The desire for summer to arrive is something that a lot of people look forward to throughout the rest of the year. As soon as leaves start to turn orange and the air becomes more crisp we start to wish we could turn back time and relive the past few weeks of unwavering sunshine and sweating in the heat. Once winter hits, we use the promise of that same warmth as motivation to make it through the bitter cold.
Over the past few years, the idea of ‘hot girl summer’ has become a normalized part of mainstream culture surrounding the season. This is largely because of the song "Hot Girl Summer” by rapper and self-proclaimed "Hot Girl Coach," Megan Thee Stallion.
“Being a Hot Girl is about being unapologetically YOU, having fun, being confident, living YOUR truth, being the life of the party etc,” Megan Thee Stallion explained in a tweet.
Additionally, the word ‘girl’ is intended to be non-gendered.
“(Hot girl summer) is basically just about women – and men – just being unapologetically them,” Megan Thee Stallion said in an interview with The Root.
I would be lying if I hadn’t told myself I would be having a hot girl summer every year since the iconic song dropped in 2019. However, while I know there is no strict set of guidelines to follow, I think it’s still easy to feel like you still have to make sure you’re doing summer “right." The irony of it all is that the entire point of having a hot girl summer is to just do whatever will allow you to be your best self.
I genuinely think that a lot of people have been able to let go and just live because of this new idea that summer should be a time of freely living. I don’t think anyone should have to apologize for being their best self, but in my personal experience, it’s nice to be able to back up what you choose to do with your time with “It’s hot girl summer!” It acts as a stepping off point into figuring out who you are and what you want without the parameters put up by a society that profits off of making you feel less-than.
Still, in my experience I find myself comparing my summer to others’, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. But again, that is the exact opposite of what a hot girl summer is supposed to be. If my summer looks like taking long walks in the evening with my friends, excitedly greeting strangers’ outdoor cats and reveling in not having a strict schedule, there is no reason that should be seen as a lesser summer to someone going on long beach vacations with their families, spending every day by their backyard pool and going out in the middle of the week.
All of this is to say that it certainly takes some internal work with your conscience, but there will be a moment when you’ll catch yourself happily carefree and want to strive to maintain that as much as possible. Taking care of yourself is so underappreciated and that is what a true hot girl summer is all about.
Tate Raub is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Tate know by tweeting her @tatertot1310.
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