What's a tomato girl? 🍅
Our Trends Reporter, Shaurya, is here to analyze and investigate 🕵️
👋 Hellooo! We’re The Z Link, a global Gen Z-led social media agency that helps brands reach our generation. The Digital Native, written by our Trends Reporter, Shaurya, takes a deep dive into niche internet micro-trends and subcultures, and analyzes them so you don’t have to. For any feedback, questions or suggestions, just reply to this email! <3
Just when you think social media could not get any more obscure, lo and behold — the tomato girl! Yes, we’re absolutely going down the path where vegetables and fruits are becoming micro-niches, but I cannot complain. I think it’s sweet seeing people call themselves a hard-boiled egg girl because I’m in my egg-ick era, so I’m officially a potato girl — the rock bottom is where I thrive. I’m present in virtually every culture (re: social media), and I’m versatile (she’s a graphic designer and photographer, but most importantly, she’s a runner, she’s a track star). But I’m more accurately a dirty martini girl. I can’t explain (spoiler: I explain it), but I just am. 🧘🏻♀️ Okay, let’s get cooking. Today on the menu is tomato girl and other food micro-niches.
Tomato girl and her origins
Unfortunately, the origins of the tomato girl are unknown, but a TikTok user that goes by the username @bemusedbeanie posted a video with images of what the aesthetic is. The video included images of linen dresses, green tiles and the reddest tomatoes. It’s basically everything we’ve seen the past summers — Call Me By Your Name, Aperol spritz — but in new packaging. The tomato girl is an extension of the European summer aesthetic and, more precisely, a possible subset of the Mediterranean girl aesthetic.
Tomato girl aesthetic
The tomato girl aesthetic can be described by two essential things: fashion and her hobbies. Both of these things reveal a lot about her.
Fashion
Her fashion is very ~old money~. Quiet luxury. Elevated basics. She has beachy waves, and people call her a minimalist. You’ll never catch her in black because wearing anything structured or dark would be too hot along the coasts. Instead, she goes for linens, frilly skirts, short-sleeved button tops and hand-me-down leather accessories. For winter, she’d add a suede jacket and boots. Her palette is white, yellow, red, green, brown and gold. She also accessorises herself with heirloom gold jewellery and classic styles of wristwatches. She accepts tradition and rejects modernity, in a way.
Personality and hobbies
What is she like? What does she like? Let me tell you. <3 She lives a slow life. Her day-to-day consists of her reading old (retro) novels. They have to be physical books and HAVE to be printed before the 70s. She adores her grandmother’s advice and eats tomatoes with salt and olive oil. As anyone in the Mediterranean should. (Please don’t comment “not all tomato girls read books only published before the 70s… You’re misunderstanding the tomato girl lore…” because this is simply our interpretation and we’re here to share it with love ❤️🍅😤).
Why the tomato girl?
The tomato girl’s popularity is soaring because it’s summer, and New Yorkers (not limited to only New Yorkers) have been skipping Hamptons for the European coastlines. Even after their holiday, their feeds have remnants of their European summer. The tomato girl is also a sustainable queen. Regina George might’ve hated her, but the world loves her for re-wearing her treasured items. Her take on fashion is refreshing since she doesn’t follow trends and wears what she feels good wearing and what suits her body the most.
Other food micro-trends and their appeals
We’ve covered WHY micro-trends are appealing, but food micro-trends like the tomato girl bring ambiguity to the table. There is no description of these food categorisations, so you can be virtually any food, and it WILL make sense. If you get it, you get it. The other famous food micro-trend making the rounds is the hard-boiled egg girl…... The hard-boiled egg girlies are associated with pale colours, specifically ivory, and skincare. The food micro-trends, in my opinion, are a fantastic way to blend food, art and fashion — an intersection that is rarely seen.
BONUS: DIRTY MARTINI GIRL
Okay, so the dirty martini girl is not yet a micro-trend. I made it up while talking about it with my favourite girlboss. But, unlike TikTok, I’ll give you a written and visual description. <3 Let me give you the dirty martini girl keywords: fashion cities, London, New York, creative professional, various art forms, olives, social, extrovert, lace detailings, leather jackets, black, maroon, electric guitar, Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, does music production on the side, cinema. Those are just a few keywords, and yes, she is based on me; thank you very much.
BONUS 2: WHISKY GIRL
Whisky girl, like the dirty martini girl, does not exist yet, not that I’ve seen. So if you see these floating around, give your favourite writer (me) credit pls, I want some social media clout too. 👹 Keywords for the whisky girl would be vinyl players, art museums after sunset, coffee table books, mythology, pool, red roses, structured clothing, long bodycon dresses, fancy dinners, bars over clubs, The Police, Gorillaz and jazz. Again, absolutely based off of my other personality. 😍
So, now you know what the tomato girl and food micro-trends are all about. What food micro-trend do you identify with? 🔎 Let us know in the comments or on social media. You can create your own trends and I’ll absolutely support you for it.
Any questions/suggestions as to what we should cover next? Reach out to us and we’re always here to chat!
— Written by Shaurya, Trends Reporter at The Z Link
Connect with Shaurya on Instagram where she shares great content and lives her best influencer life as a fashion student in Paris. And she writes all of these great issues too. What can’t she do??? 🧐 Thank you for reading!
As someone who wrote their senior thesis on tomatoes, I am feeling very seen by the tomato girl aesthetic.