Most people who loiter around streaming services such as Twitch or hang around on Discord and most certainly those who watch anime will have come across the UwU face/text and culture at some point but perhaps unaware of the finer details around this subculture or aesthetic as most would call it.
This article explorers the phenomenon that is the UwU girl and what exactly is it all about.
What is the meaning of UwU and the UwU girl aesthetic
The origins of UwU stem from the way anime artists would draw a character who is being “overly cute” or feels very warm towards something or someone. The U represents closed eyes with the W being a small, cute nose. Secondly, many people would class UwU as part of a wider aesthetic called “kawaii” which in Japanese roughly translates to “lovely”, “cute” and “adorable”.
We would also say that things which are “UwU” or “kawaii” are also very young with many elements taken from Lolicon or lolita subjects. Some have referred to them as hyper sexualised child aesthetic between adults. Adults acting like children. We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions on that one.
People would type UwU as it closest resembles the way that expression is drawn anime-style, like this:
The UwU aesthetic therefore focuses on things which are feminine, adorable, young and innocent with the UwU expression and emoticon an expression of the whole package. UwU girls would typically focuses on bright and soft colours such as pinks and whites, lightly coloured hair, subtle make up and accessories such as cat-ears. Often, UwU girls can wear elaborate clothing similar to how young girls dress in anime.
Being UwU isn’t just about the look, it is also about the behaviour and mannerism. First, the voice of a classic UwU girl would be high pitched as they are in Japanese anime – the high pitched cutesy voice is there to appear cute, innocent and young and perhaps more importantly – appealing to males. And quite often, it works.
The voice may be optional but the mannerisms are not – “successful” UwU girls behave innocently and their facial expressions are as if they have been pulled straight out an anime. Big eyes, squinting eyes, flushed cheeks and a big over the top smile.
Here is arguably the UwU master at work, TikTok user itshannahowo
(famous for the viral UwU voice).
@itshannahowo ohayo ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ #foryou
♬ Da Ni (Darling Ohayo) – 나원
In some cases, UwU girls may not even need to have a look as is the case with Discord Kittens – they simply act UwU in various chatrooms.
Perhaps the most famous girl to nail the UwU aesthetic is Belle Delphine, even if she herself would rather call herself an e-girl or an e-thot. Notice the cuteness overload and the youthful look.
UwU Girl Meaning
An UwU girl is someone who brings the UwU emoticon into the real life through the way they look and behave and if they are streamers of some kind, how they look. Essentially, an UwU girl is someone who embodies the UwU emoticon and what it stands for.
Girls can be UwU using only text in the case of Discord kittens in the sense that they are roleplaying but this will ultimately lead to other members asking for picture for proof or even a video.
When did UwU girls become a thing?
UwU has been used a lot longer than UwU girls have been a thing. The UwU emoticon has been used and searched for half a decade.
As you can see from Google Trends there wasn’t much interest in 2017 but it grew consistently from then, peaking in 2021 and remaining consistent since. It’s important to remember that UwU is most popular on Discord, Reddit, TikTok and Instagram as opposed to Twitch and YouTube.
However, UwU girl was simply not a mainstream meta thing until 2021 when it went viral on TikTok and then people jumped on the aesthetic en masse from then making it as big now as it has ever been spilling out from Discord and TikTok to Twitch, YouTube and beyond. Is it here to stay? Probably.
With TikTok being as big as it is and Twitch having categories such as Just Chatting and even the hot tub meta to provide them a huge platform the sky’s the limit.
What does UwU Girl PFP mean?
An UwU PFP stands for profile picture. This can be used on Discord, Twitter, TikTok or any other forum or social media. If girls are using UwU as a role playing persona (rather than as an IRL persona) then the profile picture is incredibly important to them. You’ll find a lot of artists specialising in anime art who can make bespoke PFPs for the various girls who want to become “UwU”.
How to become an UwU girl
Becoming UwU is more about immersing yourself in the subculture fully and slowly picking up things as you go along. We would recommend first to join UwU communities on Discord and to watch popular UwU girls streaming to see how they behave, what they do and what they watch and play.
Once you have the general idea about the attitude, open yourself up into the community and take part in discussions – you will most likely need to watch some anime to get the inside jokes and so on. Over time, you will get the nuances and it might come second nature. Be warned, getting into anything disingenuously is going to make it much harder – why do you want to be UwU in the first place? Is it because you have an interest or perhaps is it to catfish or get yourself a Discord daddy/sugar daddy?
Be warned, cultures such as UwU/Kawaii/Loli does attract bad actors with bad intensions – after all it there is an awful lot of child-like sexualisation at play. Staying safe online is incredibly important.
Lastly, getting the UwU look is perhaps the hardest as it does involve a lot of makeup artistry and expensive accessories and in the realm of Twitch expensive equipment. Build things up slowly and don’t get yourself into debt for the sake of an online meta.
The girl who went viral and subsequently had the audio stitched over and over on TikTok is Hannah. Here’s the original clip.
@schm0o0 Hanna Owo original Twitch Clip UwU #owo
♬ Originalton – schmoo
