15 TV Shows to Watch During Brat Girl Summer (and Where to Stream Them)
Get in brats, it’s Brat Girl Summer!
When Charli XCX released her newest album, Brat, in June, she started a movement. Brat’s electric green cover has been reposted across the Internet, its lyrics have been celebrated and lovingly memed, and its songs have been played on repeat at coffee shops and night clubs. And just like that, we’ve entered a new cultural era: Brat Girl Summer.
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To embrace Brat Girl Summer is to be a Brat Girl, and to be a Brat Girl is to be messy — emotionally and aesthetically. We’re talking smudged eyeliner, unbrushed hair still tangled in last night’s space buns, remnants of another day’s glitter creased in the crevices of your body, and untucked shirts with holes in only the chicest of places — on the shoulder, but never in the pit. It’s a blurry photo dump on Instagram. A half-smoked cigarette left out on the stoop. A beloved Weird Barbie in a sea of stereotypical ones.
Point of clarification: To be a Brat Girl is not to be sloppy or chaotic. It’s about embodying the sort of disheveled energy that can only emerge from the conscious rejection of curated perfection. Brat Girl Summer is about tromping through life with your besties and not caring what people think — which just so happens to exude cool-girl chic. Brat Girl Summer is simply the rebellious byproduct of living against mainstream trends and expectations thrust upon young women by the Kim Kardashians, Hailey Biebers and Nara Smiths of the world.
Still confused? Just read the lyrics of the album’s first track, “360.” You’ll see iconic lines like, “That city sewer slut’s the vibe,” “I don’t f—king care what you think,” “666 with a princess streak” and “That’s so Julia” — seemingly referencing pop culture icon Julia Fox, aka that girl. If you’re still lost, you’ll definitely need to stream the album to learn through osmosis — it’s your only hope!
Now that we’ve come to an understanding — Brat Girl to Brat Girl — we’ve rounded up a list of TV shows with Brat Girls at their core, from Euphoria to The Golden Girls. Because what’s Brat Girl Summer without the best Brat Girl TV? To help you get started with your Brat Girl binge, scroll through our list of 15 TV shows about the brattiest Brat Girls who ever lived! Then, let us know in the comments: Which TV shows do you think belong in the Brat Girl canon?
Stream ‘Brat’ on Apple Music
$10.99/month
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS
Brush up on your history, ladies, and pay homage to the original Brat Girls. Edina and Patsy blazed a trail for shameless messes everywhere in the ’90s UK comedy hit, swimming in cigarettes and alcohol and chasing trends in a relentless effort to stay young. Sure, they fell down drunk (a lot)… but they looked fantastic doing it. — Dave Nemetz
Watch ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ on Peacock
$5.99/month
BROAD CITY
Is there a TV duo more Julia than Broad City’s Abbi and Ilana? We think not! The pair of besties is always getting into fun, mildly debaucherous trouble — all while ignoring what’s expected of them as two young women living in New York City. Every day is a party when these two are together. Plus, Ilana always lets her freakiest parts shine — notably donning a dominatrix leather catsuit to pitch her phone wigs start-up to a former flame. Need I say more? Brat central! — Claire Franken
Watch ‘Broad City’ on Hulu
$7.99/month
DERRY GIRLS
A series about a group of teenage girls attending an Irish-Catholic girls’ school is practically always going to be a Brat Girl TV show — there’s so much opportunity for rebellion! In an early Season 1 episode, the group of girls is publicly called out for pranking the church after they tried to convince a priest they had witnessed a miracle — all to get out of taking a test. Very “666 with a princess streak,” if you ask me. — C.F.
Watch ‘Derry Girls’ on Netflix
$6.99+/month
DICKINSON
Emily Dickinson was American literature’s first brat girl, in a way, and Hailee Steinfeld brought her to vivid life in Apple TV+’s sorely underrated dramedy, with Emily defying expectations from her family and society and pursuing her poetic muse. (She also pursued her brother’s wife Sue, but that’s another story.) Emily would rather pen a densely allegorical poem about death than brush her hair and get dressed up for male approval — and we love her for it. — D.N.
Watch ‘Dickinson’ on Apple TV+
$9.99/month
EUPHORIA
If you’ve ever just seen a screenshot from Euphoria, you know it’s aesthetically Brat Girl — colorful eyeliner and body glitter do most of the work here. But its display of complicated female friendships, led by Alexa Demie and Sydney Sweeney, also screams Brat. (Cassie and Maddy should really take note from Lorde and Charli, and work it out on the remix.) — C.F.
