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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TAMU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.
Micro-trends have always played a very important role in shaping social media culture. They are what keep the internet so exciting. From oddly specific fashion choices to collectible items, there is always a new trend for me to keep up with. These moments take over our TikTok For You Pages, Pinterest boards, and Instagram feeds and then go in the blink of an eye. I think it’s safe to say micro-trends are the internet’s favorite form of chaos. So, in the spirit of being a chronic social media user, here are my top five favorite micro-trends from the past decade.
5. gIRL DINNER
I lived by this TikTok phrase religiously when it first hit the internet. This cultural moment normalized indulging in a handful of crackers, some blueberries, and a Baby Bel cheese as dinner. While it was not the healthiest micro-trend, I loved being able to eat like a toddler for a few weeks and get away with it by calling it “girl dinner”.
4. Pink sauce
I am not a sauce girl. In fact, I hate all sauces (except for buffalo). However, my favorite color is pink, so it wasn’t hard for pink sauce to catch my eye. Its biggest selling point was its color; it looked like something straight out of the dream house kitchen. Pink sauce held my for you page hostage all the way up to its bitter end when people started reporting food-borne illnesses from this, hardly pink, sad, beige sauce.
3. LABUBU
This next one really threw me for a loop. Initially, I thought people were putting these little monstrous trinkets on their bags as a joke, but it turned out to be a genuine trend that took the world by storm. Labubu’s became such a novelty item that counterfeits became a genuine issue. Pop Mart, the creator behind these tiny creatures, generated about 670 million in Labubu sales in the first half of 2025 alone, making Labubu one of the most iconic and notable micro-trends in internet history.
2. Egirls/boys
Thick winged liner, Doc Martens, and striped long sleeves under band tees were the official uniform of 2019. E-girls and e-boys practically took over TikTok overnight. It was like I woke up one day and suddenly everyone was dyeing a single streak of their hair and making lip-sync thirst traps in their LED-lit bedrooms. Cringey? Maybe. But it was the moment, and it sparked a cultural shift on the internet, where people began to embrace their alternative identities.
1. the water bottle pipeline
The internet’s love for finding a new water bottle every 2 years to obsess over has to be my favorite and strangest cultural phenomenon. It all started with the sticker-covered HydroFlasks that we would drown in scrunchies. Then came the emotional support Stanley that caused chaos in targets around the nation every time a new color dropped. Now we have Owala, the current reigning queen of the water bottle world. I can’t wait to see what fifty-dollar hydration accessory the internet loses its mind over next
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English (US) ·