Envisioning summer
The 2025 vision board
I adore mood boards, planning, and curating a vibe. It isn’t summer if I haven’t made a Pinterest board of images that capture the very specific energy I want my summers to be tinged with each year. Here’s a collection of visions and inspiration I’ve gathered for this summer…
Mermaid nostalgia
I’ve been drawn to the beachy scenes of childhood media recently, reminiscing on the over-saturated sweetness of H2O Just Add Water, High School Musical 2, and Barbie in a Mermaid Tail 1 & 2. Here’s what I love about these visions of summer:
The Fashion. An obvious one, but the 2000s summer staples in H2O and HSM are too good not too draw inspiration from. I love the silhouette of a long-line tank top and low-waisted shorts or skirts, and the bright, bold colour palettes that never shy away from playful, nostalgic tones like hot pink and lime green. I recently bought some second-hand pink platform flipflops that scream Sharpay Evans to me.
Hairstyles. Rikki Chadwick is the OG cool girl. My hair goes wavy when I leave it to dry naturally, so I’ll be looking to the effortlessly beach-swept styles of Rikki and Cleo for my hair inspo. If I was blonde, I’d 100% have pink highlights like Merliah by now.
The H2O full moons. I don’t mean going feral under the moon every month, but I’ve always loved the moon and love the idea of creating my own full moon rituals this summer!
I came across this note a while ago, and whilst it may be a joke, I actually think this fish is incredibly stylish and I will be stealing his colour palette.
Lit girl summer
In 2024, I read 11 books in total and 4 of them were read on the 10 days that I was on holiday. Being by the sea or a pool is my favourite place to read books, and clearly I get far more absorbed in them than any other place or time of year. I’m hoping to recreate these habits this summer and make the most of the free time to gobble up some good books.
My reading list so far, made up of recommendations from friends and followers, is:
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Orlam by P J Harvey
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
This quote from Blue Sisters very accurately describes what my family and I get up to at the poolside:
“They read voraciously, trading heat-curled paperbacks, bickering lightly over who got what next, who had dampened the pages beyond repair. After a little while, the heat would get to be too much and one of them would throw down her book and slide into the water, the others following behind like a gaggle of seals slipping from a rock.”
Reimagining trends
This TikTok made me rethink how I see trends and how we can put a more authentic spin on what’s hot this summer. I actually love sequins, shells, and beach waves, but I love the concept of looking at popular summer styles through an alternative lens.
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The tote bag
A tote bag consisting of suncream, a water bottle, a light cardigan, loose receipts and change, a book, and a notebook is a summer essential. This year, I want to pay particular attention to always packing a notebook and pen.
A screenwriting lecturer at university told her students to carry a notebook and pen with us everywhere, and that this is the best preparation for future screenwriting modules. Scripts are sequences of images and dialogue, and the having a bank of organic dialogue and images that you source from people-watching is a very valuable resource. Therefore, my small black notebook will be coming with me all summer, to record little moments and capture little frames of everyday life that I can one day turn into something more.
The summer playlist
Each year, I make a playlist at the start of summer and add to it as the warm months go by. It leaves me with a little time capsule. Songs I can revisit that take me right back to tipsy sun-kissed evenings with friends or quiet moments in the cool of my bedroom. Certain songs and artists always come back around as the sun comes out, including:
Daisy Jones & the Six
Fleetwood Mac
Declan McKenna
Suki Waterhouse
Summer in film
More to read…
hot girl summer, barbie summer, brat summer... what's next?
2024 was Brat summer. 2023, Barbie summer. It gets a little blurry as we go backwards, but there was 2019 VSCO summer and 2020 indie/ kidcore summer, then aesthetics like “clean girl” and “hot girl summer” dominating in 2021 and 2022.
Some blog updates…
I’m not sure if anyone will have noticed or cared that much, but I took a month off from posting in June to reset. I wanted to take some time to draft and write things that I really wanted to write, rather than churn out content just to stick to my weekly schedule. There’s now lots of essays in the drafts that I can’t wait to share, and I’m so excited to start posting and reading on here again <3
Whilst I’m aiming to return to weekly posts again, I’ve relaxed my self-enforced schedule a lot in terms of the topics I will be covering each week. I’ve also decided to stop the Monthly Media series as I wasn’t really enjoying writing that style of post! Previous posts will stay in the archive though ♡
It’s lovely to be back, thank you for being here :)
ugh i love summer so much i feel like mermaid