From 'vanilla girl' to the TikTok age filter, these are the most divisive and controversial viral trends of 2023 so far

Over the past week, internet users have been baffled by a viral clip of the TikTok creator @pinkydoll that was posted to Twitter. In the video, the TikToker repeats random phrases like "ice cream, gang gang" and makes strange gestures, like licking the air.

The influencer was participating in a trend called "NPC Livestreaming," where creators livestream and perform different actions and sounds depending on users' donations. (The term "NPC" refers to non-playable characters in video games that have pre-programmed speech.)

TikTok Live allows creators to design "gifting menus" to reward viewers for different donation amounts. NPC Lives and other action-roleplay genres have long been a fixture of TikTok Live, which is known as an offbeat and somewhat lawless realm of streams and content.

The trend gained wider recognition after clips by Pinkydoll and other creators like Cherry Crush were shared on Twitter. Many viewers called out the trend for appearing surreal or inhuman, criticizing the lengths some people would go to make money.

Although not everyone liked the trend, after the initial confusion, a mass of people came out to support Pinkydoll and praised her for figuring out an inventive way to collect tips.

"Pinky doll provides more benefit to society than a thousand silicon valley vc bros propped up by quantitative easing and overworked comp sci grads," streamer HasanAbi tweeted.

The vanilla girl trend took off on TikTok in 2022, but the aesthetic and term remain popular today. Having "vanilla girl" attributes refers to an amorphous assortment of stylistic tics: wearing beige or otherwise sleek clothing, drinking oat lattes, acting like a main character, often having blonde hair, and "fully living in domestic bliss," writes author Hayley Soen of The Tab.

Many TikTokers have made viral guides on how to dress like a vanilla girl, or what makeup and skincare products people should use to attain a "clean" or "natural" vanilla girl look. This year, the hashtag for "vanillagirl" has already amassed over 1.2 billion total views.

As the aesthetic's popularity grew, so did its detractors. Some observed knocked the trend for pushing homogenous beauty standards, and that the "vanilla" color scheme can be coded for white skin tones. A Refinery29 article on the trend argued that using the word vanilla "closes the door on anyone who has a darker complexion," and compared it to the previously popular "clean girl" aesthetic, which excluded people with skin conditions.

Multiple TikTokers have accused the trend of spreading toxic beauty ideals and called attention to the way nearly all of the biggest vanilla girl videos feature skinny, white, blonde-haired women.

One TikToker called the trend "hyper-hyper-exclusionary" and said it perpetuates "Euro-centric beauty standards."

"We're talking the blonde hair, the pale, creamy skin," she said. "I don't see any women of color participating in this trend, and it's designed to be that way."

Over the last two weeks, users have been using the new augmented reality "age filter" that simulates what they can look like in old age. Tons of users have made clips showing off the filter, although quite a few were displeased or shocked (including celebrities like Kylie Jenner) by the results. Some TikTokers have even said it's made them more anxious about aging, and single-handedly pushed them to use more sunscreen and retinol (a vitamin with anti-aging effects).

Despite the backlash, numerous TikTokers have also made videos coming to terms with the reality of aging. Other creators have made clips speculating on why people are so turned off by the age filter, with one TikToker theorizing that the age filter seems so extreme because people are so used to other filters with unrealistic beauty effects.

The phrase "girl dinner" was coined by the 28-year-old TikToker Olivia Maher. She said in a viral May 11 video that the term was inspired by seeing another video about how people in Medieval times had to eat nothing but bread and cheese for dinner.

"This is my dinner," Maher said while panning across a table of cheeses, bread, and grapes. "I call it girl dinner or Medieval peasant." No one really cared about the latter name, but "girl dinner" has since taken off tremendously.

The trend seems to speak specifically to women who assemble aesthetically pleasing and bare-boned meals. A hashtag for the trend has almost 200 million views.

While many TikTokers have joyously participated, the fad has also received backlash. Some critics have accused the trend of promoting unhealthy eating lifestyles or looking "suspiciously low cal," as one TikToker wrote in a video with over 900,000 views.

Other users have also parodied the trend by saying their girl dinner is just a nap, or showing off their "boy dinners," which for one person was three slices of pizza hidden under a blanket.

If you've been on TikTok for more than a week, you've definitely come across someone rolling glass bottles down a flight of stairs. This strange and popular trend dates back to the creator @MrBottles in June 2021, although it's gone especially viral in the last month. Numerous videos have amassed millions of views and new formats (like sliding a ball into bottles and swinging bottles together to smash) have also emerged.

The premise is simple: an identified person behind the camera pushes different types of unopened bottles (wine bottles, soda bottles, bottles filled with squishy colored blobs) down a set of stairs until it cracks open and the substance inside spews everywhere. It's visually satisfying chaos. Some people have described the video style as "ASMR" because of its soothing quality.

The creator will often edit the clips so every roll is in quick succession.

The trend has most people curious, and unsure how they feel, as many said they come across it in the middle of the night. There's also been a wave of critics calling out the wastefulness of these videos since the TikTokers tend to smash a large quantity of food or beverages. Others have commented on the damage the smashing probably does to the staircases and said they're concerned about stray glass shards that aren't properly cleaned up possibly injuring passersby.

"I like to think all of the items are expired but the Dread keeps finding me," one viewer commented on a TikTok questioning the trend's ethics.