The latest fleeting TikTok beauty trend? Looking tired

A poster girl for the "Tired Girl" makeup trend, Jenna Ortega is pictured at the season two premiere of the TV series "Wednesday" in London. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP via CNN Newsource)

Jenna Ortega’s eyes are lightly smudged, framed by dark shadows. Her face is pale, and her cheekbones are accentuated by a dash of gray. Her lips are tinged purple. She looks exhausted, but that’s the point. The latest Gen Z makeup trend, “Tired Girl,” celebrates the look of not having been to bed.

For as long as beauty standards have existed, people have collectively fought against looking tired. Concealer, eye cream and corrector sticks are, at least in part, designed to make us look fresh and alert. Historically, appearing fatigued has been associated with poor health, aging and unattractiveness. Tired Girl beauty celebrates the opposite; it’s about embracing the imperfections we’ve traditionally tried to conceal.

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The modern poster girl for the trend is Wednesday Addams, the Addams Family’s morbid and emotionally reserved daughter, who is the focus of Tim Burton’s Netflix series starring Ortega in the role. Much like the first season, series two sees the actor showcasing shadowed under-eyes and pale skin, a look that she recently recreated on the red carpet for the show’s premiere in London. Those born outside of the Gen Z age group will recognize earlier references — think Angelina Jolie in “Girl Interrupted,” or a young Natalie Portman in “Leon.”

Other contemporary famous fans of the makeup trend include the actor Lily Rose-Depp, model and musician Gabbriette and influencers Emma Chamberlain, Danielle Marcan and Lara Violetta. As of late July, tired girl makeup is now a TikTok category, with numerous tutorials on how to achieve the sleep-deprived look, with some of the most popular having gained over 300,000 views so far.

In one of her recent videos, Violetta — who smudges dark eye shadow under her eyes to create a “moldy makeup” aesthetic — said “eye bags are so chic because you actually have to work for them.” Overall, the look is messy and undone with a rebellious edge. “It’s a celebration of realness,” makeup artist and Glass magazine beauty director Kim Brown told CNN. “The Tired Girl look has an edge and personality. It’s tough and cool.”

A fleeting trend

Tired Girl is not to be confused with goth, a music-based subculture that spawned a moodier look involving much paler skin and heavier and pronounced dark eyes. It is also different to South Korea’s viral aegyo-sal makeup trend, which emphasizes the puffy area of fat under the eyes to create a more youthful appearance. Grunge fashion, known for its disheveled, lived-in aesthetic and popularized by Courtney Love in the ’90s, is perhaps the look’s most recent relation.

But, as with other fleeting TikTok trends, the roots of Tired Girl don’t run anywhere near as deep. “Grunge grew from anti-establishment values, music scenes and community solidarity, where aesthetic and cultural rebellion were inseparable,” said Dan Hastings-Narayanin, the deputy foresight editor at The Future Laboratory, a trend forecasting firm.

The Tired Girl look, on the other hand, is part of the transient “core” phenomenon, a word used to describe niche internet aesthetics, such as “cottagecore” (nature-inspired, romantic) or “Barbiecore” (playful and hyper-feminine). “It’s a quick way to show who you are or what mood you’re going for,” said Hastings-Narayanin. The challenge, he argued, is that it is “fleeting, commodified and poised for replacement by the next viral moment.”

The trend has a distinctive Tim Burton energy, so it comes as no surprise that it appeared on both seasons of Wednesday. “The core principle was to achieve a polished but natural look using minimal products and highlighting Jenna’s natural features,” said hair and makeup artist Tara McDonald, who created Ortega’s look in season one. As Ortega’s foundation was lighter in color than her natural skin tone, and McDonald “didn’t want to conceal her natural under-eye area with makeup,” the darker circles around her eyes stood out more than usual, McDonald explained. “The eyeshadow was dark, but it was only ever a light application, and the illusion of naturally flushed lips — almost like they’ve been gently bitten — was key,” she added.

Kicking back against perfection

Like with any pronounced beauty look, there is a message in Wednesday’s makeup. “The intention was always that she’s not going to be the kind of girl who spends hours doing her hair and makeup,” said Nirvana Jalalvand, who was behind Ortega’s beauty look for season two. “She’s just not that kind of person. She has cases to solve and important places to be. Putting her face on isn’t going to be high on her priority list.” In that regard, Wednesday’s nonchalance about her appearance serves as the antithesis to traditional, polished, fresh-faced beauty ideals, and a subversion of femininity.

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It is a clear departure from the “clean girl” aesthetic, a fresh-faced look that involves flushed cheeks, radiant skin and minimal makeup, popularized by Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner over the last few years. “It’s not just the makeup though; it’s part of something wider,” said Jalavland. “Even the way people post their Instagram photos now has shifted with photo dumps and blurry images. We’ve all grown tired of overly curated, perfectionism. This messy culture is a fight against that clean girl aesthetic. Tired Girl is a different way of presenting yourself. It’s almost like we went so far into perfection that people are going back on it.”

This is also true of its execution; applying concealer and blush requires little effort. “Most people can do this makeup,” said McDonald. “You don’t necessarily need to be a great makeup artist. You don’t need a steady hand. You can achieve this look without makeup brushes.”

While Tired Girl may be unlikely to make a lasting cultural impact, its origins might say something deeper about the challenges that young people face. Hastings-Narayanin views Gen Z’s embrace of the Tired Girl trend as a return to vulnerability and relatability amid “relentless pressures” that include juggling academics and extracurriculars, managing student debt and navigating a fragile job market, all while striving for personal goals like saving the planet. “Flaunting vulnerability and dark humor becomes a coping mechanism that proclaims, ‘I am exhausted and uncertain about my future, and I will laugh through the gloom,’” he said.

By Ella Alexander, CNN