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Summer may be coming to a close, but its defining trends are still thriving.
Many of these trends originated in the fall or spring, but millennials brought them to the forefront in the summer of 2019. Millennials are reshaping the food and beverage industry with their preferences for spiked seltzer and CBD, redefining the leopard print in fashion, and remixing rap with country when it comes to music.
But it's hard seltzer that really kicked off this summer, thanks to young millennial men who identify as "bros," reported Business Insider's Bethany Biron. "At barbecues, on beaches, and at fraternity parties, legions of men are suddenly singing the praises of hard seltzer," she wrote.
The leader of the pack? White Claw. "It's ridiculously good. If I'm at a party now and someone offers me an IPA or a White Claw, I definitely take a White Claw," Ben Shea, a producer in Santa Monica, told Biron.
The rise of CBD took off last year, but it really peaked this summer. It's caught on everywhere from San Antonio to New York City and Los Angeles in the form of CBD lattes, CBD-infused donuts, and more.
An active ingredient in marijuana, CBD doesn't get you high. Millennials love it for the anxiety relief and calmness it's said to provide. But they're not the only ones — boomers are a fan too, according to Jean Ban of Supermarket News.
Even 75% of chefs named CBD and cannabis-infused food as a hot trend in 2019, reported Amelia Lucas for CNBC, citing a National Restaurant Association Survey. While the FDA has prohibited adding CBD to food and drinks, some restaurants are selling CBD-infused products to meet demand, she said.
It's near impossible to go a day without spotting the leopard print midi skirt on the street — or during an Instagram scroll. Look no further than the parody Instagram account @leopardmidiskirt to see just how the silk bias-cut leopard print midi skirt has become a classic summer staple — particularly in New York City, as Jess Bergman points out in the Tweet below.
It's plenty versatile, having been paired with everything from vintage tees and leather jackets to sneakers. As Claire Valentine for Paper wrote, "Animal prints contain multitudes, from self-aware playfulness, self-serious sexiness or that renewed favorite, camp."
did every woman in manhattan wake up one morning and decide to buy a leopard-print midi skirt
Technically released in American bookstores in the spring, "Normal People" by 28-year-old author Sally Rooney was such a hit that it was still being buzzed about by the time summer rolled around. It quickly became a book-club staple and was recently optioned into a Hulu series.
In "Normal People," Rooney — who was lauded as "the first great millennial author" by The New York Times — explores the complexities of millennial romance and young adulthood in a subtle, genuine way by following the on-again, off-again relationship of Marianne and Connell.
You could nary walk into a bar this summer without hearing the country-rap duo of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus in your ear.
Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" originally caught on when featured as the soundtrack to a compilation of video app Tik Tok's #YeeHawChallenge, eventually catching the attention of celebrities like Justin Bieber and Mark Ruffalo, according to Dan Jackson of Thrillist.
Lil Nas X then dropped a remix with Billy Ray Cyrus in May, reported J'na Jefferson of Vibe. In July, it tied the record for longest-running No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100 of all time, she said.
Millennials find it catchy and fun — unofficial requirements for every year's song of the summer.
Who's having a hot girl summer? One social media scroll, and it's not hard to find the hashtag #hotgirlsummer.
You can thank Megan Thee Stallion for that — she started the trend with the first lyric of her song "Cash Shit" ("Real hot girl shit") and album cover art, explained Kathryn Lindsay of Refinery29. Since its release in late May, the catchphrase has been hashtagged on Instagram more than 511,000 times. It's also made many an appearance on Twitter.
Megan Thee Stallion told The Root of the phrase: "It's about women and men being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time, hyping up their friends, doing you. You definitely have to be a person who can be the life of the party and just a bad bitch."
In August, she released an eponymous song to the catchphrase.
Earlier this year, travel-planning site müvTravel named Lisbon the most popular travel destination for millennials in its Top 30 Millennial Travel Destinations for 2019 list, which analyzed the most popular bucket-list destinations of müvTravel's millennial users.
It was on to something. Photos of Lisbon, as well as other cities in Portugal, have been cropping up all over Instagram. The city has more than 8.5 million hashtags on Instagram to date.
Located on the coast, Lisbon is also in proximity to beaches and resort towns for a day trip — and millennials love it for its architecture and neighborhoods that charm by day and buzz at night.
