A “pick-me girl” wants nothing more than to set herself apart from other women, even if that means embracing the and denouncing the parts of herself that are inherently associated with femininity. A sister to the “ ” (remember that monologue from ?) and the “ ” girl, a “pick me girl” will place value on activities, interests, and habits traditionally championed by straight, cisgender, heterosexual men—sometimes, to their own detriment. The vibes are much more “let’s play video games and split a six-pack” and much less “Let’s watch , look up our with our crushes, and place .
” You know, just girlie things. In a nutshell, subconsciously or intentionally, a “pick me girl’s” hope is to garner attention from the men she knows by distancing herself from all other women and their “cringe,” feminine behaviors. Instead, they zero in on stereotypical masculine interests and takes, even if they don’t actually believe or support them.
This trope was popularized in , where love interests single out young women who are uninterested or oblivious to their femininity, which makes her “unlike anyone they’ve ever met,” and therefore, more attractive. But it’s also ever-present today in pop-cultural depictions of girlhood. Take a show like where ’s character Cassie is often dismissed as one-note, surface-level, and boy-obsessed Think about Amanda Bynes’s character in , Lindsay Lohan’s performance, in , and Kat Stratford in I would never drea.