Watch ‘Euphoria’ on Max
$9.99/month
FLEABAG
With her sarcastic wit and glaring personality flaws, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s title character is almost like the patron saint of Brat Girls, bouncing from man to man and from bad decision to bad decision on Prime Video’s pitch-black comedy. She looked cool-girl chic through all of it, though. In Season 2, she even tried to seduce a priest into leaving the church for her. She took on God, people! How much more of a Brat can you be? — D.N.
Watch ‘Fleabag’ on Prime Video
$14.99/month
GIRLS
From Marnie hijacking a party to sing a Kanye West solo, to Hannah breaking up with Fran at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, the Girls girls are nothing if not Brats! And, if filmed today, we can say with 100% certainty that Hannah’s iconic bedroom dance scene to Robyn’s “Dancing on my Own” would be set to the tune of Charli XCX’s “Talk, Talk.” — C.F.
Watch ‘Girls’ on Max
$9.99/month
GIRLS5EVA
The music industry is infamously unkind to older women, but the ladies of Girls5eva defy all that in Netflix’s hilarious comedy, reuniting their Y2K-era girl group again in their 40s. They’re all pretty bratty (and messy), but Renée Elise Goldsberry’s Wickie has to be the Brat Girl queen, making outrageous diva demands while having no real star power to back them up. Ah… we can all aspire to such unearned confidence. — D.N.
Watch ‘Girls5eva’ on Netflix
$6.99+/month
THE GOLDEN GIRLS
Before Brat Girls, there was a different version of the rebel: Golden Girls. To pay homage to all the Brat Girl variations that came before us, we couldn’t help but include this iconic sitcom. Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia are some of TV’s earliest Brat Girls on record. With Charli XCX being just born at the time of the series finale, we simply didn’t yet have the language to properly catalog them as Brats — until now! — C.F.
Watch ‘The Golden Girls’ on Hulu
$7.99/month
HEARTBREAK HIGH
Heartbreak High is so aesthetically Brat Girl it hurts! Charli XCX’s entire album is practically a musical manifestation of the Australian drama’s Season 1 major character: the map of sexual exploits. Plus, if you watch Episode 1 on mute while playing “Von Dutch” over and over, it somehow still makes complete sense! (Learn more about why we love Heartbreak High.) — C.F.
Watch ‘Heartbreak High’ on Netflix
$6.99+/month
INSECURE
Insecure is the age-old tale of a group of lovable Brat Girls on the verge of growing up. And if you told me Charli XCX co-write Issa’s iconic “Broken P—y” rap, I would have no choice but to nominate the number for next year’s Las Culturistas Culture Awards! From Issa’s mirror-raps to her friendship struggles, the show embodies the perfect Brat Girl blend of chic mess and shameless attitude. — C.F.
Watch ‘Insecure’ on Max
$9.99/month
LAND OF WOMEN
While on the surface, Land of Women may appear too traditionally chic to be considered for this roundup, if you dive into the series, you’ll find that it’s comprised of three generations of Brats. We’ve got Julia (played by Carmen Maura), the unruly matriarch who plays by her own rules; Gala (Eva Longoria), her stubborn and hard-headed daughter who forges ahead with whatever she wants to do — even when it doesn’t make sense; and Victoria (Victoria Bazúa), the coolest character of the bunch who would definitely be a Brat listener. Plus, Julia seems to have possibly seduced a priest in her past? Does it get more Brat than that? No, it doesn’t — and we make the rules! — C.F.
Watch ‘Land of Women’ on Apple TV+
$9.99/month
THE POWERPUFF GIRLS
TV sure loves a Brat Girl trio, and Powerpuff Girls is no exception — but Buttercup is practically Charli XCX’s twin flame. It’s so uncanny, we wonder: Could Brat’s origins trace back to the humble superhero cartoon? The world may never know! But if the singer goes on tour, we hope to see her backup dancers dressed up as these little Julias. — C.F.
Watch ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ on Max
$9.99/month
TUCA & BERTIE
Tuca, the lovable toucan voiced by Tiffany Haddish, has been rocking Brat Girl vibes way before it was a blip in Charli XCX’s brain. While she may bumble and fumble her way through life without many plans, Tuca’s happier that way, not giving a care in the world to societal norms or pressures that may arise. She’s outgoing, loud and proud, and even though she’s just a cartoon, we stan. — Nick Caruso
Watch ‘Tuca & Bertie’ on Max
$9.99/month
YOU’RE THE WORST
There’s no one more unapologetic than besties Gretchen and Lindsay, which makes this FX dramedy perfect for your brat girl summer. Attending just a single one of these ladies’ Sunday Fundays is enough to convince anyone to fully convert to the lifestyle and toss all of your f–ks aside. At just 62 short episodes long, you could binge the entire thing on a rainy weekend and still make it to Sunday brunch on time. (Or, you know, fashionably late. You do you.) — N.C.
Watch ‘You’re the Worst’ on Hulu
$7.99/month
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