How and why 'very demure, very mindful' became a social media trend

For more than a week, TikTok has been abuzz with a “very demure, very mindful” trend. The new social media trend also reached Instagram last week, when some Indian celebrities also started sharing their pictures with “very demure, very mindful” captions.

A TikTok video was shared by content creator Jools Lebron, who also describes her as a “fierce diva”, in early August which soon went viral on the app. In the video Lebron satirically explained how she does her makeup and styles her hair in a particular way for work, to make her look “very demure, very mindful.”

“You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful,” Lebron said in the video. “I don’t come to work with a green-cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work. You see how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job.”

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She continued,“A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure. I’m very modest. I’m very mindful. You see my shirt? Only a little chee chee out, not my cho cho. Be mindful of why they hired you.”

Jools LeBron, the creator who popularized “demure,” shares she’s unable to launch merch because her viral phrase was already trademarked:

“I wanted this to do so much for my family and provide for my transition and I just feel like I dropped the ball.” pic.twitter.com/FxTVHfb6Lo — Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 24, 2024

“Here’s your reality check, diva,” she added. “What’s the name you’d like me to make it out to?”

How and why “very demure, very mindful” became a TikTok trend

For a week, Lebron has advised her 1.2 million followers on how to stay demure in various stressful situations, such as travelling with family (show up to the airport “very early, very on time, very considerate, very demure”) or picking up an ID left at the bar (don’t stay and drink, rather take your ID and leave – “very cutesy, very demure”). One can be demure at the Las Vegas strip, Lebron says, by “showing a little chee chee, not too much”.

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The word “demure” soon exploded into a trend with people interpreting the meaning of the word as per their understanding. As per dictionary definition, the word demure means “shy, quiet, polite”, but netizens started posting pictures and videos with their version of being “demure”.

The trend appears to poke fun at influencer trends like the “clean girl” aesthetic, which focuses on minimalism and self-imposed classiness. The #cleangirl hashtag has even been used in more than 467,000 videos across the platform.

(With inputs from agencies)