By: Zsófia Benyi

From the 2020s That Girl, juicing, meditating, moving and hustling, the last year opened up a new aesthetic across all social media powered by brands that set the vibe for our new aspirations. Call her Pink Pilates Princess, Clean Girl, Soft Girl, or Selfcare Lover- she pretends she is on Vogue Beauty Secrets with glazed skin, wears pastel workout clothes when is moving her body out of love, she brushes her brows up, dresses like a 90s model off-duty and lets the sunshine in her minimalistic big city interiors.

Swimwear supplier of the stars, Francesca Aiello, since seventeen, as a Malibu beach baby, wanted to spread coconut aesthetics and body positivity in smoothie bowl-like pastel colors in the shape of bikinis- Frankies Bikinis is not only rocked by likes of Hailey Bieber, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and Bella Hadid but is giving California Surfer that people across the globe try to replicate- in a bikini or no bikini. Gigi Hadid’s farming roots met the founder’s sea child spirit in a collaboration that allowed them to take home an award for the Collaboration of the Year. That sweet summertime cottage-core collab made it to most mood boards last season.

Does Glazed Donut ring a bell? Yes, Rhode Founder Hailey Bieber has been dictating beauty looks with her glossy looks appearing as the ‘Clean Girl’ makeup all over socials. Do your lips crave a tropical vacation? It is time to get passionate about Rhode’s new passionfruit peptide lip treatment. Next time you do your makeup that feels like therapy, you will see the beauty brand’s essence: it’s hidden in the creamy foundation you mix with your moisturizer and our recent love affair to the power couple of a lipliner and juicy lip treatments.

Did you ever tune into a Goop Podcast episode with Gwyneth Paltrow? The new It-Girls are obsessed with learning about skin, health, wellness and rituals. Goop grew from newsletter to magazine to now having a kitchen: making us all live the Goop lifestyle. Google the Goop lifestyle to get the complete picture, but I’ll give you a hint: Goop girls like to work out. Wonder what is everyone wearing to work out? Kate Moss, Rosalía, the 90s and 2000s supermodels all have said it: Skims, by Kim Kardashian. Her brand goes beyond the comfort of your home, the layers of an outfit or the gym- people have been obsessed with Skim’s aesthetic picture editing based on campaigns exploding every other month.

Brands have shaped culture and society for as long as we can remember through a simple magic word: branding. Yes, branding made Pepsi, Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Calvin Klein, and many others define eras. Yet before we knew it, we entered the epoch of way more players on the field. Now, everyone is branding themselves through social media, the mood board you put up on your walls at home, and the character we tried to portray in high school, which makes me feel like we all need a little reminder: Humans are not brands. Some might disagree and say that celebrities and influencers are, but perhaps should not be: let’s let go of the additional pressure to fit one aesthetic, stepping out of aesthetic boxes that stem our growth. Brands need a core identity to succeed, but we, as humans, are forever changing and evolving: You are not a brand- you are a human, and the more dimension you show the world, the more fascinating you will become.