Nowadays, there’s a new wellness trend every week stemming from social media, TikTok specifically. This month, the latest one emerging from the platform is “Lucky Girl Syndrome.” It’s a mixture of positive affirmations, daily manifestation, and seemingly, a touch of delusion. A stark departure from the millennials’ favorite vision boards, Gen-Z is ushering in a new strategy of manifestation techniques to live their #bestlife.
“Lucky Girl Syndrome” is the belief that implementing a positive mindset and consistent, affirmative mantras can turn the odds of the day in your favor. Many have credited the viral trend for receiving additional funds, a job promotion, new relationships, and more. But one can’t help but wonder if “Lucky Girl Syndrome” is a modernized version of the “Law of Attraction” concept, packaged and marketed differently for digital-first audiences. Whatever it is, it’s working, as TikTok videos tagged with #LuckyGirlSyndrome continue to grow in views, with 212.6 million and counting.
The surge in popularity of the trend can be traced back to Laura Galebe, a 22-year-old white woman creator who in December posted a TikTok about her cushy life, with the caption, “The secret is to assume and believe it before the concrete proof shows up. BE DELUSIONAL.”
“I get the most insane opportunities thrown at me out of nowhere,” Galebe said in the video. “There’s literally no better way to explain it than it feels like the odds are completely in my favor.”
Most Black women don’t have the privilege of being delusional, as our everyday lives can often demand us to face grim realities without support. We usually receive professional and personal opportunities from hard work, grit, tenacity, dedication, and, yes, a little faith.
The allure of the “Lucky Girl Syndrome” is the idea that everything will fall into place with a positive mindset – and while that can be true to a certain extent, the key is doing the work with action-filled steps to see sizable changes, not from delusion. If you do everything in your power to make things fall into place the way you want, then the chances of them panning out as hoped is higher. But if you just think positively and that’s it, you might not be so “lucky” after all. Not to mention, with a pandemic that hasn’t completely ceased, gun violence and mass shootings, layoffs, and economic uncertainty, being positive and staying that way can be tough most days.
While we hope more positive things happen in your life than negative, there’s no side-stepping the unfortunate things that will occur. There will be situations in our lives that we cannot manifest or think our way out of. Sometimes, bad things happen for no apparent reason or with no lesson behind them. But how you handle these events is most important. The main issue with “The Lucky Girl Syndrome” is the work needed to level up and change your circumstances is missing or not mentioned. Although blessings can come from a higher power, you still need to do your part to bring them to fruition.
In addition to that, the core of this trend doesn’t confront the systemic barriers that many Black women and people of color face, some being lack of resources, privilege, generational wealth, and time. The truth is many people are afforded opportunities, strong tools, and abilities from the start. Some users agree with this stance, as they are starting to claim the idea behind the trend is ableist and racist, as not everyone can use the power of positive thinking only to change their life or circumstances.
So take Lucky Girl Syndrome with a grain of salt, folks. While we can say, “everything works out in our favor” to make us feel better, we need to be realistic about the fact that sometimes, and many times really, it won’t – and that’s ok, too. It only makes you stronger.