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

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Explore this popular TikTok subculture and aesthetic

Co-authored by Cheyenne Main Reviewed by Anyah Le Gilmore-Jones

Last Updated: September 2, 2024 Fact Checked

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• What is an Alt Girl?
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• Alt-Girl Fashion
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• Alt-Girl Lifestyle
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• Video

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If you’ve seen the phrase “alt girl” online or on TikTok, you might be wondering what it means. Alt-girls (with or without the hyphen) are girls or women who listen to non-mainstream music and wear alternative fashion with a mix of thrifted clothes, dyed hair, and unique or fun makeup. However, not all alt-girls dress the same or have the same interests. Keep reading to learn all about this internet subculture popularized on TikTok.

Things You Should Know

• 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.

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Section 1 of 3:

What is an Alt Girl?

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1. 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.
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Section 2 of 3:

Alt-Girl Fashion

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1. 1
   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.
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   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.
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   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.
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Section 3 of 3:

Alt-Girl Lifestyle

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1. 1
   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.
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   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.
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   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.
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