What is a 'brat summer', why is your teen saying it and who is Charli XCX?

If you've heard your teen mention having a 'brat summer,' you'll probably want to know what they're talking about - and there's quite a lot to unpick about this viral phrase.

When it comes to teenage slang words, how on earth are parents meant to keep up? The endless carousel of new terms and phrases means just when you think you're on top if it, something else is added to the Urban Dictionary - and you're left feeling like you have no idea what your teens are talking about once again.

If your young people refer to someone as having a 'menty b' and drop the term 'skibidi' into every conversation at random, they might've mentioned the possibility of having a 'brat summer.' As with most of their plans, you'll want to know exactly what a brat summer entails - we break down what your teen means by this and why it's attributed to Charlie XCX.

What is a brat summer?

Essentially, a brat is someone ready to embrace being messy, having a great time at parties, and not being worried if they say something perceived as silly - raw, real life experiences that have a level of imperfection. As it's summer and young people have some freedom from school/university, they can embrace a brat summer. Think messy buns instead of sleek styled hair, smudged makeup, wearing a dress that hasn't been through the wash at parties, and hilarious chats about 'dumb' things.

The term originates from Charli XCX's newly released album of the same name, Brat. With a distinctive lime green cover and grungy tunes that hark back to to the early noughties, the album inspires 'brat' being an aesthetic and way of life embracing bygone party days from the era of Ladettes. Gone are the clean living, pink Barbiecore trends of last summer - being messy and partying are in. 

Charli herself said in a TikTok video explaining the term "You are just that girl who is a little messy and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown, but parties through it. It is honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile. That’s Brat. Think Courtney Love in the ’90s, Amy Winehouse in the early aughts, and Ke$ha in the 2010s."

@charlixcx

♬ Club classics - Charli xcx

Speaking to the Evening Standard, senior foresight analyst Marta Indeka from forecasting agency The Future Laboratory, believes the timing of brat is perfect. She says "Last year, we really had that explosion of girlhood. There was Barbiecore and the summer of Taylor Swift’s first blockbuster concerts. But now we’re starting to see a new facet of that, in a more nuanced way." 

She adds that brat summer offers more freedom than other movements such as 2019's 'hot girl summer,' suggesting "Hot girl summer, there’s expectations attached to that label, but brat summer is more freeing." Referring to the vibe and colour of the album, Marta concludes "The whole campaign is just so conducive for UGC [user generated content] and cultural adoption. Having a signature colour and font is a very easy marketing technique.. and the meme-ability and virality of it is what really made it blow up."

Who is Charli XCX?

Real name Charlotte Emma Aitchison, Charli XCX is a British singer and songwriter from Essex. She began her career posting songs on Myspace in 2008 at the age of 16 and was spotted by a promoter of illegal raves who invited her to perform at them. By 2010 she signed to Asylum Records, adopting the stage name Charli XCX which had been her MSN Messenger handle.

The artist took some time to come to mainstream prominence, breaking through with the album, Sucker, in 2015. The Brat album has propelled her to even further world stardom, and she openly shuns music genres to make the sounds that interest her, with diverse influences - predominantly from 1990s’ pop culture and schoolgirl chic from the same era. 

Charli has a condition named sound-to-colour synaesthesia, which involves seeing music as colours. Speaking to the BBC about this, she says "I see music in colours. I love music that's black, pink, purple or red - but I hate music that's green, yellow or brown."

Giving an example using The Cure's records, she describes them as being "all midnight blue or black, but with twinkly pink stars and baby pink clouds floating around it," concluding "If I'm writing and I can't see what the video will look like in my head, I know the song isn't right for me."

For more on slang, we also have a tween slang explainer. Meanwhile, GenZ make fun of millennials for their 'outdated' slang, while millennials are envious of their kids' lives altogether.