Or more recently, Charli XCX in her “Brat” era, whose lo-fi aesthetic and collaborations with young artists like Billie Eilish and Addison Rae spoke to the mood of Gen Z — even when her lyrics evinced quintessentially millennial concerns about fertility and finding the best bathroom to do coke in.

As Charli explores the highs and lows of womanhood, what it means to be a so-called ‘brat’ is revealed - life is messy and complicated and as a result, we roll our eyes, complain over the most trivial things, cry too much or not enough, feel hotly insecure, question everything and hold on to madness until it explodes.

In major publications, personal Substack newsletters, and, of course, on X, everyone has offered their own diagnoses; “young men aren’t reading, so how can they be expected to write?”; “the publishing industry is disproportionately women-dominated”; “Andrew Tate says books are ‘for losers who are afraid to learn from life.’” I find the writer Andre

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