I’m not ‘rebranding’ in 2022, and here’s why you shouldn’t either

We’re all accustomed to the dialogue about New Yr’s resolutions — do they work? Are they productive, or do they simply make us really feel worse about ourselves?

Whereas the New Yr’s decision is a time-honored headache every year, social media — TikTok specifically — has given rise to the phenomenon that’s the New Yr’s rebrand. The rebrand is just like the decision’s shinier, extra aspirational youthful sister – it requires individuals, particularly girls, to maneuver past setting targets for the brand new 12 months and go for full reinvention. It takes the type of “out and in” lists cataloging the dos-and-don’ts of a brand new 12 months, in movies displaying off clothes hauls to assist the rebrand, in new haircuts and blocking your ex on Instagram.

The rebrand asks that you simply take a look at all of the elements of your self you disliked within the earlier 12 months and set them on fireplace, all whereas sustaining a facade of self-care and stability. So why is the idea of a New Yr’s rebrand so unhealthy, and why has it develop into such a rapid-growing development?

In the event you head to TikTok’s discover web page and search “2022 Rebrand,” you’ll discover 1000’s of movies, virtually solely created by younger girls, both explaining the aspects of their very own rebrands or teaching others on find out how to rebrand themselves. One viral video offers a listing of merchandise for girls to purchase for his or her rebrands, starting from skincare merchandise to weights and exercise bands. Creators embrace their Pinterest searches, elaborate lists structured with Canva graphics and colours, or digital imaginative and prescient boards capturing the aesthetic they hope will probably be their 2022. The rebrands encapsulate all the things from profession targets to relationships, hopes of shopping for a brand new wardrobe, and so forth. Each displays a way of desperation to develop into a distinct individual within the pursuit of happiness and acceptance. 

Whereas some elements of the rebrand are attainable and wholesome, the overarching theme is that with a purpose to succeed within the new 12 months, girls must scrap their previous selves and develop into trendier, cooler, and extra outwardly productive. The “ideally suited girl” in 2022 does gentle, “pure” make-up, has that “floofy” blown-out coiffure, journals daily, drinks inexperienced juice and works out each morning earlier than heading to her dream job, and owns a bunch of merchandise that make her fairly and with it. She wears quite a lot of linen in the summertime and he or she’s received an ideal assortment of cashmere J-Crew turtlenecks for the winter, and he or she most likely appears to be like unbelievable in a slip costume. She’s good and he or she reads for enjoyable as a substitute of only for faculty or work, she’s politically woke with out being too loud about it, she goes to the farmer’s market each week and cooks wholesome, sustainable meals each evening.

She’s designed, briefly, to make the remainder of us really feel like we aren’t doing sufficient. 

To know the toxicity of the rebrand, we are able to take a look at a few of the issues that make resolutions harmful for psychological well being. Setting targets primarily based on different individuals’s expectations of what you need to look or act like is a slippery slope in direction of comparability and self-doubt, and when many resolutions are centered round physique picture or weight reduction, a well-intentioned purpose can simply flip right into a set of unhealthy habits. Weight loss program tradition guidelines the New Yr’s rebrand, selling a story that everybody ought to wish to be thinner, healthier and to put on the garments they thought didn’t look good on them final 12 months. 

Contemplating the TikTok technology of 13-25-year-old girls and its greater susceptibility to consuming problems, the rebrand and its recognition on the hit video app can pose a respectable problem to physique picture and a wholesome relationship with meals. That’s to not say that setting a purpose to work out extra or to spend money on more healthy meals goes to ship you down a spiral of self-consciousness, however that all the things takes time and persistence, and never everybody’s targets occur on the similar tempo. The rebrand makes it sound like everybody goes to have misplaced the load or packed on the muscle by the tip of January, and that’s simply not lifelike or wholesome. 

