About

She's Pretty, But Can She Pull Off X is a phrasal template used in a TikTok trend where a list titled, "Can she pull off," consisting of several prompts including things like, "hair down," "hair up," "filter" and "no filter," is shown, followed by photos of the TikToker (or a celebrity) representing each prompt to showcase whether or not they can pull it off. The trend began on TikTok as early as May 2021, seeing an increase in popularity in October 2022.

Origin

The earliest known video performing the "Can She Pull Off" trend was posted to TikTok^[1] on May 20th, 2021 by @wandashotgirlfriend. In the video, the TikToker presents a list titled, "Yeah she's hot but can she pull off," followed by the list items, "short hair, long hair, makeup, no makeup, suit, glasses." The list is proceeded by images of actress Elizabeth Olsen in the state of each list item (shown below). The video gained over 11,000 views in a year. It is unclear if this is the video to start the trend.

Spread

The trend spread over a variety of original sounds over the following months. For example, on October 11th, 2021, TikToker^[2] @xadorablegrandex posted a version of the trend with Ariana Grande images, garnering over 60,000 views in a year. On October 11th, TikToker^[3] @rare.sel posted a version of the trend (shown below, left) using Selena Gomez images, garnering over 543,000 views in a year and starting one of the most popular original sounds for the trend, inspiring over 73,000 uses in the same span of time (most popular video using the sound shown below, right).

On October 22nd, TikToker^[4] @chelluree posted a video following the trend under a new original sound, made specifically for the "Black girl edition" of the trend. The original sound,^[5] titled, "only top tier black girls on this sound," inspired over 40,000 uses in a year On November 2nd, YouTuber Bringing Tiktoks To Youtube posted a compilation of videos under the sound, garnering over 11,000 views in 11 months (shown below). The trend also saw some spread outside of TikTok, largely through reposts. On December 6th, Instagram^[6] user naturallymelaninn posted a video doing the trend, garnering over 8,700 views and 900 likes in 10 months.

In October 2022, the trend saw an increase in popularity under an original sound by TikToker @speedsoongst. On October 14th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @yamijaina did the trend under the sound, garnering over 500,000 views in five days (shown below, left). On October 16th, TikToker^[8] @zeke.kira_21 posted a video doing the trend, garnering over a million views in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References