Notes On: The words that defined 2024 as Taylor Swift eras
With lots of articles, podcast reccs, and things that made me smile this year (bc why not?)
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected” – Charles Lamb
And with that, the 2024 season comes to an end, comes a soft, almost velvety voice. Cue the montages of girls across the western world posting clips of sunsets and mimosas and starry nights and red busses and plane-window shots of landing in the dark over a twinkling city, to the soundtrack of Gracie Abram’s viral song ‘That’s So True.’ (That’s my life, that’s my life). Oh no, you’ve spent too long on TikTok again. You press the heart and close the app. Because what has your year looked like? The same four walls. The same journey to work every day. The same burnt coffee from the machine you need to fix. And also: a myriad of magical moments you didn’t capture because it didn’t even cross your mind to open your phone to take short videos for your end-of-year-montage whilst you were having them. Rooftop cocktails, perhaps, or your best friend’s wedding. Moments of joy sprinkled atop the mundane like chocolate on a cappuccino.
Whilst planning this piece, I thought about how I’d define the year, in true ‘Notes On’ style – aka, according to the things I love. If my first love is words, and my second is Taylor Swift (sorry not sorry), then structuring my ‘end of year recap’ around 2024’s dictionary-chosen words-as-eras felt appropriate. So: welcome.
Below, you’ll find some of the words that – according to various dictionaries – define 2024, their Taylor Swift era (according to me) and also their cultural significance (also according to me). You’ll also find: various things I’ve loved, throughout the year, in the classic ‘Notes On’ style (Noteworthy, Obsessing, Texts, Educated By, Saved). As ever, this edition is to be enjoyed alongside your drink of choice. (I’m writing it to the accompaniment of a homemade cinnamon-sprinkled soya vanilla latte). (We’re in this together).
Brat, aka 1989
According to Collins Dictionary, ‘brat’ is defined as someone "characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” For Charli XCX, it’s ‘bumpin that beat’. For Taylor, it was dropping suitcases on apartment floors, stalking through Manhattan and feeling that unique sense of sonder. Throwing parties for sparkling supermodels and then calling them the ‘new romantics’ in a song. (‘We’re so young, but we’re on the road to ruin’). Mascara running down cheeks in bathrooms. Heartbreak as their national anthem.
In 2024, Brat wasn’t just a term – it was a vibe. It was the summer; it was wearing a white vest top and smoking a cigarette; it was being single; it was being engaged; it was being messy and unapologetic and ambitious and indulgent; it was, confusingly, Kamala Harris, and also listening to club classics and walking barefoot on grass and wondering whether or not to have a baby. Ultimately, in a year weighed both with indulgence and also existential dread, brat became a kind of antidote: a permission slip to let loose, to have a drink too many or not clean your house or order MacDonalds at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning even if you are in your mid-thirties and ‘should know better.’ The album – and the aesthetic – also provided a touchpoint for discussion: about female friendship (“it’s so confusing sometimes, being a girl”), analysis about the growing intersection between pop culture and politics, and also what it means to be a woman who is ageing, right now. (This humour piece in The New Yorker about being aged 30 as a man today vs. in 1884 is really quite funny, and a good touchpoint: men in their thirties used to ‘own a four-hundred-square-foot cabin by the crick’ and have ‘fathered seven kids so far, ten if you include the ones who were taken early by whooping cough’. Now, these men ‘want to live in a city with great vibes, hot singles, and plenty of food trucks’, whilst women of the same age are sending memes about being ‘so brat’ back on forth on Instagram whilst looking up the kind of houses we could never afford on the internet as we eat pot noodles in bed). (God, I love us).
Demure, aka folklore/evermore
According to Dictionary.com, ‘demure’ is the word that best defines 2024 – based on analysis from lexicographers who described its rise to use as ‘meteoric’ this year (a nearly 1200% increase in usage). This is, of course, thanks to the Queen that is Jools Lebron. But the definition is complex: used to describe those who are ‘reserved, quiet, or modest’, its new usage is somewhat satirical in nature. A play on the popularity of ‘quiet luxury’ (what even is quite luxury, anyway?!), to be ‘demure’ and ‘cutesy’ is to pair soft cashmere jumpers with deadpan humour. Obsessed.
