HAS THE CLEAN GIRL AESTHETIC RUN ITS COURSE?

A reflection on visual sameness, shifting expectations, and what modern brands are really being asked to do now.

By Roselyn Uleh, Founder of Strivify Brand Studio

There’s a look we’ve all come to recognise.

It’s light. It’s clean. It’s carefully restrained. It speaks in soft tones and softer typefaces. It’s wrapped in warm neutrals, grounded in intention, and designed to soothe - both emotionally and visually.

This aesthetic has become the default visual identity for a generation of lifestyle brands: wellness labels, skincare lines, coaching platforms, and founder-led businesses with big values and bigger aspirations. You’ll see it in muted Instagram grids, on carefully unboxed products, and across websites that promise to simplify, empower, and connect.

At its peak, it felt like an answer. A response to digital chaos and cultural overstimulation. A quiet form of control in a world that felt increasingly difficult to navigate.

But now, something’s changing.

And many of us - especially those of us building and advising brands - are beginning to wonder: has the clean girl aesthetic run its course?

When Visual Language Becomes Visual Sameness

At Strivify, we often work with founders who come to us at a moment of tension.

They’ve built something thoughtful. They’ve made intentional choices. They’ve launched with care and followed what felt like the right approach - the right colour palette, the right tone, the right sense of polish.

But as they grow, a discomfort begins to emerge.

Not everything feels aligned anymore. The brand looks beautiful, but something about it doesn’t quite land. The message sounds right, but doesn’t resonate deeply. The visual identity no longer reflects the complexity or confidence they’ve since developed.

And often, when we take a step back together, we notice the same thing: they’ve built something strong, but they’ve built it using the same visual language as everyone else.

This isn’t a critique. It’s an observation. Because in recent years, minimalism - particularly feminine minimalism - has been positioned as not just tasteful, but strategic. It became a visual shorthand for trust, quality, calm, and clarity.

But when taste becomes template, it stops communicating value and starts creating noise.

Aesthetic as Access Point - Not the Message Itself

The Clean Girl aesthetic, in all its variations, gave emerging brands a way to look grown-up, considered, and emotionally intelligent without having to shout. For many early-stage businesses, that was a gift. It created space for quiet confidence in a sea of louder, more transactional branding approaches.

But the challenge now is this: what once felt expressive now risks feeling interchangeable.

When everyone uses the same shades, the same airy layout, the same softly spoken values - what are we actually saying? What makes one brand feel different from the next?

Customers may not articulate it in these terms, but they feel it. They feel when something is familiar before they’ve ever interacted with it. They feel when a message feels safe instead of specific. They feel when a product - however beautiful - could just as easily belong to a dozen other brands on the shelf.

And when they feel that, they start to disengage.

What’s Being Asked of Brands Now

The visual fatigue we’re seeing isn’t about disliking minimalism. It’s about craving distinction.

We’re in a moment where audiences - particularly Gen Z and younger Millennials - are more fluent in design, tone, and branding than ever before. They’ve seen the same formula applied across categories. They know when something feels templated.

And they’re increasingly seeking out brands that are saying something real.

Something emotionally resonant. Something culturally aware. Something that acknowledges their needs, their contradictions, and their desire to be part of something that feels original - even if it’s imperfect.

This doesn’t mean aesthetic is irrelevant. Quite the opposite. It means the aesthetic can no longer carry the brand alone. There needs to be structure. Strategy. A defined sense of who the brand is, what it stands for, and why it’s designed the way it is.

In other words: beauty is still allowed. But meaning has to lead.

So, Has the Clean Girl Aesthetic Run Its Course?

Not entirely. It’s still elegant. Still calming. Still deeply appealing to many. But it’s no longer a strategy in itself. It’s no longer a differentiator. And if a brand relies on it without deeper layers of clarity, character, and cohesion - it may begin to slip into the background.

That doesn’t mean you need to reinvent your entire visual identity. It means you might need to reconnect with what it was always meant to express.

It means asking:

• Does this still reflect who we are now?

• Does it speak clearly to the people we’re here for?

• Does it feel like a living expression of the business - or just a trend we chose when we started?

Final Thoughts

At Strivify, we don’t believe in chasing trends or rejecting them out of fear. Aesthetic should be purposeful, not performative. It should support the message — not mask its absence.

If your brand was built in the soft, clean style of the moment, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But now may be the time to pause and reflect. To check whether the structure beneath the surface still holds. To ensure that what you’re showing visually reflects what you truly want to say.

Because in a world where so many brands are saying similar things in similar ways, the boldest move isn’t to go louder.

It’s to go deeper.

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Roselyn Uleh is the co-founder of Strivify Brand Studio, where she helps founders turn clarity into growth through people-first strategy, digital systems, and modern brand thinking. She was recently named Digital Champion of the Year for her work blending automation, AI, and customer experience to drive meaningful business impact.

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