What's 'lucky girl syndrome' and why are so many people catching it?

Tied to the law of attraction and assumption, this inner dialogue combines both philosophies into one convenient trend that’s got people believing that opportunities will just present themselves and doors will simply open because you caught the syndrome—you can’t help it! 

The law of attraction says positive thinking attracts positive results, while the law of assumption assumes that what is true becomes reality. So, when you’re focusing your energy on the good vibes, lucky girl syndrome says it will bring you the best outcomes in life. As you consciously approach things with positivity, you will get the results you want and need. 

Simplistic? Yes. Delusional? Kind of. Effective? We’ll let you decide.

Why does everyone want to be the lucky girl?

There’s no scientific basis behind this, but the trend has got everyone raving about the power of positivity in our day-to-day lives.

The recent years in the pandemic have been marred with a lot of not-so-positive situations. It’s brought about anxiety, depression, and fear of what’s to come next. It has been challenging for many to find comfort and stability. And these have made it easy to fall into the nihilism of it all. I mean, you’ve watched Everything Everywhere All At Once—nothing matters, right?

Wrong. If nothing matters, then we get to choose what does. And in its own little way, lucky girl syndrome is all about countering the negative emotions we’ve felt throughout the pandemic. 

We started the pandemic by being “that girl,” where we romanticized our lives and took active lifestyle steps to be the best version of ourselves, such as exercising every day, waking up early, and drinking a heavy dose of matcha lattes for some reason. And when that got tiring, we moved to “goblin mode” in 2022, where we ditched the social norms and became our unapologetic, self-indulgent selves. We embraced the little gremlin in all of us by living how we wanted, presenting how we wanted, and ultimately relieving the pressure of trying to be “that girl.”

Now, we have “lucky girl” syndrome for 2023, which puts us in a space where we’re done looking at ourselves and nitpicking parts of who we are. We want things to go our way, and we want the changes we’ve previously fought for to happen. We’ve been fatigued by the bad news. So, when does the good news roll in?

Is there a downside to being the lucky girl?

Yes and no. 

In any given situation, positive thinking is well and good. As mentioned, we’ve been so tired of the bad news of the world that we want to just catch a break and find a sense of comfort that everything will work out. And we deserve that! After all, the pandemic years away from an audience have taught us that self-perception can affect how we live our everyday lives. And maybe, just maybe, if we have a little faith in ourselves, things can look a lot better for us—even by a little.

However, we must remember that there are situations in life that we can’t manifest our way out of. Systematic privilege and biases still play a heavy role in impacting our lives. A quick mindset switch-up won’t change all outcomes. As other TikTok users pointed out, lucky girl syndrome can possibly make people blame themselves for things out of their control. So, for that, we must stay clear from lucky girl-ing ourselves into toxic positivity territory.

It’s hard to always be positive, especially when bad things do happen. And we should allow ourselves to feel what we feel and respond to situations in ways that are authentic to us.

So, the bottom line to all this: There’s space for a range of emotions. We can’t choose what happens to us, and we may have leeway to react in any way we want, but we don’t have to pressure ourselves into a single mindset all the time when our situations in life vary constantly. As the TikTokers say, we’re the main characters of our own story, and as the main character, we’re allowed to have character depth in more ways than one.