Wake up babe, a new trend just dropped.
According to the website Know Your Meme, it’s been five years since the “wake up babe” format – which sees the phrase pasted over an image of a man waking up his girlfriend to announce a new internet talking point – really took off. I first encountered it at the height of what might be called “core fever” in fashion. A new look seemed to be arriving on social media feeds every week, driven by gen Z’s love of blink-or-miss-it microtrends. “Wake up babe, there’s a new aesthetic,” seemed an apt and amusing way to sum up the times.
