It’s brat girl summer, and if you don’t know that, “like bye,” said Alexandria Blott, 26.
The “brats” were summoned to a sold-out event at Sue Ellen’s on July 25 for a Charli XCX and Chappell Roan-themed dance party. There were over 200 partygoers — mostly Gen Z — dressed with Taylor Swift and Beyonce-level outfit commitment.
It was pink for Chappell, and green for Charli.
Beautiful girly shrieking erupted as strangers bonded. It was green messy hair and pink overalls. It was heavy blue eyeshadow, cowgirl boots and sunglasses indoors. And that green.
That chartreuse, Nickelodeon slime green is the color of Charli XCX’s newest album, Brat, which has taken over pop culture and even political discourse this summer. The green was everywhere at Sue Ellen’s — in bags, on shoes, on hand fans and T-shirts.
If 2023 was Barbie, the 2024 summer sequel is “brat.” Brat is the girl who’s a little messy and a little late to the party. But though a little musty and over-caffeinated, she is also honest and fearless. And with it all, the brat girl is unabashed, unexpectedly winning as the underdog, said UC Berkeley Associate Professor Abigail De Kosnik to CBS News.
Brat was big before Kamala Harris stepped into the presidential race, but after Charli XCX tweeted “kamala IS brat,” it exploded.
Shortly after Charli’s tweet, Harris’ social media adopted the Gen Z brat theme, endorsing brat along with the generation just as brat had endorsed her. According to a recent poll from Axios/Generation Lab, brat is invigorating the younger vote for Harris.
Is Kamala actually brat? “Not as much as I’d like her to be,” joked Mikayla Kerry, 25, at Sue Ellen’s. Her friend Lillian Brown, 21, chimed in: “I feel like if she was any more brat, people wouldn’t vote for her though.” But if you’re the first woman president? Very brat.
With Harris adopting chartreuse as a signature color on social media, brat has gone mainstream, which means longtime queer icons Charli and Chappell are mainstream.
DJ Ashleigh Casstevens, 26, who hosted the event with DJ Gabi Castillo, 28, played Charli’s 2014 “Break the Rules,” reminding us all that with lyrics like, “I don’t wanna go to school. I just wanna break the rules,” Charli was celebrating brat a decade ago.
Now though, brat is something people need, Kerry said. For “any woman that feels marginalized or under attack ... you have these big stars saying, ‘Be the woman that you are, and do anything the way that you want.’”
To celebrate brat girl summer, Brown, who dressed as a Chappell Roan “Red Wine Supernova” vampire, started a small gardening business. Kerry has stopped “saying no to any new experience” this season.
Brat, a somewhat elusive concept, is understandably a little hard to pin down. (Very on-brand.)
At Sue Ellen’s, manager Mindy May, 45, said, “I didn’t understand [what brat was] because I’m old.” But “the kids responded. Like, they want this, they love that lesbian hype, girly music.”
The party was held upstairs in a community center-style hub that May said anyone can use for free when it’s available. They’ve hosted queer proms and drag shows. People have had their wedding there. “We facilitate people making their dreams come true here,” said May. But they’ve never had anything like this kind of party, May said.
Usually, the clientele skews toward other generations. That Thursday night, though, it was pure Gen Z.
Blott said brat summer was “revolutionary” in bringing the queer community together. She didn’t recognize a lot of people at the bar, and Blott said it was exciting to see the representation and experience “the joy of [her] fellow community.”
The party was “a mix of my current life and nostalgia,” said M.J. Armstrong, 25, who went to high school with Casstevens. She wasn’t out in high school, but Armstrong said “now I’m gay. I’m living my life, and celebrating with Charli and Chappell.”
Brat as a theme, Casstevens said, strips raw feelings down in a way that’s relatable, even down to the branding of Charli XCX’s album: ”There’s nothing on the cover. Just the color and a word.”
“I think it’s powerful. The green is sticking out everywhere. If I see a truck, like, drive on the highway, and it’s that chartreuse, I’m like [wow]! It just keeps me going,” Casstevens said.
To her, the album promised to “take you where you need to go. And I think Charli XCX has taken me where I need to go.”
