By Anna Creagan
TikTok is a platform full of creative minds creating trends, starting drama, and changing how we see the world. The app is constantly changing and evolving by introducing new styles and ideas into young people’s minds. A new video format that has recently surfaced is called the “Somewhere between then and now trend” where creators (mostly young women) post videos of themselves with a paragraph of words over their face to a calm instrumental TikTok sound.
The videos vary, but most talk about how they realized that they healed from whatever they were going through when their style got softer or their clothes got more “basic.” However, some users speculate that people are just following trends and that this isn’t healing at all, this is just growing up. While some people say this trend is stupid, others believe that this trend is bringing to light the fact that teenagers are realizing what’s best for them.
One of the first TikToks that started this trend was created by Braelyn Burch, a sixteen year old TikToker that goes by the username user1326854783623 with 2.4 million views and 481,000 likes. The user explains somewhere between then and now her heavy eyeliner changed into light makeup, black nail polish turned into pink, and chains turned into pretty jewelry and then claiming that she healed. These are all aspects of the edgy girl style that started to get popular with high schoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I got in touch with her over TikTok and asked if she thought that this was an internal change or people just following trends. The user said, “I think it’s different for everyone. With my experience, I definitely think as I got better mentally, my whole appearance changed. I started dressing more colorful and flowy and I just feel more myself now”.
The trend has over 100k videos under the sound so there are a lot of different versions of the same video.
“I’ve seen people do the exact opposite as I did, like natural makeup turned into heavy eyeliner, highlights turned into black hair, etc. I think as people heal or their mental health changes they feel more comfortable with themselves and are able to dress/ do their makeup how they want,” Burch said.
While this is a wholesome video idea that allows people to express their personal change over the years, others believe that users are just doing what’s trendy and their style is simply changing because that’s what the media feeds them, “For some, I think ‘trends’ could have an effect on others healing process or even the fact that when you like something that you see on your phone it can influence you to be yourself even more”.
A big thing to take from this trend is to be yourself. A lot of the young women speaking about their experience say that they have followed the most popular trends, but now they want to just wear what they want and be what they like. This is a major part of growing up and the evolution of Generation Z on Tik Tok is very interesting and important.
The sudden shift in more people is very shocking and that is why this trend is very popular. Most people slowly changed their style and their personality to mature and fit into their current life. TikTok gave people a platform to discuss this healing process from being an impressionable teen to growing into an adult and finding what works best for them.
