Hot Girl Summer: An Analysis

Thanks to Megan Thee Stallion, rapper, icon, and one of my personal heroes, Summer 2019 has officially been declared “hot girl summer.”

“But Sydelle,” you ask, “what exactly is hot girl summer?”

Excellent question.

Let me first tell you what it isn’t. Having a hot girl summer isn’t restricted by gender, age, size, conventional attractiveness, race, class etc. *Oprah voice* You get a hot girl summer, you get a hot girl summer, and YOU get a hot girl summer.

Since we were kids, there’s always been a lot of pressure to have an amazing summer. You had to either travel somewhere amazing, have some sort of wild story to regale your classmates at lunch, or somehow magically transform over the summer months into a far cooler version of yourself. I still feel that urge when spring comes, to somehow reinvent myself into the person I’ve always dreamed of.

Hot Girl Summer doesn’t shirk accountability, looks your flaws square in the face and commits to making moves. Be it setting up a coffee with that person whose career you admire, sticking to a leaner budget so you can afford that girls’ trip next year or committing to actually showing up for that 6 am yoga class. Hot Girl Summer gives you room for improvement.

BUT, Hot Girl Summer is also about stepping into your own power, loving yourself in a way that seems borderline cringe, knowing you are and not letting anyone or anything take away from that. Maybe that sounds like some self-empowerment bullshit, and maybe it is.

For me, the most important part of Hot Girl Summer (besides mojitos, Fenty Body Lava and a solid skincare routine) is taking ownership of how you feel. Maybe this is just a *me* problem (hi Aries moon and Taurus Mercury) but most of the time I feel as if my feelings are almost completely determined by outside forces. I’m dependent on the whims of the universe to feel good and it’s exhausting. My mood is volatile, I feel out of control, my reactions are often knee jerk, and I’m always reacting instead of proactively acting.

Hot Girl Summer puts an end to this. My mood and feelings are entirely within my grasp, and sure, the boat gets rocked, but ultimately I’m the one steering it.

I’m not a Hot Girl Summer Expert, for that you will have to talk to Lizzo, any of the badass WOC in Congress or maybe like, the ghost of Frida Kahlo. But here are my definitely not guaranteed tips for a successful Hot Girl Summer. In the immortal words of Megan Thee Stallion: “Don’t get mad hoe, get a bag hoe!”

1. Guard your energy fiercely. And when I say fiercely, I mean like a dog with its most treasured bone. Give yourself only to people who have proven worth it. No exceptions.
2. Get yourself some Hot Girl Summer fits. This doesn’t need to be anything super revealing, glitzy, or expensive. Just something that gives you that special ~frisson~ of delight every time you put it on.
3. Divest from romance, at least until the fall. This doesn’t mean you have to spend the summer with a fling. Give your love to yourself, give it your friends, give it to your passion projects.
4. Glitter. Sorry, I didn’t write the gospel, I’m just spreading it.
5. Remember that movie version of yourself I mentioned earlier? The cooler, more put together, more spontaneous version of yourself that doesn’t worry about her bikini line when she’s invited on a last minute trip to the beach? Say yes to the kinds of things she’d say yes to.

 

Go forth my friends, and Hot Girl Summer.