This summer has been, in a word, brat.

What exactly is a brat summer? It’s tricky to define: it certainly has to do with capturing the energy of Charli xcx’s smash hit album BRAT, which preaches a “365 party girl” lifestyle, with detours to Italian vacations and Billie Eilish’s underwear drawer. Brat summer, then, has been all about going hard in the club, doing a little key, having a little line, etc.

But there’s another side to BRAT that Charli’s fans are just tapping into: a darker, more serious side. You can hear it on songs like “Sympathy is a knife,” where Charli asks into the void, “Why I wanna buy a gun? Why I wanna shoot myself?” She also gets real in the song “I think about it all the time,” where she muses about motherhood, wondering if she should stop her birth control and consider having children.

That’s why an X user named Ella made a clarification to what they mean when they say brat summer: “Yes i’m still having a brat summer,” they wrote in a viral post. “Ive just moved on to the part of the album where she’s suicidal and wants to have a baby.”

That’s when Charli herself chimed in to endorse Ella’s brattiness, with one major edit: “That’s called brat autumn,” she wrote on X.

Related
Barack Obama’s summer playlist has the gays scratching their heads
Chappell Roan takes to TikTok to slam the behavior of some fans

Charli fans across the internet were immediately on board, wondering if this year, the autumn leaves will turn brat green instead of orange. (Yes, leaves are already green. That’s beside the point.)

Others thought Charli’s post could mean more BRAT remixes are coming in the fall. After releasing collabs with Lorde and Billie Eilish, fans are pulling for more pop icons to enter the BRAT canon, with Ariana Grande, Chappell Roan, and Caroline Polachek among the most requested artists to get features.

Ella, the user whose post inspired Charli’s declaration of brat autumn, is pulling for the latter: “Glad we’re all on the same page now plz drop apple ft caroline thx luv u,” they wrote.

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock our articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated