The “Little Miss” memes are fill-in-the-blank style memes with a highly detailed yet occasionally incredibly relatable description, similar to the American Girl doll memes from last month.
Individuals are appropriating the covers of the late 20th-century children’s classics from the Little Miss and Mr. Men series in a mega-viral trend on Instagram and TikTok.
They are doing so to call out their distinctive and less distinctive personality traits and insecurities.
As individuals reveal their most private insecurities and red flags online, the vibrant and daring cartoon illustrations from the children’s book series by British author and illustrator Roger Hargreaves have become an incredible source of emotional catharsis for people everywhere.
This decades-old, kid-friendly media brand has taken on a new shape and is once again resonating with Gen Z, one of the populations it helped nurture, with examples like “Little Miss Wants Her Ex Back” and “Mr. Letterboxd.”
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What Is The “Little Miss” Memes On Instagram And TikTok?
“Little Miss” memes on Instagram and TikTok are edited and recaptioned covers of a book that featured characters like Little Miss Naughty and Mr. Happy. It gives the recognizable figures more precise and hyper-personalized characterizations.
People use them to draw attention to their favorite television shows, famous people (Mr. Worldwide), prescription medications (Little Miss Lexapro), café orders ( Brown Sugar Milk Tea With Boba), and other things.
The trend has already spread to TikTok, where individuals share cartoons to amuse ex-boyfriends, reveal their occupations, and make fun of their pals.
How Did The “Little Miss” Memes Trend Start? Meaning Explained
The first Little Miss meme is credited to Tumblr user notyourgaybestie, who published “Little Miss Smokes Too Much Weed” in June 2021, according to the Know Your Meme blog.
But @juulpuppy, an Instagram user, posted a carousel of fresh memes in April 2022, which is credited with creating the current craze.
From there, brands, celebrities, and regular Instagram users all joined in, using their favorite characters as references or calling themselves as well as their friends, ex-partners, customers, and so forth, out for anything from a mildly toxic trait (Little Miss Sleeps With Makeup On) to an incident that’s probably best left forgotten (Mr. Banned From Uber).
Although the meme has recently caught the public’s eyes, the origin story dates back a long time. Hargreaves’ son Adam asked him to describe what a tickle looked like in 1971, which is when the Little Miss memes’ images first appeared online.
The Mr. Men series was started by Mr. Tickle, a yellow, squiggly man wearing a cute blue top hat. The series went on to sell over 100 million copies worldwide and included the offshoot series Little Miss in 1981.
It also spawned numerous BBC TV programs. After Roger Hargreaves died in 1988, his son Adam continued Mr. Men with fresh illustrations and tales.
Is Little Miss Memes Creator @juulpuppy?
The Little Miss meme was created on Instagram by user @juulpuppy, whose first image was published there on April 19, 2022, according to several publications in recent weeks.
On April 17, 2022, Twitter user @dreamgirltat published their Little Miss meme, which received more than 36,000 likes.
And while @juulpuppy can be credited with starting the craze, as his initial batch of memes garnered over 52,000 likes on Instagram, we can date the format of Little Miss/Mr. Men back at least to 2014.
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