how to get the dirty girl aesthetic
a comprehensive guide
discussed:
clean girl is out, dirty girl is in
scrapbooking on Instagram
bead bitch spring
Hey grrrrls <3 I’m so happy to be back in our Internet Bedroom, which is starting to feel more and more like a little secret clubhouse every time I post.
Something about spring always puts me in the mood for two things: making weird little crafts (more on this later) and going to the mall. Fortunately, where I live is about twenty minutes from the weirdest mall I’ve ever been to, and if I’m being totally honest, I’m kind of gatekeeping it because I don’t want it to lose any of its magic.
This mall is like a time capsule of what the mall was like circa 1995-2005 mixed with the Dead Mall culture that is currently on the rise in the 2020s. If you go there on a regular weekday, there is almost no one there besides the store employees and the guy who runs the miniature train ride, who will run you over with said train while you’re admiring the giant cookie cakes. But if you go there on a holiday (like, say, Valentine’s Day) or a weekend, you are sure to run into everyone from the y2k girlies to actual mall goths to anime dorks (respectfully). And it makes sense because this mall also has everything from Hot Topic to an actual Suncoast Video and an arcade that is open until 2 am every night. Said arcade even has a DDR machine.
Needless to say, it is a magical experience, and I might just embrace my new life as a mall goth and disappear altogether.
remembering: The Dirty Girls
One of my absolute favorite artifacts of early YouTube is this documentary from 1996 about a group of teenage girls who allegedly didn’t shower. Maybe you’ve seen it.
If you haven’t, I recommend going over to YouTube.com right now and watching it if you want your heart turned inside out for 17 minutes. Not only is it a perfect snapshot of just how awful high school was for any girl living through the mid-90s and into the 2000s, but when my algorithm reminded me it was my time for my semi-annual rewatch of Dirty Girls, I was struck by how we’re never gonna escape the taxonomy of girlhood. Our favorite pastime seems to be affixing labels to different kinds of girls and then trapping them there like all they are is a style.
There’s this scene towards the end of the documentary where the kid behind the camera passes around the Dirty Girls’ zine to the other girls in school. And as those girls dramatically read passages and giggle and go “ew….EW,” performing for the camera, I found myself thinking, ok way to be a pick-me girl. But of course, the pick-me girl, the manic pixie dream girl, the VSCO girl, the clean girl — none of those types existed then. There were the Dirty Girls and then there was everyone else.
obsessing: InstaJournaling
Girls, we all need to start doodling over our pictures on Instagram. I’m tired of the photo dumps and acting like we don’t care what we put out about ourselves online. We have always cared.
I don’t usually spend much time on my Instagram Explore page (because I’m addicted to my TikTok FYP), but when Kai’s posts came across my feed, I immediately started filing them in my Saved folder. Kai is an artist based out of Tokyo who is probably best known for drawing pieces of toast (which are quite beautiful), but she also turns her selfies into whole journaling pages and her stories into scrapbooks.
And there’s something about doodling and writing all over a fairly regular, unfiltered selfie that feels much more personal and authentic in a social media-sphere where authenticity is rare but the desire to be authentic carries so much cultural capital. Whenever one of Kai’s posts floats across my feed, I feel like I’m getting to read part of her diary. And I love it.
I wouldn’t say this is a trend yet because I haven’t seen many girls doing this. But a girl I follow because she made her Apple Watch into a Tamagotchi recently did a lil InstaJournal and I want more!!!!
crafting: BEADS, BITCH
I have a question. And this does not come from a hateful place at all, but why are the girls buying bead necklaces online for hundreds of dollars?
I spent way too much time this winter coveting bead necklaces like this one from Coachtopia which is almost $200, or these from Ian Charms which are also around $200. When I finally discovered @sandw1tchshop (via my sweet reader, Whit), whose necklaces are much more reasonably priced, all the cute Korn necklaces were already sold out
But something about seeing these necklaces made me think that I could potentially just walk my butt over to a craft shop and start throwing some beads on a string, so that’s exactly what I did.
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But then making one bead necklace was really not enough for me so I started gluing beads onto my broken ass phone case:
And now I’m so deep in with the beads and cute charms that I’ve decided that to celebrate all my sweet, angelic, beautiful ~*~paid subscribers~*~, I’m gonna gift them lil Internet Bedroom beaded keychains (or bracelets, I haven’t decided yet) <3 So if you’ve been thinking of becoming a ~*~paid subscriber~*~ to this little newsletter, now might just be the time to do it!
And to everyone who chips in a few bucks every month or has a yearly subscription, from the bottom of my heart seriously thank you, thank you for supporting my writing. I can’t believe the little bedroom we’re creating has grown so much in just a few short months <3
Ok girlies, that’s all I have for you this week! Comment telling me your favorite Korn song or recommending what kind of bead necklace I should make next plz!!! Also, if you’re a paid subscriber and want to claim your official Internet Bedroom bead keychain (which I still need to make), DM me on Instagram or on here with your address!!!
xxx r.m.
next time:
-I know I said I was publishing an essay reflect on 30 years of psychopharmaceuticals but idk I’m not feeling brave enough to post it yet! Cuz it has so many deep dark things about my lore in it. Someone help me ok.
This newsletter is everything and something I look forward to every week. 💕