It's brat summer.
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Or so says Charli XCX, the artist behind brat, a popular album taking social media by storm.
"Kamala IS brat," Charli posted on X, following US President Joe Biden's decision to step down.
In response to this endorsement, Kamala Harris' page quickly rebranded to lime green, the recognisable colour of Charli's album. Green T-shirts with "Kamala" (instead of "brat") started to pop up everywhere. On TikTok, mash-ups and edits of Vice-President Harris, set to songs from the Brat album, are reaching tens of millions of views.
Why does all this matter?
Because it might just mobilise my generation, Gen Z, to elect Kamala Harris to the most powerful office in the free world.
Let's start by defining brat. On her TikTok, Charli likened the term to "that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes" - in other words, an archetype which fits young people having fun. The brat essentials, Charlie told the BBC, are "a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra".
With the internet-at-large having embraced a brat summer (Southern Hemisphere winter, alas), Kamala Harris' alignment with this movement is fast becoming hugely beneficial to her campaign for president. The fact social media users are beginning to know Harris through the lens of "brat" means the Vice-President stands out from the typically older field of US politicians; she seems young. And, more importantly, she seems in touch with young people.
![Charli XCX was happy to endorse Kamala Harris as 'brat'. Picture Shutterstock Charli XCX was happy to endorse Kamala Harris as 'brat'. Picture Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/RXMuw2JbrrS7ELSxSY9rkR/b54ed61f-3cba-49a0-88c8-7baa215a6517.jpg/r0_187_6000_3574_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
For Gen Z in the US, tired of being represented by the elderly - Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and so on - this is an engaging shift. As Harris' campaign breaks fundraising records, reporting tens of millions in small-dollar donations, the refreshing change is clearly proving attractive.
It seems the Vice-President, then, is deserving of the moniker bestowed upon her by TikTok: Mom-ala.
Harris's social media engagement goes beyond just having accounts and posting to them. Her embrace of the "brat" movement indicates an understanding of how young people act online, what we respond to, and what we find funny, moving, or cool. The last US politician to capitalise on this was Obama, whose 2008 utilisation of a then-nascent internet helped win him the White House.
It doesn't end with "brat," however. Harris, sometimes prone to philosophical rambling, went viral last year for slightly incoherently saying" "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."
Before long, the internet had taken the phrase and ran with it, users reminding one another they "exist in the context", asking one another if they just "fell out of a coconut tree".
Talking heads, especially on conservative news channels, painted Harris' comment (and others like it) as indicative of insubstantiality or vapidity. But popular culture - fuelled by young people on social media - embraced the gaffe, at first mockingly and then subsequently with a view to painting the verbiage as "iconic". On Harris' TikTok account, the bio reads "providing context", referring to the now-famous comment.
By leaning into this, Harris has turned a weakness into a strength. By being unafraid of engaging with Gen Z in the way Gen Z likes - something other politicians don't understand, or feel undignified doing - the Vice-President has appealed to a vast number of young voters. Trump, in comparison, looks every bit the 78-year-old he is.
Time will tell if Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic nominee, or if she will make it to the Oval Office. But, with Gen Z on social media liking, sharing and remixing the first "brat" politician, the Vice-President is in with a chance.
As one netizen said, "Project Coconut is a go."
- Daniel Cash is a law student at the ANU.