Perhaps the most important purple flag of the rebrand is the way it promotes the concept people are like companies or merchandise that should be marketed and offered. Saying that ladies must rebrand themselves yearly implies that our identities and personalities are by no means everlasting and that they require fixed change with a purpose to match the societal beliefs or requirements imposed by social media and influencers. 

This 12 months it’s curtain bangs, being in your status period, these matching pastel-colored exercise units and touchdown your dream job earlier than turning (gasp) 25 years previous. 

Certain, it will be nice if we may all morph into probably the most subtle and excellent model of a human girl yearly, however that commonplace is consistently shifting to develop into much more unattainable, and striving to match it each time the clock hits 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1 simply isn’t sustainable. The concept of rebranding is designed to make us really feel like we aren’t adequate if we don’t have a brand new look and set of persona traits every year.

The silver lining of that huge TikTok discover web page is that for each 5 movies displaying off a flashy rebrand, there’s a lady reminding her followers that this observe isn’t essential. There’s a sense of consciousness that we don’t want to leap via these yearly hoops, it simply must be extra widespread. 

The explanation the rebrand is so fashionable is that it feels good to speak about it or make these lists — it makes you’re feeling such as you’ve already completed one thing by laying out your imaginative and prescient for 2022. While you put up that video or see somebody who has related targets or belongings you need, you’re feeling validated and seen. Rebranding is a viral development for a similar motive that TikTok dances or foolish animal movies are: It scratches an itch in individuals’s brains. 

No person constructs their rebrand with malicious intent or to make others really feel insufficient — that’s a aspect impact that comes no matter how laborious we attempt to be unproblematic or welcoming of everybody’s likes and dislikes. 

So if we aren’t rebranding, what are we doing to develop within the new 12 months? I’m personally making an attempt to give attention to doing extra of what made me comfortable and wholesome in 2021 whereas being attentive to the issues that didn’t work final 12 months and modifying them. I’m not placing strain on myself to be a brand new individual this 12 months, and I’m not planning on shopping for new garments or the rest that may make me really feel like a drastically totally different model of myself. Certain, I received a haircut over winter break, and I’m having fun with the brand new garments I scored by way of Christmas items, however I’m making an attempt to be constant in reminding myself that my very own persona and the issues I like are completely sufficient for 2022. 

I’m nonetheless going to put on stretchy pants and sweaters more often than not, and I’m setting a purpose to be extra constantly lively as a substitute of a purpose to shed extra pounds. I don’t must spend cash and power on reinventing myself, however it is going to be an uphill climb to simply accept that I like myself as I’m. The tradition that gave start to the rebrand needs girls to dislike their personalities and our bodies in order that they should maintain placing time into altering them, and that’s a tough cycle to interrupt out of. 

Nonetheless, my largest purpose for 2022 isn’t essentially to vary however to ensure my priorities replicate the individual I do know I’ve at all times been. As an alternative of altering my persona or my look, I’d like to vary the issues that make me really feel dangerous and add to the issues that make me really feel good. It’s not a rebrand by an extended shot, nevertheless it looks like progress. I made a imaginative and prescient board, nevertheless it doesn’t appear to be quite a lot of those I’ve seen on social media — it has photos of hikes I’d wish to go on, cats to signify my plan to undertake one once I transfer out of my on-campus dorm, books I’d wish to learn and cheese boards that look enjoyable to make and to eat.

These are all issues I liked in 2021, simply with the intention of devoting extra power to them in 2022. I’m not making an attempt to be preachy or to say that my approach of trying on the new 12 months is inherently higher than everybody else’s—I simply hope that we as a collective can acknowledge how individuals revenue from our insecurities and work to reclaim the “new 12 months, new me” idea as a optimistic and wholesome reminder that we don’t have to vary to be worthy. As soon as we validate the unchanging elements of ourselves, we are able to start to give attention to what makes us comfortable and recognize how these issues make us who we’re. Girls are price greater than a rebrand, and hopefully, we are able to begin to see that in 2022.