I'm just a girl in the world (That's all you'll let me be): Exploring young women's perceptions of hypersexualization and infantilization within experiences of girlhood

Despite the visibility of ‘girl trends’ on TikTok, little research explores how women interpret and engage with these cultural messages and how they link to broader experiences of hypersexualization and infantilization. While scholars have documented how young women in North America are caught between competing expectations being hypersexualized yet infantilized, how these contradictions shape their daily lives remains unclear. Social media trends add to this complexity, blending nostalgia with empowerment while subtly reinforcing limiting gender norms. This study examines how women in their 20s navigate these tensions through engaging with girlhood and ‘girl trends’ on TikTok. Using focus groups, it captures both lived experiences and digital performances of femininity, offering insight into how social media shapes self-perception. Findings reveal that bodily awareness is central to negotiating hypersexualization, with agency mediating experiences between empowerment and shame. Participants expressed exhaustion with societal expectations, critiquing ‘girl trends’ as both acts of resistance and mechanisms of consumer-driven conformity. Nostalgia for girlhood fostered among solidarity but was also heavily commodified. Additionally, “I'm just a girl” memes functioned as coping mechanisms yet risked reinforcing infantilizing gender tropes. By extending girlhood beyond childhood, this study highlights TikTok's role in shaping female identity, challenging the tendency to dismiss girlhood as frivolous, demonstrating how media trends act as both a site of empowerment and constraint. Centering the voices of women in their 20s, this research underscores the complexities of digital femininity, revealing how social media serves as both a tool for self-expression and a reflection of broader cultural contradictions.