Meme History: Christian Girl Autumn
Cozy season is upon us and that means it's time to snuggle up by a campfire, crunch some crunchy leaves, go for a scenic drive through crisp, cool air, and mock some infinity-scarf-clad 30-somethings.
On August 9thm 2019, self-proclaimed Twitter troll @lasagnabby posted this image to X.
Its thesis is that if hot girl summer represents partying, being your unfiltered self, and focusing on yourself, then Christian girl autumn is about introversion, careful curation of your own image, sweaters, and an Instagram grid full of warm tones.
The origins of the Christian Girl Autumn meme
The Twitterverse was on board. In the following days, a lot of replies and reactions to the original post came, further characterizing the meme’s main characters as out-of-touch, Karen-like, generally in their own world, and obsessed with pumpkin spice lattes. The vast majority was all in good fun, but some of it made the women in question out to be a little bit closed-minded—we’ll come back to that.
As the meme grew, attention eventually was drawn toward its original creator, Natasha.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, they were quoted saying “I literally googled ‘cute church outfits’ and ‘all scarf outfits’ and started using those pictures as reaction photos for my jokes.”
So it was a complete roll of the dice that it happened to be these specific women’s photo that went viral. But it was their faces being memed, and so as the meme blew up, they took notice.
Their names are Emily Gemma and Caitlin Covington, both blogger-influencers, who originally took the photos as part of a trip to North Carolina in 2016—explicitly to shoot a batch of fall content.
They’re okay with the fame, as long as they’re able to distance themselves from all of the negativity. Specifically, the idea that, because they’re the faces of Christian Girl Autumn, they’re necessarily bigoted and anti LGBTQ.
Which couldn’t be further from the truth, because when someone on X asked if Caitlin Covington was a Republican, she responded quickly and decisively with “No I’m not.”
So it wasn’t long before wide swaths of the LGBTQ community online began stanning her.
In fact, when Natasha started a GoFundMe for gender transition costs, Covington was one of her most public supporters, donating $500 and directing her followers to the fundraiser.
The spread of the Christian Girl Autumn meme
As you might expect, interest in Christian Girl Autumn is pretty seasonal, but it's showing no signs of going away.
In September of 2024, the meme’s fifth year, Covington even partnered with PopCrave in a series of videos and posts referencing the meme, lending it even more visibility.
So, as long as there are big-hat-clad caffeine lovers, and as long as the planet stays cool enough to warrant chunky sweaters, there will probably always be some version of Christian Girl Autumn to riff on.
All in all, this one isn’t hurting anyone, so this fall, raise your latte in a toast to Caitlin.
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