sat and described exactly this. Turtles, metal straws, scrunchies, the hair style, the weird noise, the flask.... He said thank goodness there's no such thing as vsco boys 😂

I tell you what's even weirder theSnuffster, this thread is the first time I've heard about ANY of this and today Buzzfeed seems to be full for VSCO-related articles. Is it cookies/data gathering or that thing that happens when you learn a new word and suddenly hear/read it all over the place.

So DD and I went shopping today and stumbled into Brandy Melville - DD thought is was heat and bought yet another scrunching and a top. It was all summer clothes so I asked DD what VSCO girls were in winter and she told me all VSCO girls live in California and don't have winter.

A whole shop of skinny white teenage girls in London suggested otherwise.

I guess I'll find out soon enough, when the internet tells DD what expensive item she needs next.

Ok so I read the first part about the VSCO app and thought, ‘this actually sounds like something I need’, then I read on and... it turns out I’m a 33 year old VSCO girl 🙈🙈🙈 I’ve literally just bought white Vans 2 days ago and thought I was being dead original for not having black ones 😂. And only today I thought about buying some metal straws, a metal water bottle AND some thread for making friendship bracelets... all before I knew there was such thing as a VSCO girl!

My sksksk dd is a sksksk VSCO girl (whatever the hell that is?!) the girl who's sksksk am video dd watches sksksksk does sksksksk all the bloody time and it drives me mad! sksksksk

An' I oop!

Is the am I Oop thing just from that random video earlier up the thread? Is that how it started. Literally so random!!

I cant even say skskskssk! I've tried!

@RebeccaRae
Exclusionary? Get real. Give me a teenage trend that's not exclusionary. That's the whole point isn't it? Why is something negative because white girls like it? You wouldn't come up with bs like that about teens listening to grime or drill.

I only have a DS who is cruising towards "tweenism". Is there a boy equivalent of VSCO I should be looking out for? He's a Vans skater boy at the moment

The Instagram generation seem quite good at celebrating their uniqueness by being clones of each other

Oh please. This isn’t unique to the Instagram generation. If you had come to my home town in 1997 you would have seen whole crowds of tribal clones: pub boys in blue Ben Sherman shirts, white jeans and loafers; goths in black fishnets and eyeliner; All Saints girls in baggy combat trousers and vest tops, etc etc.

I just talked to my DD about this and she is shocked that I know what a vcos girl is. I told her I can find out anything on mumsnet, so she has challenged me to get info on eboys. A search on mn just brings up this thread and I am not allowed to Google it, I can only get my info from fellow mumsnetters. Help me convince my DD that mumsnet is the bees knees.

E boys and paint their nails and wear one dangly earring. Similar to skater boys in dress

I really can't get my head around the 'sksksksksksk andioop' business (baffled old gimmer) But like a PP I think there have always been 'tribes'. I grew up the 1980s and I remember skinheads, Ska/Rude Boys, Mods, New Romantics, Punks, Post-Punks, Casuals, Rockers...It felt like there was somewhere for everyone. Goth was just beginning to be a thing in my my small town in the early 80s and I embraced it whole heartedly, or as much as I could on very little money. That's one thing that all 'tribes' seem to have in common these days is that you have to be pretty and have money to belong or you're called a 'chav' and a 'skank.' It used to be about rebelling against this kind of mindset when I was younger, but as I say, old gimmer here!

@Deadringer eboys are emo-influenced, have an on-line presence, one dangly earring, hair parted in middle, skater clothes and nail polish.

Exclusionary? Get real. Give me a teenage trend that's not exclusionary. That's the whole point isn't it? Why is something negative because white girls like it? You wouldn't come up with bs like that about teens listening to grime or drill.

I think the point is that this isn't a 'better' trend than other teen fads just because it involves less makeup. Some people on this thread are suggesting that it's a better trend for teens to follow because the girls look more natural. But it's a form of privilege to be white, thin and pretty which these VSCO girls almost universally are. It's not like it's a trend which welcomes with open arms girls who are black / fat / disabled / unattractive / poor.

I myself don't know the first thing about grime and drill culture, but if they exhibit the same profile of excluding anyone who isn't thin, white, rich and pretty then I also think they are similarly problematic.

'Tribalism' is one thing and I have no issue with anyone dressing a certain way / wearing a particular kind of makeup / buying specific brands etc. But I think it's unfair to celebrate one trend as being better for teens or somehow superior just because it only lets in the few privileged enough to meet its criteria.

A quick google put me in the picture, OP.
Also told me that it’s pronounced ‘visco’ so I’m wondering how you knew it was spelt VSCO if you’re genuinely clueless about the term?

queenarseclangers, I’m raising my eyebrows a bit at your dd’s video. Is she using the Shrek doll to insinuate that these girls are ugly (without make up)? That’s how I would take that video and I wouldn’t let my dd make it or post it online.

Thank you @BuzzShitbagBobbly and @motherheroic for posting those videos. I was badly in need of cheering up this morning and they made me laugh out loud. I've been internally muttering 'sksksksk anioop' to myself all day

Scrunchies and crocs, who'd've thought it?

That's what I wear when I'm gardening. And a baggy t-shirt. I'm 64, the kids along the road must be fucking pissing themselves, thinking their neighbour is the oldest VSCO girl in the country.

I deeply resent the yoof commandeering my comfy stuff!

Just watched the videos, I've had the 1990s on the phone, they want their fashion back 😀

The no make up natural look takes ££££ and time hours to achieve, my dd seems to be partially of this visco ilk.

Whoever said it is privilege to be able to fully participate in this trend is right, it's not cheap. And round here it is only the rich, white girls who are 'doing' this trend, the same as there mothers are. Not me because I'm a lot older than DD's friends mothers.

I am however a messy bun, natural makeup, birky wearing woman.

twitter.com/i/status/1165952790650376193

This is what eBoys usually look like. Millie Bobby Brown dated this boy