“Very low-key, very mindful” TikTok trend is a reaction to “Brat Summer”

The “very low-key, very mindful” trend has taken over TikTok.

In a viral TikTok video, self-proclaimed “wild diva” and content creator Jools Lebron shared a satirical clip about why women should present themselves conservatively in the workplace. She recommended that women rock “low-key, modest and respectful” looks in the workplace.

“See how I do my makeup for work? Very understated. Very attentive,” Lebron said in the video. “I don't come to work with a green eyelid. I don't look like a clown when I go to work. I don't do too much. I'm very attentive while I'm at work. See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job.”

She continued, “A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to work looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure. I'm very modest. I'm very attentive. See my shirt? Just a little chee chee out, not my cho cho. Remember why they hired you.”

“Here's your reality check, diva,” she added. “What name should I put on it then?”

TikTok user and English teacher Claudine James, who posts educational grammar content for nearly six million followers, explained the difference between the words “demure,” which means reserved and shy, and “demur,” which she defined as “to arouse doubt or reticence.”

After the hilarious video went viral, Lebron began creating more content revolving around the meaning of “modest,” creating satirical videos about how to act modestly in different situations. From a modest thank you to her hotel staff in one video to a very modest and very mindful “midnight snack” in another, the content creator has made “modest” her profession. Thanks to Lebron, internet users everywhere have expanded the meaning of the word “modest” by putting it in entirely new contexts, like eating donuts and grocery shopping.

The trend seems to poke fun at influencer trends like the “clean girl” aesthetic, which emphasizes minimalism and self-imposed elegance. The hashtag #cleangirl has even been used in more than 467,000 videos on the platform. “Demure” has now become so popular that LeBron claimed she was “demure” in public, noting that fans have come up to her and recognized her in person.

What was once a cheeky video has turned into a full-blown trend, with multiple content creators offering their own take on how to be demure. In one video, one person demonstrated why pouring wine into a glass is “very demure, very mindful.” Another internet user took the well-known “bed rot” trend and combined it with our current one, writing on TikTok: “Bed rot, but be demure.”

A content creator's TikTok video garnered millions of views after she showed her followers “how to stay low key and take your antidepressants,” jokingly adding that she was “paying attention” to why her doctor prescribed them.

Someone else posted a video of an Olympic athlete failing a high jump and wrote: “I'm about to jump to conclusions and then I remember I need to be classy and understated.”

Not surprisingly, “modest” has now become a buzzword on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), with some internet users calling the “modest” trend the next “brat.”

“I always recognize a new TikTok keyword because I saw 73 tweets today with the word 'restrained' in it,” said one person wrote on X, while another joked: “Naughty summer, modest autumn.”

However, embodying “Brat Summer” means embodying a very different lifestyle. The “low-key” trend is the antithesis of the “Brat” mentality, the latter preferring to be bold and daring.

In an interview with BBC's Nick Grimshaw, Charli XCX – whose album brat inspired the trend – described exactly how to embody the “brat” lifestyle. “It can go in this direction, which is quite luxurious, but it can also be so, like, trashy. Just, like, a pack of cigarettes, and like, a Bic lighter, and like, a white top with straps. No bra. That's, like, all you need,” said the British pop star.

“Brat Summer” is a movement that rebels against societal conventions and constructs, rejecting the prudish “clean girl” aesthetic in favor of the unabashedly chaotic party girl – the complete opposite of the “modest” trend that adheres to rules and societal norms.