Giving myself an e-girl makeover
Due to stay-at-home orders predicated by COVID-19, the phenomenon of the “quarantine cut” has emerged.
Whether bored, bold, or in need of a touch up, people across social media have taken a DIY approach to hair grooming these past few weeks.
Ahead of this curve, a group of internet vixens committed to a lifestyle of dynamic hair-coloring and anime-inspired makeup.
Meet the e-girl.
Note: E-boys are also a thing, but, for the purposes of this blog, I chose to take a deep dive into the one that aligns with my gender identity!
E-girls rose to prominence at the end of 2019, with “e-girl style” garnering one of the top results on Google’s Year in Search.
The ‘e’ stands for electronic, and her story begins online, whether Instagram, Twitter, or Twitch. She’s part of an alternative, youth subculture of women who love gaming, TikTok, and over-the-top photo editing.
Though attracting more widespread popularity, our e-girl stands in contrast to the mainstream popularity of the VSCO girl, similar to the punks in the 1980s, goths in the 1990s, scene kids in the 2000s, and hipsters of the 2010s.
But both VSCO and e-girls represent the future of youth culture: technology. They are tired of hearing Boomers say “would you put away that phone” and “it’s because you’ve been staring at that screen all day.”
They’ve fully embraced the digital world, and they use it to their advantage.
According to a Vox article, this online presence differentiates e-girls from their subcultural fore-bearers. Whereas it was easy to spot a hipster in their natural habitat (at a coffeeshop sipping fermented tea), it’s uncommon to see an e-girl sporting cheek stickers out in the wild.
I sat in my room trying to pull this look together in the middle of the night, in true e-girl fashion, and documented the process in the most fitting way possible:
@lilygavazov i started embracing e-girl culture ironically, and now i can’t stop ##keepingbusy ##egirl ##makeover ##DIY ##haircolor ##transformation ##editing
♬ Buttercup – Jack Stauber
And here’s the final product:
I think it turned out pretty well, and whether or not the gesture was ironic, speaks entirely to what e-girls represent.
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