About

Misery Girl or Misery Girls are slang terms used in a series of memes that make fun of girls with specific alt, emo and goth aesthetics, including excessive piercings and heavy makeup, referring to them as "misery girls," a reference to the song "Misery" by Pupsies, which is often depicted in the memes as being their favorite song.

Many of the memes use photographs of X / Twitter user @himonkeyhamie as the ultimate representation of a misery girl, although images of other alt girls are also used. The memes were popularized on TikTok in mid-August 2026. Some of the most popular memes use the phrase "dad play Misery" to make fun of the specific type of alt girls and also suggest they're into ageplay. The memes feature considerable crossover with the Dream Girl Wallahi format, a comment that is often ironically used to call a misery girl someone's dream girl.

As the memes grew in virality, they also inspired posts and memes defending misery girls from people who make fun of them. These memes refute the idea that all alt girls are into ageplay, the song "Misery," and criticize people who play into the memes for being inauthentic.

Origin

It is unclear exactly when the "misery girl" meme and term started. The memes were popularized throughout August 2026, with the earliest memes attributing a love of the song "Misery" by Pupsies to alt girls with excessive piercings and makeup.

For example, on August 12th, 2026, TikToker^[1] @the.scarred.one posted a video showing an alt girl with lots of lip piercings under the caption, "How did you know my fav song is Misery?" garnering over 12,000 views in a week.

Spread

On August 15th, 2026, TikToker^[2] @doelilll posted an AI-edited video of a misery girl asking "dada" to up the volume on some "Misery phonk," garnering over 800,000 views in six days.

That day, X^[3] user @bledgun posted a meme that uses an image of X user @himonkeyhamie as a representation of a misery girl, showing someone buying an album with her on the cover under the caption, "Buying da Misery album for Dada," garnering over 11,000 likes in six days.

On August 17th, TikToker^[4] @t.pearr posted a video that shares several images of misery girls, including X user @himonkeyhamie, under the caption, "Dada turn on dat misery," garnering over 2.3 million views in four days.

On August 20th, 2026, TikToker^[5] @hotuniv posted a video where they drew a misery girl, garnering over 400,000 views in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References