SEASON'S GREETINGS

Forget the messy hedonism of Charli XCX’s Brat summer, it’s time to embrace the more mindful Demure autumn a vibe we all can and should) get behind

- Zoé Beaty

Chances are this week you’ve come across the phrase “very demure” more than once. It’s on TikTok. It’s on Instagram, and Twitter/X, and probably in the mouths of every Gen Z employee in your office. Like most hyper-viral internet trends, it seemed to appear almost overnight, all over the world. Completely missed it so far? Very demure.

The phrase was born from a TikTok posted on 2 August by Jools Lebron, a trans creator whose video has now amassed millions of likes and views. “See how I do my makeup for work? Very mindful, very demure,” she purrs.

Along with going to work, her advice to being “demure” and “cutesy” extends to how to behave in gay bars and exiting a plane in the correct way. Now, we’re being mindful – congratulating ourselves on replying to a text on time, using capital letters, nibbling on a snack. We’re sipping our tinny of wine in the park after work (very cutesy, very demure). Importantly, we’re also being very tongue in cheek.

“Demure is just a way of life for the girls and for the dolls like me,” she says in another TikTok. “Who is the original demure? All of us.”