Very Demure, Very Mindful
Where it came from
TikTok creator Jools Lebron (@joolieannie) posted a clip on August 2, 2024 about how she presents herself at work, followed by a bigger one on August 6. Within a week "very demure, very mindful" was on every platform at once.
Jools Lebron sits in her car and walks you through her work look. Light makeup, wig laid, a little braid, nothing too loud for the office. "See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful." She says it with the gravity of an etiquette coach and the energy of someone who absolutely does not do this on weekends. That contrast is the joke.
The internet took it and ran. Suddenly everything was demure. Leaving the group chat on read? Demure. Eating a single grape for dinner? Mindful. Showing up to your own birthday party 40 minutes late? Very cutesy, very demure. Brands, celebrities and the White House social team all tried it, which is usually the moment a meme starts dying, and Dictionary.com still went ahead and named "demure" its 2024 word of the year.
It was a pure August 2024 summer flash, burning hotter and faster than almost anything that year. Nobody's making demure videos anymore, but the word got permanently ruined in the best way. You can't call someone demure now without it sounding like a bit.
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Search interest, over time
↳ data courtesy of google trends
