How TikTok’s favourite trend finally went too far

A young woman sits cross-legged facing a ring light. She records herself dabbing blush on her cheeks, wiggling a mascara wand through her lashes and outlining her lips with a nude-toned liner. Everything seems normal — the video is not dissimilar from the thousands of makeup tutorials that exist online — except for the context in which this is being filmed: she’s been ordered to evacuate her home due to the deadly wildfires raging nearby in Los Angeles. “So, LA’s burning right now and I’ve got a few hours to pack my life up and get out of here,” she tells the camera in a chatty tone, swiping a shiny gloss across her lips.

The video in question is titled “GRWM to evacuate” — the acronym being short for Get Ready With Me. It’s an online content format that does what it says on the tin: viewers watch as a person does their hair and makeup, and picks an outfit, while they chat through a rolling bulletin of life updates. The content format has been the backbone of influencer vlogging culture since it began. But after the wildfires ignited across southern California more than a week ago, evacuation-themed videos have taken over — and to a mixed response. One onlooker commented on TikTok: “Doing a GRWM to evacuate is crazy... this is a serious situation. Another added: “Girl, why is your GRWM to evacuate you putting makeup on and not packing?” A third was even more direct: “‘GRWM’? There’s people that are dying??”

The meeting point between “content creation” and the ongoing LA wildfires has become so uncomfortable online that Public Enemy’s Chuck D pleaded with people to stop using the group’s song “Burn Hollywood Burn” — written as a protest song in the Nineties — in videos about the wildfires. Evacuation-themed GRWM videos have been branded distasteful and insensitive but, as I’m sure you’re aware, people on social media will make light of a global news event no matter how serious the topic. Think of when social media users made light of Jay Slater’s disappearance in Tenerife, or when people mocked the news about Mike Lynch’s yacht capsizing off the coast of Sicily. Then there was the meme-ification of Luigi Mangione, who was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

Before, a GRWM video would have been recorded when an influencer was going to a wedding or fancy event; in recent months, the circumstances have become more and more bizarre. There are the more sombre themes such as “GRWM for my nan’s funeral”. There’s the self-deprecating life update ones: “GRWM to catch my boyfriend cheating”. And the more worrying ones that see pre-teen children sharing their school makeup routine: “GRWM for my first day back at school.”

The GRWM video style has existed since the concept of beauty vlogging went mainstream in the 2010s — following the creation of YouTube in 2005, and Instagram in 2010. The early versions of the GRWM format existed in detailed 40-minute YouTube videos in which the first generation of influencers — such as Zoella and NikkieTutorials — would deliver wholesome makeup how-tos and share their favourite products. It was a simple, harmless and a relaxing pastime. But since the GRWM trend migrated to TikTok, the videos have become more bite-sized — and the topics more strange.

Caitlin Jardine, a social media specialist at the communications agency Ellis Digital, says that the appeal of the GRWM trend began when vlogging was in its prime, with the videos carrying a “raw and genuine tone”, allowing “viewers to get to know the content creator on a more intimate level”. The very nature of the video set-up, with the blogger usually sitting at their dressing table or standing opposite their bathroom mirror, has become a location for a relatable, confessional, girl-next-door persona that’s alluring to the viewer. “The videos have always been about relatability,” says Jardine. “It’s about breaking that fourth wall so that viewers watching feel like they’ve got an older sibling or friend in the room with them.” Viewing a GRWM video, really, is like being on a one-way FaceTime with a friend.