.jpg)
By Mihar Dias December 2024
In a world where louder is often equated with better, who would have thought that a word like demure—meaning “reserved, quiet, or modest”—could take the internet by storm?
Yet here we are, with demure crowned Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year for 2024. The credit, quite demurely, goes to lifestyle and beauty influencer Jools Lebron, whose catchphrase “very demure, very mindful” turned an unassuming adjective into a cultural phenomenon.
When Lebron first sprinkled demure into her TikTok videos in early August, no one could have predicted the meteoric rise that would follow. According to Dictionary.com, the term saw a staggering 200-fold increase in searches by mid-August. Suddenly, demure was everywhere: gracing the captions of Instagram influencers, hashtagged on Twitter, and even the subject of meme-worthy videos from celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Khloé Kardashian.
For Lebron, the moment was nothing short of transformative. Her TikTok audience ballooned as viewers flocked to embrace her brand of understated elegance. She became a late-night sensation, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with RuPaul, and even trademarked her now-iconic phrase.
The irony? She reacted to her viral fame with the same quiet grace that she had made trendy: a response so perfectly aligned with the meaning of demure it bordered on poetic.
The Lingua Franca of Influence
Lebron’s rise is more than just a testament to her charisma and marketing prowess; it’s a reflection of a cultural moment. As society grapples with the overstimulation of modern life, the allure of “mindfulness” and simplicity grows stronger. Demure captured this zeitgeist, offering an antidote to the brashness and boldness that typically dominate online spaces.
Yet the success of demure also highlights the peculiar mechanics of internet fame. Words and ideas don’t just go viral because they’re meaningful—they catch fire because someone finds a way to make them stick.
Lebron didn’t just popularize a word; she packaged it in a lifestyle, a mood, and an aesthetic. “Very demure, very mindful” wasn’t just a phrase—it was a mantra for those seeking to temper the chaos of their feeds with something quieter, softer, and more intentional.
The Power of Language
What makes demure so fascinating as Word of the Year is how it challenges conventional ideas about influence. In an era dominated by outrage clicks and shouty debates, a word associated with modesty became a unifying force. The irony is delicious: the quieter the word, the louder its impact.
Of course, there’s a bittersweet side to any viral trend. As demure becomes trademarked and monetized, it risks losing the very qualities that made it appealing in the first place. When modesty becomes a commodity, can it remain authentic? Will demure endure as a symbol of mindful elegance, or will it fade into the cacophony of forgotten buzzwords?
Very Demure, Very 2024
Regardless of what the future holds, one thing is certain: Jools Lebron has given us more than a Word of the Year. She’s given us a reminder that quietness can be powerful, that modesty can make waves, and that even in a noisy world, sometimes the softest voices resonate the most.
Here’s to demure, the word that whispered its way into the spotlight—and to the woman who taught us that being understated never goes out of style.
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
