What Does It Mean to Be an “Alt Girl?"

• Alt-girls are part of an internet subculture that describes young women who wear a mixture of goth, emo, punk, indie, and e-girl aesthetics.
• If you’re an alt-girl, you might wear thrifted clothing, oversized shirts, fishnet stockings, and other emo or gothic-inspired clothing items.
• Alt-girls often rebel against mainstream culture with vibrant colored hairstyles, bold fashion statements, and a taste in alternative, metal, rap, or indie music.

What is an Alt Girl?

Alt-Girls wear alternative fashion and listen to non-mainstream music. Alt-girls (or alternative girls) are part of an internet subculture that typically describes teenage girls or young women who wear goth, emo, metal, or other alternative aesthetics. Alt-girls are often rebellious and actively go against mainstream culture through their fashion, music taste, and attitude. Alt-girl fashion is often a mixture of punk, goth, emo, indie, and e-girl aesthetics. Alt-girls might have dyed hair and piercings or tattoos and wear thrifted or dark clothing. Although “alt-girl” is the name of the punk internet aesthetic, people of any gender might call themselves alt-girls or alt-people.

Alt-Girl Fashion

Alt-girls wear oversized, thrifted, or dark clothing with chunky shoes. If you’re an alt girl, you might wear oversized grunge-aesthetic shirts, baggy pants, fishnet stockings, comfy flannel shirts, black crop tops, black skirts, and other punk and gothic clothing items. You might complete your edgy look with a pair of chunky combat boots and lots of layered necklaces. If you’re an alt-girl, you might also wear chokers, get nose rings and other piercings, and have tons of eclectic tattoos. Some alt-girls might fall into the soft-alt category and wear pops of pastel color, while others might like the fairy grunge aesthetic that incorporates more earthy tones and flowy dresses.

Alt-girls often wear heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick. If you’re an alt-girl, you might wear bold makeup that defies mainstream standards of beauty. Most of the time, alt-girls experiment with dark heavy eyeliner, dark lipstick shades, and the occasional pop of neon or pastel color. If you’re an alt-girl who leans more towards the e-girl aesthetic, you might rub a little blush or pink eyeshadow on the tips of your nose for a more cartoony feminine look.

Alt-girls have unconventional, playful hairstyles dyed with vivid color. If you’re an alt-girl, you might have an edgy hairstyle like the wolf cut, a styled shag haircut, or pigtails. You love to experiment with your hair, whether you dye a couple of streaks in the front or back of your hair or dye your entire head one color.

Alt-Girl Lifestyle

Alt-girls often have rebellious, society-defying attitudes. If you’re an alt-girl, you go against the norms and protest all that is mainstream. You have a deep desire to smash the patriarchy and fight for social causes you believe in, taking down problematic social systems with a bold, tough attitude. This attitude may mean you’re looked down on by older generations and mainstream followers, but being an alt-girl is all about ignoring the haters and embracing what makes you different. Some alt-girls might also identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Alt-girls listen to music genres that go against mainstream trends. Whether you listen to punk, grunge, metal, emo, alt-girl rap, alternative, or indie music, your music taste tends to turn away from popular artists and their glossy, overproduced tracks. Musicians like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Willow Smith are credited with helping to revive early 2000’s pop punk and its emo aesthetics.

Alt-girls might also identify as witches or embrace nerdy interests. If you’re an alt-girl, you might love cosplay, video games, anime, or other “nerdy” interests. If fantasy isn’t your thing, you may have a deep fascination for astrology or tarot, or you might practice witchcraft. As long as you break from mainstream culture, you love what you love and you’re not ashamed of it. Some alt-girls might text in all lowercase and type out happy and sad faces instead of using emojis to break away from mainstream culture.