ideas

Cottagecore is Gen Z’s way of coping with a hectic, modern world

Instead of yearning for big city life, young people are finding an escape by imagining a more pastoral, idyllic lifestyle.

Instead of yearning for big city life, young people are finding an escape by imagining a more pastoral, idyllic lifestyle.

Cottagecore is an aesthetic on the rise for Gen Z, basically asking the age-old question, “Okay, but what if I just ran away into the woods?” and expanding upon it. First making a name for itself on Tumblr around 2018, it’s a yearning for simple rural life and a romanticizing of nature and everyday tasks. “It’s like Animal Crossing but in real life,”
Search it up on any app, and you’ll find photos of pressed lilacs, frilly dresses, moss covered trees and thatch-roof cottages in some of the greenest woods you’ll ever see. The hashtag is especially popular on TikTok, having over 212 million views and filled to the brim with bread baking tutorials and people in their teens and early 20s showing off the 500 different plants they own.
Cottagecore is the exact opposite of that, the antithesis to city life. The aesthetic indulges in the fantasy of being soft and domestic, of picking flowers and cooking and cleaning and daintily decorating every room in the house.