It’s possible you haven’t yet heard of the “VSCO girl,” the new teen subculture that became a global phenomenon over the summer. In case you need an introduction, VSCO girls are an update to 2000s-era Hollister mall prep, remade for the Instagram era. The name VSCO girl (pronounced “vis-co”) stems from the VSCO photo editing app, which teens use to give their Instagram pics a dreamy, sun-washed aesthetic.
That vibe also describes their style: a beach-ready selection of oversized Brandy Melville T-shirts, cut-off jean shorts, and scrunchies. Besides those style staples, VSCO girls have also adopted a range of sustainable, outdoor products, making them key components of their aesthetic while hinting at a dedication to larger social issues within this Insta-ready culture of young women and girls. Sticker-covered Hydro Flask water bottles, Fjällräven Kånken backpacks, metal straws, and Birkenstocks — worn without irony, a first for youth subcultures as far as we can tell— are all key components of the VSCO girl look.
But figuring out why VSCO girls have adopted these outdoor products as their own is a bit harder. Most teen subcultures exist to confuse and exclude elders, and VSCO girls seem no different. When we reached out to one Instagram VSCO girl meme account about this piece, the administrator explained that they didn’t “really think our two audiences mix well,” before signing off with a double heart emoji. Ok then.
Rebuffed at the source, we turned to demographic research on Generation Z, the age cohort that makes up the VSCO-girl scene. We found that Gen Z, aged 7 to 22, cares about sustainability and the environment even more than eco-conscious millennials. According to Sourcing Journal, 2019 Cone Communications research found that 94 percent of Gen Z shoppers said companies should address urgent environmental issues, compared to 87 percent of millennials. Similar research from The Monitor found that 91 percent of Gen Z believed water quality was the most pressing environmental issue now. From there, it’s easy to see why VSCO girls have adopted reusable metal straws and Hydro Flask water bottles as emblems of their scene.
To see what Hydro Flask thought about sustainability and the VSCO girl phenomenon, we reached out to Lucas Alberg, communications manager at the company. Though he noted the brand hasn’t directed marketing specifically toward this movement, they “love seeing people consciously choose to eliminate single-use plastics from their lives by carrying reusable products like Hydro Flasks.”
We also spoke to Fjällräven, maker of the VSCO girl-favorite Kånken backpack. Here, Philipp Kloeters, head of PR at Fjällräven International, also explained that though his company had never marketed to VSCO girls, he did see sustainability as a key part of the Kånken backpack’s appeal. “For us,” Kloeters explained, “durability is vital, from a functional perspective, because you need to be able to rely on your equipment when you are out trekking or mountaineering, but also from a sustainability standpoint.” Kloeters also thought the Kånken’s classic design added an extra element of sustainability to the item. “If a product lasts a long time, this has a positive impact on the overall sustainability or footprint of the product,” he said. “But durable materials and construction are just one important piece of the puzzle – the other one is emotional durability or design for longevity.”
And VSCO girls’ interest in sustainability seems to be paying off. November 2019 research by software company Bloomreach shows that sales of many VSCO girl faves have skyrocketed over the past year. According to Bloomreach, Hyrdo Flask sales increased 239 percent between October 2018 and October 2019, while Crocs sales grew 229 percent during the same period. Even more incredible, reusable straw sales increased a whopping 357 percent between October 2018 and October 2019, though Bloomreach noted this huge number might have to do with larger consumer trends outside the VSCO-girl scene.
Those numbers seem to echo recent research by Greenmatch, a renewable energy consulting company. In 2018, Greematch found that 72 percent of Gen Z were, “willing to spend more money on goods and services produced in a sustainable fashion,” while 40 percent had “stopped purchasing or boycotted a brand because they stood for something or behaved in a way that is against their values.” Those big numbers reflect big values among such young consumers.
Despite these numbers, expert opinions, and VSCO girls’ own frequent proclamations to “Save the Turtles,” the subculture sometimes gets written off as superficial or even as a joke. Often, adults can be too quick to dismiss the sincerity of young women and girls, but here accusations of superficiality have even come from VSCO girls and former VSCO girls themselves. Mike Quinn lives in Columbia, Missouri, where he’s the father of a 12-year-old girl who he describes as “way into the VSCO girl thing.” But when we asked him to see what his daughter thought of the subculture, her answer surprised us. “It’s the aesthetic of it,” she told him. “Most VSCO girls don’t really care to save the turtles or stop using plastic… saving the turtles is even a trend now.”
Still, we wondered if aesthetic concerns couldn’t lead to real social change. After all, Hydro Flask sales increased 239 percent in one year. Fashion trend or not, that has a real impact on single use plastic waste, right? When asked, Lucas at Hydro Flask thought that might be the case. “Awareness is the instigator to change,” he told us. “By becoming more aware of how reusable containers such as Hydro Flasks benefit the environment, we can become more educated on how to make a positive impact on the world.”
The VSCO-girl subculture does seem to be leading to increased education about sustainability among tweens and teens. One middle school teacher we know said many of his students wore the VSCO-girl style and were doing research reports “on turtles.” Style-driven or not, that’s real interest, real research, and real work young women are doing on sustainability.
So, in the end, maybe intention doesn’t matter, as long as the VSCO girl aesthetic leads to real results. When asked about how his own daughter’s clear interest in the VSCO girl thing contrasted with her dismissal of the scene as, “really about aesthetic,” Mike Quinn told us he thought the subculture was positive. “All I know,” Quinn explained about his daughter, “is she carries a Hydro Flask, I am regularly washing her metal straw, there are scrunchies on her arm, and she stole my Kånken!” And in some ways, that’s as real as it gets.
XX Andrew Luecke.