Things that were demure in 2024? Selena Gomez getting engaged. Moo Deng providing viral skincare inspiration. Hailey Bieber cutting a ‘Rhode’ sourdough loaf to the accompaniment of a satirical voiceover about ‘making bitches mad’. It’s subversion; it’s wit; it’s demurtsy. It’s Rebekah Harkness dying a neighbour’s dog key lime green (‘there goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen’), and also the entire song ‘cardigan’ (high heels on cobblestones?! How demure). (Can you tell I’m having fun?).
Brain Rot, aka Guilty as Skibiddy
This one’s the Oxford Word of the Year – chosen after a public vote. It’s defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging […] likely to lead to such deterioration”. I’m totally obsessed with the fact that Oxford Dictionary traces the first ever use of the term back to Henry David Throeau’s Walden: “While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” It truly is impossible to separate the high from the low.
This piece in The New Yorker is a brilliant examination of the term, as is this piece, which I referenced earlier this year in my exploration of how everything has become flattened on the internet (from Kyle Chayka: ‘The attempted assignation of a former President was treated with the same catholic flippancy as a pop album’).
Things that were ‘brain rot’ in 2024: the lyric ‘that’s that me espresso’, doomscrolling (just, in general), the whole ‘demure’ trend (also the whole ‘brat’ trend). And, no, I couldn’t give it an era, because everything Taylor Swift writes is brilliant (again: sorry not sorry). Instead, here’s a (slightly terrifying) viral sound in which ‘brain rot’ terms such as ‘Skibidi toilet’ replace the lyrics of ‘Guilty as Sin’. Listen at your own peril.
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Polarisation, aka Lover vs. Reputation
This one’s from Merriam-Webster, and it’s defined as ‘division into two sharply distinct opposites.’ Ironically, though, it ‘happens to be the one idea that both sides of the political spectrum agree on.’ Because, let’s be honest, this world in which we live is, in 2024, a world divided. Not only through echo-chambers and algorithms (man vs. bear, brat vs. Demure, reading vs. watching, TikTok vs. Instagram, Sabrina Carpenter vs. Olivia Rodrigo, Lover vs. Reputation, The Eras Tour vs. what? American football?). And not only politically (according to MSNBC, “the 2024 presidential election left [the US] more polarized than ever”), or even socioeconomically (that stark contrast between the A Listers applying ‘realistic’ make-up on our feeds vs. the reality of life in a cost-of-living crisis), but also in something more pervasive. Something that runs, like a current, beneath the rhythm of our daily lives: the news bulletins reminding us of the many horrors unfolding elsewhere, as we order or coffees and light our candles and read about the term ‘brain rot’ on our phones.
The New York Times suggested that all of this raises an ‘unsettling question: Could all these rival words — and the flood of news articles about them — contribute to brain rot?” And I – in my writerly arrogance – would like to ask another: Could all these rival words contribute, not to brain rot, but to something deeply polarised about our society? Wasn’t ‘Demure’ defined (by the many articles spawned after that first viral TikTok) as the direct antidote – the autumnal response – to summer’s ‘Brat’? And doesn’t the brain-rot of all of this (because ‘demure’ and ‘brat’ do both fall under that category) exist in opposition to, well, anything that doesn’t play out in the pop-culture-social-media-ified Internet? (Aka, existing in the real world or – as the brain-rot saying goes – ‘touching grass’). And isn’t all of this kind of exemplifying, well, polarisation?!
Or, another option: brain rot is nothing more and nothing less than funny nonsense. And funny nonsense is – according to some great thinkers of the past – Generally a Good Thing.
But enough of that. Now for the ‘Notes On’ Round-up I promised. This one’s mainly reccs.
Noteworthy
Reesa Teesa’s use of TikTok to create the viral series ‘who TF did I marry’? (It’s giving Dickens, in the best way).
The Tortured Poets Department. Full stop. I’m still playing it every day.
All the many lookalike competitions.
The whole Intermezzo roll-out (including the concept that you had to be cool enough to get a proof, which was kind of iconic).
