Parents, These 5 Teen Slang Words Took Over Last Month
A word might originate on TikTok, bounce around a few schools, then land in your kitchen via your 12-year-old, who never explains what it means. By the time you work up the nerve to ask, the trend has already moved on.
While most of the time, these phrases are harmless, it can be helpful to know what your kid is talking about. And June 2025 brought a fresh batch of slang that's either charming, confusing, or mildly alarming. Here's what you missed.
The slang term "chat" originated on streaming platforms like Twitch, where audiences would comment in real time in the live chat. Now, it's being used more broadly as a term of address similar to "bruh." At first glance, it's harmless, but it can also point to the complicated relationship kids have with content creation.
Meaning: A term of address that refers to an audience or group of people.
Common Usage: "Chat, what's up?" or "Chat, is this real?"
Where You May Have Heard It: TikTok, Twitch
Parent Translation: The term "chat" is similar to "bruh" or "dude."
A term rooted in toxic beauty discourse and pulled from online subcultures, "looksmaxxing" refers to doing anything to optimize your physical appearance—whether it's skincare, gym workouts, or cosmetic procedures. It's especially popular on TikTok and Reddit, where it's used both seriously and ironically, and can veer into concerning territory.
Meaning: Maximizing one's physical attractiveness through various methods.
Common Usage: "Looksmaxxing starter pack"
Where You May Have Heard It: TikTok, Twitch, Reddit
Parent Translation: This trend centers around having an extreme makeover that drastically "optimizes" your appearance. Use of this term typically signals unhealthy body image pressure and toxic media habits.
"Checking the UV" may sound like a skincare PSA, but it's actually the opposite. It literally refers to checking the UV index on the weather app to see how strong the sun is and whether it's a good time to tan. However, teens are tanning when the UV is extremely high for the sake of aesthetics, and experts warn it can lead to serious health risks.
Meaning: Using the UV index to determine if one should tan outside.
Common Usage: "I'm just going to check the UV" or "When you're checking the UV instead of your ..."
Where You May Have Heard It: TikTok, Instagram
Parent Translation: Welcome back tanning culture! Some parents remember when tanning beds were all the rage and this trend is pretty similar.
This term refers to the often subconscious attempt at cultivating an online (and offline) persona that reflects a particular type of cool. "Aura farming" is used to describe someone who is trying to project a certain self-image to avoid being judged. However, it is often said ironically to insult someone who is trying too hard to be cool, because when you're in middle school nothing's more cringe than being caught trying.
Meaning: Deliberately cultivating a certain aesthetic to project a desired image.
Common Usage: "Had to aura farm right quick" or "Bro is aura farming"
Where You May Have Heard It: TikTok, Instagram, Twitch
Parent Translation: If you've heard of a "try-hard" then you've already met "aura farming's" distant cousin. The term calls out someone who's carefully curating their vibe to match what is currently trending—or trying a little too hard to appear effortlessly cool, in control, or talented, even when it's all smoke and mirrors.
"Glazing" is basically over-the-top flattery, to the point of it being kind of embarrassing. It's when someone hypes up a person so much that it starts to feel performative or fake. Teens often use it to call out their peers, however some teens use the term to bully others for being kind.
Meaning: Being way too complimentary.
Common Usage: "Bro is glazing" or "That friend that thinks everything is glazing"
Where You May Have Heard It: TikTok, Instagram, Twitch
Parent Translation: This term is in the same family as a "suck up"—a beloved insult from decades ago. Though some form of this phrase has always existed in the lexicon, it's still worth addressing if you think your kid is picking on kind behaviors.
Slang moves fast, and already there are terms from earlier this year that are phrasing out of popularity. Here are some to stop repeating (even though now you may finally know the meaning).
Chicken jockey: The Minecraft movie madness is over and so is this phrase!
Six-seven: Though still going strong in some states, most kids have stopped shouting six-seven by now.
Gyat: Thankfully, mentions of "gyats" have also become less popular among kids.
