This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
One of the last panels of the second day at VidCon was a hidden gem that not enough people stuck around for. Drew Afualo, Sarah Schauer, and Chrissy Chlapecka sat on the “Hot Gurlz Only” panel and spoke about what it’s like to be a “Hot Girl” on the internet. The conversation was moderated by Michaela Okland—the host of She Rates Dogs.
The panel started 20 minutes behind schedule after Chlapecka arrived late, and the rest of the group took pictures with adoring fans while they waited for her to arrive. Noticeably absent both on the panel and in the audience were Black women. The term Hot Girl Summer was coined by rapper Megan Thee Stallion in 2019, and it has since become a topic of online discourse. On Twitter, some users claimed that influential white women like Bella Hadid were “the pinnacle of Hot Girl,” but others pushed back and argued that the actual pinnacle is the woman who coined the term.
