The Yacht Girls Of Summer

They’re the 20-something girls who travel firstclass, party like rock stars and showcase their five-star lifestyle on social media. But who’s paying? Jennifer Savin investigates

No matter how good my intentions are to read instead, my bus journeys always seem to end up the same way: with a thumb-cramping Instagram-scrolling session. There are certain people whose lives I frequently check on – like the ex who decimated my heart, and the quiet, bookish redhead I sat next to in English lit, who now has three squashy children. And then there are Instagram’s #yachtgirls. I know very little about these 20-something women – not their full names, nor where they live or what they do. But I have watched from afar as they dance on table tops in Mykonos, sunbathe on the bows of glossy super-yachts in the south of France or pose in front of bathroom mirrors in seven-star Dubai hotels. ‘Who are they?’ I wonder as I lick Cheese Curls dust off my fingers and zoom in on their bicycle-tyre lips and cantilevered bottoms, staring at the designer hauls that lie scattered on unmade hotel beds behind them.

Who are these women who appear not to pause for work, but instead f lit around the globe partying in the world’s most rarefied clubs and restaurants, stopping only to document their lavish lifestyle across social media? And how does a 20-something woman like me, whose last Instagram story was about eating dinner sitting on the floor of her rented flat because of a lack of furniture and funds, get in on the action?

‘There is a circuit for these girls,’ says Mariana, an expert on the subject. With waist-length jet-black hair and a Coca-Cola-bottle figure, she speaks with the sort of indecipherable accent that one can only describe as ‘international’. ‘It starts in May with the Cannes Film Festival, followed by the Grand Prix in Monaco, then Saint-Tropez for the last two weeks of July.’

Mariana is a 24-year-old translator whose father funds blockbuster movies and whose brother co-owns a fancy restaurant in Dubai with a sheikh.