4 Poetry Collections for Embracing Your Brat Era
From the lime green and lowercase font popping up all over Instagram to the viral “Apple” dance, it’s clear that this is a Brat summer. Named the album of the season by outlets like Vogue and People, Charli XCX’s latest album—released in June and an instant classic—is all about rebellion, fun, and spontaneity, with tracks transporting listeners straight to the center of a club dancefloor. These 4 collections pack a similar spirit, turning up the noise and the pace.
1. Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood
Brat cements Charli XCX’s party girl persona. The track “365” is a nod to her “3-6-5 party girl” mentality, while “Club classics” shouts out SOPHIE, HudMo, and other artists she likes to dance to. Life of the Party embodies a similar lifestyle and peers behind its sensationalized surface, revealing what the party girl identity says about desire, sexuality, and womanhood. Like Charli XCX, Gatwood’s poetics veer from fun and thrill to existentialism, often finding an unexpected connection in the high-energy moments of both and how they can be felt in the body.
2. These Are My Big Girl Pants by Amber Vittoria
The bold illustrations and colors swarming the pages of These Are My Big Girl Pants reflect the aesthetics of Brat immediately, calling out to readers’ playful and whimsical side. The collection is an examination and questioning of what it means to be a “big girl” and how to balance the inner child and its inherent wildness with the pressures and transitions of adulthood. Charli XCX ruminates on similar questions on songs like “Apple,” which analyzes her relationship with her parents, and “I think about it all the time,” on which she interrogates whether or not she might want to have a child. The standout track “Everything is romantic” also evokes imagery that resonates with These Are My Big Girl Pants, conjuring the vibrancy of “neon orange drinks on the beach” and “lemons on the trees.”
3. Feed by Tommy Pico
The lyricism on Brat feels sprawling and stream of consciousness at many points, with Charli opting for chaotic maximalism over minimalist refinement and pruning. Tommy Pico’s poetry is known for taking a similar approach, reading like a lush and overflowing internal monologue. In Feed, Pico boomerangs between making the perfect mac and cheese and reconsidering a friendship with an ex, reminiscent of the delightful, random, and distinctly modern detours on Brat. Through the collection, readers accompany Pico’s speaker on walks through New York City, taking in interactions and dialogue that resemble the frenzy and constant movement of Brat.
4. Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, edited by David L. Ulin
While Brat is a universal rallying cry from coast to coast and in every city in between, there’s a sense of place permeating the album—Charli XCX’s home base of Los Angeles, where she’s been living for a decade. This can be seen in the small ways, like scenic allusions to palm trees and the beach, and in bigger ways, like her reckoning with fame, career, and the music industry. Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology brings together different poets writing about L.A. and how it’s shaped them, their experiences, and their work, offering further insight into the city.
Want more music-themed poetry recs? Check out our poetry roundup for fans of Lorde, to listen to after you stream the “Girl, so confusing” remix for the hundredth time.
