What does 'girl math' mean on TikTok? Viral trend takes the internet by storm

This summer several videos featuring netizens explaining the concept of 'Girl Math' have been taking over TikTok. The TikTok trend sees women trying to justify making excessive and lavish purchases. According to multiple TikToks, the phrase is a way for women to come to terms with their spending habits.

The term originated on a daily New Zealand morning radio show, FVHZM, hosted by Fletch, Vaughan, and Hayley. The hosts used the term 'Girl Math' to justify a caller getting hair extensions for their wedding. The term quickly gained popularity and has now gone viral online.

A social media user explained the term using an example of a handbag that cost $400. She mentioned that if she used the handbag every day for a year, i.e. 365 days, the bag would cost her just over a dollar per day, thus justifying her purchase.

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The rise of Girl Math

This is a rather simple concept and involves breaking down the price of a rather costly item to justify the extravagant purchase. Girl Math takes into account the long-term benefits, number of uses, resale value, availability, discount, potential price hike, personal satisfaction, potential regret, and more aspects while making an expensive purchase, thereby not making it seem as expensive.

While the price tag of a product may make a purchase feel unjustified on a budget, Girl Math analyses the price from a larger perspective.

Overall, its purpose is to combat regret or to simply make a person feel good about themselves and their finances rather than feel upset on looking at the price of an item. It lays emphasis on the value for money and reusability of a product.

These principles are explained in several videos online that have gone viral on platforms like TikTok and Twitter. However, TikTok user, @mckennaelianna's explanation of the new concept has been doing the rounds online.

"Anything under $5 is free. Anything I buy with a gift card is free. If I buy something and then return it, I've made money." she said.

TikTok user @mckennaelianna explains the new concept (Image via Twitter/@JoshLekach)

"Going to an event or concert is free because I purchased the ticket so long ago like it doesn't even count," she continued

She made several other interesting points and said that while paying someone back for dinner, if you had money in your Venmo, that dinner was free. She also mentioned that if she does not buy a pair of shots for $50, she has "made $50" and can spend that same amount somewhere else.

A lot more users including @samjamessssss agreed with her and shed some more light on the new concept.

The term originated from the popular New Zealand morning radio show FVHZM, hosted by Fletch, Vaughan, and Hayley. In the first segment, the hosts talked to a caller named Andrea about how by spending $400 on hair extensions for her wedding, she would be making money.

The math was done by dividing each salon visit and the inches of her hair. They arrived at a total cost of $1.40 per inch, which did not seem extravagant at all. The hosts also mentioned that she might regret not getting the extensions later, and want a do-over.

This will cost her around $40,000, which meant that she was in fact making money by getting the extensions.

The show's segment consists of listeners speaking to the hosts about their purchases, and the hosts in turn analyze the same according to the laws of Girl Math.