GROWING OLD: “CHEUGY” IS THE NEW BOOMER

If your coffee place of choice is Starbucks, you constantly make jokes referring to The Office, love lasagna and use the hashtag GirlBoss, you’re probably cheugy. But what is cheugy?

Cheugy (chew-ghee) is a term coined by the young Gen-Zer’s that is used to describe millennials and their outdated trends. It is also used to describe millennials who are trying to be trendy but miss the mark just enough to make them cringey. The popularity of the word soared after a TikTok user used it to explain people who try too hard to be on trend but aren’t, according to The New York Times.

Naturally, millennials are cheugy in Gen-Z’s eyes. Millennial fashion, interests and politics can be considered cheugy.

The question here is why does it matter? It is not so much that the idea of people being off trend really matters. It wasn’t long ago that millennials were screaming at the top of their lungs “OK, Boomer!” to describe any outdated idea of family, work and financial decisions. But much like the term “Boomer,” cheugy brings up the feelings of becoming old in a lot of millennials as a The Washington Post article describes.

Many things that are considered cheugy like UGG boots and being really into the Obamas post-presidency are just a reminder of the good old times when you used to wear your apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur while you had a Hope sticker on your car feeling like a #GirlBoss. In basic terms, your tastes and interest are stuck in the first half of the 2010s.

It’s the age-old question of what’s “in” and what’s “out” and we know that Gen-Zers have been very vocal in telling millennials what they find cringey about their interests. The thing with cheugy is that anyone, regardless of age, can have something cheugy about them. Maybe it’s the chevron-patterned shirt sitting at the back of your closet that you can’t seem to get rid of or that “Live Laugh Love” sign you have hanging in your kitchen. It isn’t so much about who you are as a person, but more so the little things that make up who you are that can be cheugy.

The reality of cheugy, much like Boomer, is that millennials are no longer the “it” generation. No one is hanging to a millennial’s last word on why they can afford avocado toast this week. Gen Zer’s are moving on up quickly and with that comes a different meaning of the word trendy that the older generations will sooner or later become victims of. The only thing left to do is roll with it.