What’s Girl Dinner? All About the Snacky TikTok Trend Sparking Chatter on Social Media

A minimal-effort meal trend labeled “girl dinner” has taken over TikTok — and it has people divided.

Over the past couple of months, women have been sharing charcuterie boards and visually pleasing snack plates, featuring bread, cheese, olives, pickles, nuts and colorful fruits and vegetables on TikTok. The hashtag #girldinner now has more than 150 million views on the platform.

The trend seemingly began in May with a video posted by TikTok user Olivia Maher.

“A girl just came on here and said how, like, in medieval times peasants had to eat nothing but bread and cheese and how awful that was — and she was like that’s my ideal meal,” Maher said in the video. “I call this 'girl dinner' or 'medieval peasant.'”

Maher told The New York Times the post was inspired by a conversation with a friend about how satisfying bread and cheese are.

“We love eating that way, and it feels like such a girl dinner because we do it when our boyfriends aren’t around and we don’t have to have what’s a ‘typical dinner’ — essentially, with a protein and a veggie and a starch,” Maher said.

Nigella Lawson even weighed in on the trend, responding to a tweet from writer Tom Hillenbrand, who wrote, “Most Germans eat like this every evening. We call it Abendbrot.”

“And we call them Picky Bits,” the British food personality commented.

However, not everyone has a positive take on the trend. Some TikTokers think the emphasis on snacks for dinner can lead to disordered eating.

“Girl dinner is breeding negative thoughts around food, and here’s why,” commented TikTok user Lexie Firment. “Girl dinner is set up as, like, girls are literally eating snack plates for dinner with, like, four crackers, two pieces of ham, five pickles and maybe some olives. What it’s really lacking is substance and calories."

She continued: "And while it’s really cool to see that these girls are actually eating, they’re not eating per se enough. At least that’s in my opinion. Now, I have no nutrition dietetic background, but I do come from an ED [eating disorder] background that really took a lot of my life.”

Firment went on to say that "girl dinners" aren't painting a picture of "balanced" meals.

"It’s just minimal calories, to me. It’s a snack plate. And also what girl dinners are doing, it’s showing me that maybe eating enough on my plate or what’s on my plate is not good enough or it’s way too much," she added. "We already fall into the comparison cycle here on this app just about every single time we scroll. Now we not only have to worry about how our bodies look, but also now how our dinners look. For me, a dinner looks like protein, carbs and fat, and a lot of it typically involving seconds.”

Another TikTok user who goes by Meija noted, “Girl dinner does not mean disordered eating dinner. A bag of popcorn is not dinner. A piece of toast is not dinner. A shot of vodka is certainly not dinner. I know it’s meant to be jokes, but it is glorifying disordered eating as a cute little girly thing.”

Fans of the trend, meanwhile, find the minimal work involved in preparing “girl dinners” to be empowering.

Seema Rao, an art historian in Cleveland, told The Times, “The idea of cooking dinner was historically women’s work in the home.”

“What I like about girl dinner is it takes away the idea that you have to cook anything: You just literally put it together,” Rao said. “So you go from a position where the production of the food is what makes it good and makes you a valid woman, to the idea that having food is what makes you a valid woman.”