'Brat summer' is in full swing for Kamala Harris and others. What does it mean?

If you find yourself with a cigarette, makeup smudged but still effortlessly chic, dancing away the sting of the day’s mistakes and unstable relationships, you may be having a brat summer. The phrase originated in popstar Charli XCX’s most recent album ‘Brat' and is a Gen Z badge of honor.

What does ‘having a brat summer’ mean?

USA TODAY called ‘Brat’ an “embrace of a hot-mess pop star aesthetic, prioritizing club culture at its core but still offering introspective lyrics on aging, womanhood, grief and anxiety.” The album consists of 18 intoxicating hyperpop songs, many of which have gone viral on social media.

‘Brat’ was released on June 7 and has spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s “Top Dance/Electronic Albums” list. A ‘brat summer’ is based on the aesthetic and psychological qualities of the album.

"It's very honest, it's very blunt, it's a little bit volatile … It's brat, you're brat, that's brat,' Charli herself said in a TikTok interview.

Need to dance?: 65+ free live summer concerts around Central Indiana in 2024

Similar in spirit to the ‘Hot Girl Summer’ of the past, a brat is the life of the party, but she’s messier and unapologetically herself.

The music video for one of the album’s songs, "360," perfectly captures the vibe of a brat summer. Charli, wearing a white, wide-strap tank top with no bra, dances over hospital patients and car accidents with her similarly dressed, cigarette-wielding gang of celebrities.

In “Von Dutch,” she wears a white top, a black leather jacket, and black, sheer tights as pants as she wreaks havoc in an airport and falls off the top of a plane. Despite the album’s violently lime-green, all-lowercase cover art, the outfits are low saturation and simple because, at the end of day, being a brat isn’t about how you’re dressed, it’s about who you are.

Who is Charli XCX?

Charli XCX is an English singer-songwriter. She entered the pop scene featured in songs like Icona Pop’s "I Love It," 2012 hit that is quite brat, and Iggy Azalea’s 2014 ‘Fancy.’ Charli was a major contributor to last summer’s Barbie obsession with her song "Speed Drive."

‘Kamala IS brat’ explained

In a Jul 21 tweet, Charli herself declared that Vice President Kamala Harris ‘IS brat.’

After President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, the formerly Biden-Harris HQ on X rebranded itself as ‘Kamala HQ,’ in the style of Brat’s cover art, lime green with all-lowercase letters.

This unusual campaign decision has been combined with Harris' viral coconut tree quote to create viral, lime-green video edits set to music from the album.

Brat Hoosier summer: VP Kamala Harris visits Indianapolis––second stop as presidential candidate

Alex Haddon is a Pulliam Fellow. You can email her at [email protected].

Nashville Tennessean reporter Diana Leyva contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Brat summer: Is Kamala Harris brat? What the Charli XCX trend means