The History of Hot Girl Summer
by Raegan Cleary
As seen in our fifth print issue "Summer Heat", available now!
While the concept of “hot girl summer” can go back decades-- I mean who doesn’t feel amazing when the sun is shining. It was only in 2019 that Megan Thee Stallion coined the term and defined that feeling most people get in the summer. In May of that year, Megan released her mixtape Fever where the cover art had the phrase “She’s thee hot girl and she’s bringing thee heat,” and called herself “thee hot girl” on the song “Cash Shit,” thus inventing hot girl summer.
She later went on to define Hot Girl Summer on Twitter, as “Being a Hot Girl is about being unapologetically YOU, having fun, being confident, living YOUR truth, being the life of the party, etc.”
Despite the name, Megan clarified that hot girl summer is for everyone and shouldn’t be defined by gender.
“[Hot girl summer] is basically just about women — and men — just being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time,” She said in an interview with The Root.
What’s great about Hot Girl Summer is that it’s all about doing what makes YOU feel hot. This is why the concept became viral with almost two million hashtag posts on Instagram alone. Even celebrities were getting in on the trend. Anything can be a hot girl summer. Naturally, the term was also met with some backlash, insisting that it was just an excuse to “be hoes” to paraphrase the naysayers. However, that is far from the truth. Sure for some people, hot girl summer could mean a summer fling, but for others, it means wearing a cute outfit and taking bomb pics. Most importantly, hot girl summer is about looking and feeling good for yourself and not for the approval of others, especially men.
“...just being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time...”
Finally, to remind everyone that summer 2019 was the official start of hot girl summer, Megan released a single of the same name featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign. In true hot girl summer fashion, this song became Megan’s first number-one single, solidifying herself as a household name and Patron Saint of Hot Girl Summer.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 Pandemic got in the way of hot girl summer 2020. Don’t get me wrong, staying home and saving lives is hot, but you also couldn’t deny the vibes were off. Not being able to share hot girl summer with our friends and family was a bummer. We did the most, we could given the circumstances but with all the uncertainty in the air, hot girl summer 2020 felt like a small blip on the radar. Then on Dec. 11, 2020, a glimmer of hope came to us in the form of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine got approved for emergency use authorization in individuals 16 and over and saved hot girl summer for the 2021 season. As summer got closer anticipation for hot girl summer grew. With nearly half of the US fully vaccinated, things are beginning to open up, and it appears that hot girl summer can resume in a modified fashion. Instead of drinking White Claw on our porches, we can go finally back to Aperol spritzes on rooftop bars. Not to mention our Lorde and Savior resurrected to give us “Solar Power,” aka the new beach pics anthem.
Things aren’t back to normal yet and it's very likely that they won’t ever be, but the concept of hot girl summer, along with its viral community on social media, has given a sense of hope when we need it the most. If living through a global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that life is too short to feel anything but hot.
Want to keep up with RUiN? Check out our Instagram, @ruin.mag for the latest.