Big back: This crude phrase is also on its way out (and we can finally stuff our faces in peace).You may have already noticed new slang bubbling about, here are a few phrases we expect to take off:
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34 minutes ago
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'It's funny because I acted like what happened between Jess and Zev was like me keeping a plot point from 'Lost' secret,' she says. 'And it's just that they broke up. It's a totally normal breakup, but to her, it's like her rosebud, it's her 'Citizen Kane.'' Stalter found it refreshing that Dunham wanted to show someone in their mid-30s still grappling with the pains of a past relationship while falling in love — and learning that love is not always the magical cure. 'I actually think that being in love is bringing up everything that's ever happened to you because you're finally with someone that's safe,' Stalter says. 'You're like, 'Wait, what if you knew this about me? Would you still make me feel safe? OK — what if you knew this about me? We still safe?' While 'Too Much' is another narrative inspired by her life, Dunham knew from its inception that she was not interested in being the face of the series. Even before 'Girls' premiered in 2012, the attention on Dunham, whose prior work was the 2010 indie film 'Tiny Furniture,' was intense. Over its six-season run, the buzz around 'Girls' — a series she wrote, sometimes directed and played the central character in — also opened it up to criticisms and commentary about representation, the privileged and self-absorbed behavior of its millennial characters and Dunham's prolific nudity. She largely retreated from television when 'Girls' ended — she co-created HBO's short-lived comedy 'Camping' and directed the network's pilot of 'Industry.' Dunham says the experience of 'Girls' — and the time away — gave her a clearer sense of who she is and her limitations as she approached this new series in her late 30s. 'There was a moment where it seemed like her [Meg's] schedule might not work and I remember saying, 'I don't know if I want to make this show if that's the case.' I wasn't like, 'I don't want to put myself through this, therefore it's Meg.' But separately, I don't really want to put myself through it.' In the beginning, with 'Girls,' Dunham says she was able to brush off the criticism. But the commentary was relentless, even in her day-to-day life. 'I was in a recovery room at a hospital and a nurse said, 'Why do you get naked on television all the time?'' she recalls. 'We live in a strange time where people act like they don't have power over what they're viewing. They act like you held their eyeballs open with a weird eyeball machine and force them to watch your show and they are living a trauma as a result. 'It created a lot of anger in me and I don't like to be angry. I think because I don't like to be angry, I really suppressed that. And suppressed anger has to come out somewhere,' she adds. 'And because I deal with chronic illness, it made it harder to bear that. I was swallowing down so much rage.' There isn't as much sex and nudity in 'Too Much.' But there's some. As someone whose success began online, where trolls are in high supply, Stalter has learned to navigate unsolicited feedback about her appearance. 'I haven't been on TV that long, but I have been a comedian that posts online for a long time,' she says. 'I love the way I look and I love my brain and my heart so much that someone calling me fat online, I'm like, 'Honey, there's a lot of Reddit threads about that. Who cares?' If you're not attracted to me, good thing we're not dating, I guess. I'm almost 35 — I'm so happy that I feel this way about myself.' While Stalter is the beating heart of the show, Dunham is among the memorable supporting players as Jessica's sister Nora. The character, who has moved in with her grandmother (Rhea Perlman) and mother (Rita Wilson), is confronting her own crossroads after her husband, played by former 'Girls' co-star Andrew Rannells, decides he wants freedom to explore his sexuality. The split leaves her bedbound, hardly attentive to the teenage son they share. 'Nora is proud of her sister, but she's also jealous — she is trapped in the very space Jessica deemed tragic and pathetic, at home with their family,' Dunham says. 'Even her son seems to find it fairly pathetic, and his father gets to be the hero, despite having left. I'm not a mother, but I can relate to feeling stuck because of obligation and also to wondering when it's going to be your turn to make the decision that's right for you. She doesn't get her 'next act' and has to live with the one she's got. If we get to make a second season, I have a lot to mine here.' It's unclear how much of 'Too Much' there will be. The season closes in romantic-comedy fashion, with its main couple, despite the road bumps, choosing each other and getting married. But Dunham has more to say. 'We don't always have control of how much we get to make,' Dunham says. 