brat summer

Brat summer was the summer of 2024 lived in the spirit of Charli XCX’s album Brat: messy, confident, a little chaotic and unapologetically fun. Being “brat” means having that attitude.

What “brat” means here

It isn’t the old insult for a spoiled child. Collins Dictionary, which made it its Word of the Year for 2024, defines brat as characterized by a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude. Charli XCX described a brat in a TikTok as someone a little messy who likes to party, and who can be honest, blunt and a bit volatile.

A brat summer, then, means going out, making questionable decisions with your friends, wearing what you want and not apologizing for any of it. The album’s lime-green cover became visual shorthand for the whole mood.

Examples

• “Sunglasses at night, a strappy top and zero plans. Very brat.”
• “It’s giving brat summer and I’m here for it.”
• “She texted her ex and then went out dancing. That’s so brat.”

Where it came from

Charli XCX released Brat on June 7, 2024, and the phrase took over social media within weeks. Its biggest crossover moment came on July 21, 2024, the day President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign: Charli posted “kamala IS brat,” and Kamala Harris’s campaign quickly redesigned its social media banner in the album’s style. Charli later said the post wasn’t a formal endorsement.

By September, she declared brat summer officially over. That November, Collins named “brat” its Word of the Year, and Dictionary.com put it on its own 2024 shortlist.

Related terms

• Indie sleaze: the messy late-2000s party style some critics saw echoed in brat.
• It’s giving: it has the vibe of.
• Main character: living like the star of your own story.
• Goblin mode: unapologetically lazy and messy.

See more terms like this in our TikTok slang guide.