Abstract

This thesis employs a critical discourse analysis and social media research methods to investigate the girlblog community on TikTok as it relates to both previous instances of girl-forward online communities (like those on #sadgirl Tumblr) and the state of post- #MeToo post-feminism today. #Girlblog is a hyper-feminine style of post that uses vintage youthful imagery to convey a desire to return to an imagined innocent youth in comparison to the harsh realities of entering adulthood, as many of these posters are between teenagehood and young adulthood. The anxieties around aging and the desire to identify with the ‘girl’ and not the ‘woman’ show how these TikTokers may feel alienated from a more political feminism and identity surrounding womanhood. Further, the prominent mental health disclosure-style videos in this sphere show how the drive to depict a perfect self through social media is no longer the dominant mode for these young women, as they, instead, share intense and troubling facts and stories to relate to one another and create community. Through both the girlblog style and the self-identifications with mental health diagnosis, labelling oneself as part of a community and shaping one's online production through these social labels gives structure and meaning to otherwise confusing and transient times of life. This research expands on the changing landscape of TikTok trends by looking into an elusive and largely non-hashtag-driven culture on the app. It additionally turns
the focus to gendered elements of post-pandemic online community-making among young women using TikTok.