'I thought about this with the first season of 'Girls' — if this show never comes back, then I want to end with Hannah eating cake on the beach after her boyfriend got hit by a truck. That's what needs to happen. And we know how we wanted this to end. But as in life, a happy ending is just the beginning of a different life with someone. And so — ' 'Twenty more seasons!' Stalter cheerily interjects. 'It's going to run for seasons upon seasons,' Dunham continues. 'But I do think about marriage comedies. I'm really obsessed with 'Mr. Mom,' with Michael Keaton. And I love 'Mad About You.' I love a comedy that lets us see what's behind keeping a marriage going. I would love the chance to see them being parents.' 'Having triplets,' Stalter adds. 'I'd love to film Meg getting a C-section for the triplets,' Dunham says. Stalter quips: 'A whole episode is the whole C-section.' While 'Too Much' puts Dunham fully in her romantic comedy era, it wasn't originally intended to be a show about love. Before she met Felber, Dunham was mulling tapping into her experience of spending extended periods in England for work and the culture clash of a brassy American coming to the U.K. Then she met Felber, and 'it was the first time I ever felt like I was living in a romantic comedy,' she says. 'I always felt like I was living in a sad, gritty romantic drama where they don't end up together in the end, and someone falls asleep in a puddle.' 'Too Much' features episode titles that pay homage to romance films like 'Notting Hill,' 'Pretty Woman' and 'Love Actually.' Dunham says the rom-com genre was the first she ever loved, but developed internalized snobbery around it as she got older. 'I felt like I was having this innocent romantic forced out of me,' she says. 'By the time I was in my 20s, I felt embarrassed to be that romantic person. I felt as though to even feel that way was sort of naive and silly. I didn't feel like I was allowed to want the things that I wanted or ask for the things that I really needed.' As she got older and started dating again after a period of being single in her early 30s, that began to change. 'When I met my husband, I was kind of back in that place in my 20s, where I thought, 'This is not something that's going to happen for me,'' she says. 'And as a result, I was very honest and I was very blunt, and I think it ended up having a really interesting effect, which is that it actually made it possible for us to get to know each other, and in turn, created something that was more romantic than anything I'd experienced before.' Enough to approach him with a proposal about a month into their relationship: Will you make this show with me? He said yes. In the time since, they've collaborated on other projects — she worked on two of Felber's music videos and he helped score her 2022 film 'Sharp Stick.' Working on a TV show, though, was a big commitment early into their relationship. But it turns out it wasn't too much. 'I remember thinking we could make something really cool if all the universe and all the Tetris pieces of life fall into place,' he says in a separate video call. 'When you're at the beginning of a relationship and you feel like someone's taste matches yours, improves yours — that was Lena. I didn't understand what it meant — 'Hey, do you want to make a TV show with me?' I was like, 'What does that entail? Do I walk up and down the room just cracking jokes and you write them down?' She's like, 'Basically.' I was like, 'I could do that.'' It's not their story directly, but the show was a way for them to put their experiences together. 'Our love was the germ of this, or the nucleus of it; we always wanted to make something joyful. But when you're going on set every day with your partner, you learn a lot about them quickly,' he says. 'Most couples get home from work and are like, 'How was your day, my love?' We had that down. I think it was a catalyst to our relationship, in a way. To be able to see Lena direct, act and write was like, 'Wow.' It was so inspiring to be around someone like that.' Dunham's mark on the rom-com genre is still in progress. She's currently in production on the upcoming film 'Good Sex,' also for Netflix, about a 40-something couples therapist who reenters the dating scene: 'The film is very much an examination of what it is to exit your 30s and wonder if your exploration decades have come to a close,' Dunham says. 'It's a question we are always asking ourselves because the 30s were the new 20s, but what are the 40s, especially if you haven't chosen to, or been able to be, a parent?' The film boasts Natalie Portman, Rashida Jones, Mark Ruffalo and '90s rom-com queen Meg Ryan. There isn't an Instagram backstory involved with the casting of that Meg. Dunham says she approached Ryan while at Taylor Swift's Eras tour stop in London. 'I tend to let icons have their space, but she and I shared Nora Ephron as a guiding force in our lives, and so I really just wanted to talk about Nora because remembering her makes me happy,' Dunham shared in a follow-up email. 'It led to a lovely, nonwork lunch and burgeoning friendship and I wrote with her in mind. But I was still stunned and honored when she said yes. Watching her at the table read, Natalie and Rashida and I were just pinching ourselves. Afterwards, we all texted 'Meg f—ing Ryan!' What can I say — I may be long sober, but I'm addicted to Megs.'