The rise of the Instagram carousel (I’d kinda had enough of the dumps anyway).
Gisèle Pelicot. The woman she is.
The Eras Tour (I went twice. I watched the film twice. I acted it out once, drunk. I’d do it over and over again if I could).
Obsessing
Open fires
Deep reds
Buttery spaghetti with lemon and parmesan
Reading indie magazines front to back in bed
Planning holidays (even if I can’t afford them)
Depop and Vinted (I got a gorgeous GANNI jumper half price, and also a Coach bag which I’m obsessed with)
Still lemonade
Lip balm
Finding old notebooks I never wrote in and actually using them
Levelling up my body-care (actually moisturising my whole body after a shower)
Evening showers
Turning my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’
Having lots of ‘Do Not Disturb’ settings to choose from (sleep, work, home, etc)
Writing things by hand
Baby Guinesses (yes, I discovered these this year. Yes, I order one on every night out)
Having Pinterest boards and playlists for every single moment of my life (I even have a 2000s chick-flick core playlist which makes you feel like you’re actually living in a movie)
Planning whole weekends with friends
Unscented candles
Always having something to look forward to
You. Writing this. Reading your comments. Chatting with you. Creating things for you. This whole community. I’m totally, completely obsessed.
Texts
Okay, so I’m not going to write about books here (because I have a whole books round-up coming next week), but here are a few pieces I loved reading this year.
This poem about friends around the dinner table
- ’s essay entitled ‘against narrative’
This piece about NDA culture in The Cut
And this one about that whole Kate Middleton debacle earlier this year (remember when the internet went mad?)
- writing about Intermezzo: ‘Interesting Abyss, Where Are You?’
This piece from
(and, specifically, , whose writing I love): How to sell a book when you're not a Literary It GirlThis piece from
(which I was lucky enough to contribute to): our year of zest and realizationsThis Modern Love essay, which wasn’t from this year, but I found myself going back to it (also, it was written by one of my friends, which makes me love it even more).
This incredible piece about the industry of ‘self-care’ and its roots in misogyny: Post-Election, Beware 'Self-Care' (‘Would Audre Lorde recognize "self-care" today? Would we recognize her?’)
This piece from
about the dangers of the ‘girlhood’ trend (“12-year-olds should not be grown women and grown women should not be 12-year-olds”).This piece from
which is just beautiful: how to have a good 2025And finally: piece about friendship changing as you get older from The New Yorker
Educated by
This piece from Jia Tolentino:
A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing?This retrospective on 2024: The Year Creators Took Over
Zadie Smith for The Guardian, writing about hope
And finally, this piece in The New Yorker: Why the Humanitarian Situation in Gaza is worse than it’s ever been
Favourite podcast episodes this year include:
Anything from After Work Drinks, or Giggly Squad (they’re fun and light and make you think, which is my favourite combination)
This episode of Sentimental Garbage, with Taffy Broddesser Ackner
This episode of Shameless: ‘What does a 30-something look like?’
Saved
I just want to say a huge huge huge thank you for supporting me through this year – for reading my work, for commenting on it. For subscribing. This time last year, I had just started putting my writing on TikTok – literally, just started. If I told past me that today’s me would be writing this – and thanking all of you – she would have screamed. And jumped up and down. And then said: ‘Omg omg omg what the fuck.’ (I’m eloquent like that).
Paid subs are still 50% off for annual subscriptions (£20) until Jan 2nd – because I just really want to say a huge thank you, and this felt like a good way of doing that. Also: the countdown to my announcement is on (!!) I’ll be dropping another hint in the chat later today. Remember: the first person to guess it gets a full year of ‘Notes On’ membership. (Spoiler: no one has guessed it yet).
I’ll be posting a proper ‘New Years’ post (as well as a books round-up) in the coming weeks. But for now – thank you thank you thank you.
Sending love,
Hannah xxx
My subscription to your substack is one of the things (truly) that has brought me so much joy and feeling seen this last year. So excited to see what you write in 2025b
hannah!!! i loved this so much! thank you for including my piece and i'm so glad I've gotten to know you this year 💌