You can most likely recognize them in the hallways with multiple scrunchies stacked up on their arms, a Hydro Flask in hand, most likely wearing either Vans, Birkenstocks, or Crocs, a crop top from Brandy Melville or an oversized tee, handmade friendship bracelets, a puka shell necklace, this girl probably has a Fjällräven Kånken backpack with a reusable metal straw inside a case hanging from their lanyard, maybe even a disposable camera or Polaroid camera.

Another way to recognize them is that you’ll catch these girls saying catch phrases made popular by Tiktok such as “And I Oop,” “Save the Turtles,” even saying out loud the infamous keyboard smash “sksksks.” These girls are called VSCO Girls.

To begin, VSCO Girls got their name because their whole aesthetic is inspired from the VSCO photo-editing app which allows users to create and apply filters on their photos with the intention of later being uploaded on social media. However, just recently they started to blow up in popularity on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, or Snapchat. As one user on Urban Dictionary defined it, “VSCO Girls are the Tumblr Girls of 2019.”

We believe assumptions made about VSCO Girls create stereotypes – because they’re seen as the ‘basic’ common girl when we asked a group of girls who, by appearance, fit into the VSCO Girl stereotype, they would refuse to say that they are a VSCO Girl.

With girls jumping into the VSCO Girl trend inspired by popular Youtubers such as Emma Chamberlain and Hannah Meloche, it sparks up the debate of why people follow the crowd just because of new trends, does social media really influence us to thoughtlessly follow the crowd for the better or for worse?

The effect of people simply following a crowd is called the bandwagon effect, and according to an article by Psychology Today, the bandwagon effect is defined as “a psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override.”

For example, if you have a group of friends who begin acting a certain way, chances are that you’ll conform to your group of friends to prevent being the odd one out.

For starters, looking like a VSCO girl is not cheap, and not every girl can afford the trendy, new look. With the look alone you’ll be spending $16-32 with the Brandy Melville tops, $45 or more with the Hydro Flask, Vans averaging a total of $50-60 per pair, Birkenstocks averaging more than $100 per pair, meanwhile Fjällräven KånkenBackpacks averaging $80 per backpack. The VSCO girl looks averages around $300 alone which brings up the question of is hopping on every trend truly worth it?

For a lot of girls, the answer to that question is yes. Young teenage girls tend to do anything to conform to the crowd they co-exist in, no matter the cost of it.

We think that it is human nature to follow popular trends, after all, humans are by nature, social creatures. If you want to be a VSCO Girl, then don’t let anyone stop you being a VSCO Girl.