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- Buzz Feed
Love Island Cierra Ortega's Family Had ICE Called On Them
On Sunday, Love Island USA viewers were left confused when the show's narrator, Iain Stirling, announced that bombshell Cierra Ortega had 'left the villa due to a personal situation' just one week before the finale. And it didn't take long for fans of the show to speculate that Cierra had actually been removed by producers after multiple past social media posts from Cierra, who is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, using a racial slur against East Asian people had resurfaced online. In January 2015, Cierra used the derogatory term to describe her face, and she repeated the same word again in a February 2023 post to describe how she thought her eyes looked after getting Botox. The resurfaced posts very quickly went viral, with Cierra losing more than 200k Instagram followers last week, and a petition calling for her removal from the villa amassing thousands of signatures. After Cierra left the villa, her parents issued a statement to her Instagram story that said the past week had been 'one of the most painful weeks' of their lives as they referenced the hateful messages that they had been receiving off the back of the resurfaced posts. 'The threats. The cruel messages. The attacks on her family, her friends, even her supporters, it's heartbreaking,' the statement read. 'It's uncalled for. And no one deserves that kind of hate, no matter what mistake they've made.'Her mom and dad went on to share their belief that Cierra will 'take responsibility in her own time,' before adding: 'Until then, we're simply asking for compassion. For patience. For basic human decency. Not just for her, but everyone caught in the middle of this.' And on Wednesday, Cierra broke her silence on the whole situation in a lengthy apology video that was posted to her social media profiles. In the video, Cierra also revealed that her loved ones have had ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) called on them because of her past actions. As I am sure you know, this comes at a time when ICE has been heavily criticized and protested against for its relentless pursuit of alleged immigration violations, which has included raiding numerous workplaces in Los Angeles to arrest and deport people. 'While I was in the Villa, there were some posts that resurfaced from my past where I was very naively using an incredibly offensive and derogatory term. And before I get into the details, I want to first start by addressing not just anyone that I have hurt or deeply offended, but most importantly, the entire Asian community,' Cierra's video began. 'I am deeply, truly, honestly, so sorry. I had no idea that the word held as much pain, as much harm, and came with the history that it did, or I never would have used it. I had no ill intention when I was using it, but that's absolutely no excuse because intent doesn't excuse ignorance. It just doesn't. And I just need you to know that I am so sorry, but this is not an apology video. This is an accountability video.' She then denied claims that she had 'doubled down' on using the offensive terms when people tried to correct her, and said that in actuality, she immediately stopped using the word as soon as she learned how offensive it was. 'It was a true learning moment for me, and I think since that moment I've done so much growing as an individual, and I've tried my best to educate others who might be accidentally holding space for these types of words that could be offensive in their vocabulary,' Cierra went on to say that she 'completely agrees' with the network's decision to remove her from Love Island, stating: 'I think that this is something that deserved punishment, and the punishment has absolutely been received for sure.' However, Cierra then revealed just how far some of her critics had gone in their pursuit to punish her, sharing: 'What's been extremely, extremely difficult is the way people are approaching my family and my loved ones. They have had ICE called on them. My family doesn't feel safe in their own home. I'm receiving death threats.' 'There's no need to fight hate with hate,' she added. 'I don't think that that's justice, and if you want to know that you are heard and that I'm sorry and that I will move differently, I promise you that's what will happen.''All I can ask for is, even if you won't give me forgiveness, if you can just allow me to grow with grace and hopefully, instead of sitting here and trying to convince you that I am this amazing person who spreads light in the world and celebrates cultures and dynamics and backgrounds, then one day you can see that from me,' Cierra concluded. 'I'm deeply sorry again, and I thank anyone who's listening.' You can watch Cierra's full video below — let me know your thoughts in the comments:
