Mean Girl Energy

Shameless

Shameless Media

Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hi hi hi! Coming up on today’s show: “It’s giving mean girl”. We see this kind of comment all the time, on our own socials, and all across the internet. But what does it actually mean? What is ‘mean girl energy’ – what are ‘mean girl vibes’? This language is so evocative, but are we actually using it to call out mean behaviour, or are we using it to just… shut women down? This episode of Shameless is brought to you by CeraVe’s Blemish Control range – Developed with Dermatologists to help you Clear it Up Like A Derm. Your hosts are Zara McDonald (@zamcdonald) and Michelle Andrews (@michelleandrews1). Shameless Podcast is produced by Annabelle Lee and Eilish Gilligan, executive-produced by Lucy Hunt and audio-edited by Eilish Gilligan. Our social media team consists of Naima Fatema, Emily Li and Eilish Gilligan, and our partnerships manager is Cindy Luu. Want to support our show? Clicking ‘follow’ on Apple and Spotify is the best way to do that, and we're super grateful to anyone who leaves a five-star review while they're at it. Also! An old-fashioned 'Tell a Friend In Real Life' is equally appreciated. Want more? We've got more… Subscribe to our newsletter Smart, Dumb Stuff: https://tinyurl.com/4yasjphn Follow us on Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/2mf557ux Aaaand we’re on TikTok: https://tinyurl.com/2hchchrp Everything else your heart could ever desire is here: https://linktr.ee/shamelesspodcast Thanks for listening! We’re huge fans of yours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Shameless Media
0:05.6	This episode to Shameless, the pop culture podcast for smart people who love dumb stuff.
0:45.0	You're joined, as always, by Melbourne Writers, Michelle Andrews, that would be me.
0:49.3	And Zara McDonald, that would be you.
0:51.0	Hello, and hello, producer Ilish Gilligan.
0:53.1	Hello.
0:54.0	Zara's running on 10% battery today.
0:55.7	We'll see if she makes it through the episode.
0:57.2	That's actually 10% computer battery, 100% life battery.
1:01.6	Love it.
1:02.2	Coming up on today's show, it's giving mean girl.
1:05.8	We see the comment pop up all the time on our own socials, but also across the internet.
1:11.4	So what does it actually mean to be a mean girl?
1:15.3	What is mean girl energy?
1:16.9	What are mean girl vibes?
1:18.4	The language is so evocative.
1:20.1	But are we using it to genuinely call out nasty behaviour?
1:23.4	Or are we using it to just shut women down?
1:27.4	Where do we want to take it before we get into that meaty, meaty topic? Yeah. Or are we using it to just shut women down?
1:31.0	Where do we want to take it before we get into that meaty, meaty topic?
1:35.6	Yeah, well, we accidentally burned both our recommendations on our Thursday episode,
1:39.5	which we should say, now that we're going three episodes in 2026,
	...

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