I Hope Brat Summer Never Ends

Source: Clay Drinko

Let me catch you up.

Charli XCX is a British pop singer and songwriter with some pretty big songwriting hits under her belt like Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and Icona Pop’s “I Love It” (one of my favorites). She’s also written for Selena Gomez and Sean Mendes. But the summer of 2024 was her moment to break through as a full-fledged pop star with her trend-setting “Brat” album.

What’s Brat?

Brat, as Charli uses it, is an adjective. Someone can be brat. As she explains on TikTok:

You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like, parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.

In short, being brat is about being human. We’re all a little messy. We all say dumb things now and again. And many of us want to have a good time with our fleeting time on this spinning space rock.

Why is brat resonating?

I’ve been incessantly listening to the dancefloor-throwback brat album and thinking a lot about why it makes me so happy. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Nostalgia

The "Brat" album is a throwback to the early aughts. It sounds like the messy four-to-the-floor electropop I was jamming out to at clubs when I first moved to New York City. Those were carefree times, and I’m glad that ethos and style are making a comeback.

Thanks, Charli.

2. Slime lime green

Brat isn’t just about the music. The album cover is the word “brat,” all lowercase in a decayed Arial font over a slime lime green background. That’s it. It’s not fancy or overly polished. It seems like something I could have done in the computer lab in my dorm in the year 2000.

It’s also instantly recognizable. People have taken that slime lime and turned it into memes. It’s an easy thing to duplicate. Even presidential nominee Kamala Harris's campaign has jumped on the bandwagon and used the brat font and color to rebrand herself as flawed but joyful. This, of course, after Charli XCX herself declared that "kamala is brat" on the social media platform X.

I don’t know that much about branding, but the sheer simplicity of the font and color makes spreading the brat ethos fun and easy.

3. Self-compassion

The biggest reason I hope brat summer never ends is that it’s about accepting your flaws instead of trying to photoshop or filter them away. Charli describes her album as her, flaws and all, and that raw honesty and humanity is a refreshing shift away from overly perfected Instagram posts or magazine covers.

In the song “Rewind” she sings:

I'd go back in time to when I wasn't insecure

To when I didn't overanalyze my face shape

Nowadays, I only eat at the good restaurants

But, honestly, I'm always thinking 'bout my weight

I used to never feel embarrassed (Feel embarrassed)

When I call up the paparazzi

Everyone else does it constantly

I hate these doubts that keep running through my mind

Sometimes I really think it would be cool to rewind

Used to burn CDs full of songs I didn't know

Used to sit in my bedroom, putting polish on my toes

Recently, I've been thinking 'bout a way simpler time

Sometimes, I really think it would be cool to rewind

I used to never think about Billboard

But, now, I've started thinking again

Wondering 'bout whether I think I deserve commercial success

It's running through my mind

Sometimes, I really think it would be cool to rewind

She’s singing about some messiness that many of us can relate to like obsessing about our weight or how our face looks. She's also bringing up doubts unique to her like obsessing about writing songs that make it to the top of the charts and calling the paparazzi to boost her popularity. Those last two admissions feel refreshingly candid to me.

Brat isn’t an album about self-esteem. It’s a call for self-compassion. Kristin D. Neff of the University of Texas at Austin differentiates self-esteem and self-compassion in her paper “Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being.” She explains that there is a connection between self-esteem and overall well-being, but that chasing after self-esteem can be detrimental. Instead, pursuing self-compassion may be preferable. Self-compassion has less to do with the ego, which means we’re less likely to fall into defensiveness.

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If I’m trying to boost my self-esteem, I’m worried about who I am and what I’ve accomplished. When I concentrate on self-compassion, I think more about the shared experience of being human, the flaws and all that Charli told us about.

Charli XCX’s “Brat” album is also an exercise in positive cognitive restructuring. In their paper “Self-Compassion, Stress, and Coping,” Ashley Batts Allen and Mark R. Leary write:

Self-compassion may be a valuable coping resource when people experience negative life events. People who are self-compassionate are less likely to catastrophize negative situations, experience anxiety following a stressor, and avoid challenging tasks for fear of failure. Research suggests that self-compassion can play an important role in the coping process.

The coping strategy that self-compassionate people tend toward is called positive cognitive restructuring, which involves reframing negative attributes in a more positive light. Reframing isn’t about avoidance. It’s about owning up to your flaws and positioning them more realistically. For example, “I’m obsessed about my looks and really concerned with my career success, but so are many others. I’m human. It’s a process, a journey.”

Self-compassion isn’t about burying our heads in the sand. It’s about getting out on the dance floor and accepting that on our quest to have a good time, we will make some mistakes. But we’re in good company. It’s a packed dance floor. full of messy people like me.

And I hope this party never ends.