Doomer Girl

What is drawn in the picture

The drawing is done in the simple style of internet comics on a white background. The girl is shown from the waist up: black hair down to her chin, bangs swept to one side, dark eyes with drawn-on eyelids, a pale face, and a noticeable pink blush on her cheeks. Her lips are small, the corners turned down, and her eyebrows are slightly raised at the bridge of the nose, so the look comes across as tired and somewhat hurt, but without tears or drama.

She wears a black choker with a round pendant around her neck, and a dark T-shirt with black collar trim. On her chest near the shoulder is a small pattern of two crossed-out marks resembling stitches. All the details form a recognizable set: black, pale, made-up. It is this set that lets one read the picture as a heroine with a gothic and “emo” aesthetic, although the drawing is deliberately simplified and somewhat ironic.

Where the doomer came from

To get the joke, one needs to know its male predecessor. According to accounts of the meme's history, the “doomer” character appeared on September 16, 2018, when an anonymous 4chan user posted on the /biz/ board an image of a young man of about twenty-three who lives without career prospects, without hopes, and with a gloomy view of the future. The picture was then picked up on other boards, and variations and related characters appeared: the “bloomer,” with the opposite, cheerful outlook, and a Zoomer variant based on Wojak.

The female doomer, according to sources on doomer memes, emerged in early January 2020 as a female version of the figure. Later she gained popularity on social networks and became a separate character who is drawn, reworked, and placed next to other characters such as the doomer and the “trad girl.”

How the humor works

The meme is built on a recognizable mood: hopelessness, weariness with the world, and irony about one's own lack of prospects. The girl's face expresses almost nothing, so any caption easily overlays the picture: the contrast between a serious look and a mundane occasion produces the comic effect. The smaller the problem, the stronger the joke: the character looks at it as if it were the end of the world.

The picture is often used in pairs and dialogues. Next to the doomer she becomes an interlocutor who understands him without words. Next to a more “proper” character she becomes the opposite: where one idealizes the traditional way of life, she answers with a weary silence. One should not attribute to the picture the biography of a real girl: it is a collective drawn archetype, not a portrait of a specific person.

Caption examples

“They told me tomorrow will be better. I've been living like this for years, and the promise still hasn't been kept.” A joke about hope stretched over time, which the heroine meets with a flat face.

“Friends invited me to a party, but I decided my evening was already planned: tea, a blanket, and silence.” The contrast between the invitation and the modest plan works on recognizability.

“When the alarm goes off on Monday.” One everyday occasion is enough here: the image of weariness conveys everything else.

“Doomer: everything's bad. Me: everything's bad, but at least I have a stylish choker.” The caption plays on self-irony and the aesthetics of the frame.

How to use the picture

The picture works best for short first-person captions and for dialogues with other characters. Do not amplify the gloom: the most successful joke comes out when the occasion is funny and the reaction is too serious. The white background makes it easy to insert the picture into collages, and black clothing stands out against any light template. Do not use it to mock real people going through a hard time: the meme's subject is self-irony, not bullying.