Alt girl

Alt girl (or 2020 Alt) is a term that emerged from Alt TikTok^[1] around 2020 which referred to a short-lived style, subculture and internet aesthetic adopted by Gen Z women during the COVID-19 lockdowns.^[2][3] While the phrase might imply a general association with "alternative girls," it is more accurately understood as a specific internet-driven outgrowth of online aesthetic youth subcultures like e-girls and e-boys, blending influences and styles from goth, punk, emo, and grunge, often expressed through fashion, music taste, and online presence.^[4][5][6] In 2023, the hashtag #altfashion on TikTok amassed over 1.8 billion views.^[7][8]

The alt-subculture emerged in the early 2020s, amongst young Gen Z women, influenced by fashion penned by e-girls and e-boys, the movement was accelerated by the COVID-19 lockdowns and further proliferated by the emergence of TikTok.^[9][3][10]

The style of alt-girls is reminiscent of a myriad of previous alternative fashion trends, often blending these influences with online aesthetics.^[11][2] In 2020, TikTok alt-girls were teens ranged from 13-16, who tend to wore friendship bracelets, goth boots and Doc martens, bunny and frog hats, piercings, split-dyed hair as well as iconography lifted from Monster Energy and Hello Kitty.^[12][11] Some alt-girls displayed a love of cosplay.^[13][14]

By the mid-2020s, alt-girl style fell out of prominence, taken over by other Gen Z Internet aesthetics and developments like the Y2K fashion revival.^[15][16]

• Internet aesthetics
• Alternative fashion
• E-kid
• Generation Z
• List of subcultures
• Youth subculture