What Does Hot Girl Summer Mean?
Here's Why You've Been Seeing #HotGirlSummer All Over Your Insta Feed
Although us Aussies are deep in the throes of winter, there has been absolutely no escaping #HotGirlSummer over the last couple of months. It's no exaggeration to say our feeds have been inundated with tropical vacay and pool-side snaps accompanied by the hashtag, which now has close to 350,000 posts on Instagram alone. It feels like mentions of Hot Girl Summer have reached fever pitch over the last few days, with the release of Megan Thee Stallion's and Nick Minaj's track called, you guessed it, 'Hot Girl Summer'.
But, what exactly is a Hot Girl Summer, and how did the phrase become so damn popular? Well, we figured it was about time we did a thorough investigation, and deep-dived into the vortex that is the internet to find out.
Turns out, #HotGirlSummer originated with Megan Thee Stallion. Back in May, the American rapper released her first album, 'Fever'. The album's cover art displays the line "she's thee hot girl and she's bringing thee heat." On top of that, her song 'Cash Shit' opens with the line 'real hot girl shit.' Now, if our calculations are correct, it seems from there Megan's fans decided to take the label 'hot girl' and run with it, thus birthing 'Hot Girl Summer.' Initially, it was Megan's dedicated fans who were utilising the hashtag to show off their Hot Girl Summers, but quickly the tag gained traction and eventually became a full-blown phenomenon.
More than just a meme (and now also a song), #HotGirlSummer is a movement in its own. As Megan Thee stallion herself explained it in an interview with The Root back in June, "it's just basically about women — and men — just being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time, hyping up your friends, doing you, not giving a damn about what nobody got to say about it. You definitely have to be a person that can be the life of the party, and, y'know, just a bad bitch."
Megan further elaborated in a tweet last month, adding that "being confident" and "living your truth" are also what make for a Hot Girl Summer. Basically, it seems #HotGirlSummer is really all about just living your own best life, whether that includes beaches and bikini selfies or not.
Although there's no guarantee the hashtag will still be popular by the time Summer rolls around for us, we know we can at least continue to live vicariously through the celebs who are sharing their Summers via the hashtag. Miley Cyrus, in particular, seems to be making the most of her #HotGirlSummer, despite what would no doubt be a difficult time for her in the wake of her recent split with Liam Hemsworth (which we're still more than a little heartbroken about, by the way).
Scroll down for some of our favourite #HotGirlSummer snaps so far.
