Girls With Brown Hair Can't Wear Jeans

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A viral 2016 tweet by @champagnearii became a meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?" This 2018 Reddit post jokingly portrays Abraham Lincoln as the man who coined a variation of the meme; "Who said girls with dimples can't be nurses."

A viral 2016 tweet by @champagnearii became a meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?" This fan art shows Hawk Girl doing the poses in the original tweet.

A viral 2016 tweet by @champagnearii became a meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?" This 2024 tweet uses the original meme as a template to joke about the K-Pop band LOONA.

A viral 2016 tweet by @champagnearii became a meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?" This 2021 Tumblr post identifies a woman who appeared in a variation of the meme that read, "Lmao and who said girls with dimples can't be nurses."

A viral 2016 tweet by @champagnearii became a meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?" This 2018 tweet by @kayleewindholz reads, "Who said girls with depression can't wear tube tops."

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About

Girls With Brown Hair Can't Wear Jeans refers to a phrasal template inspired by a viral tweet from April 2016 that read, "And they say girls with brown hair can't wear jeans." The joke spawned a series of jokes about imaginary gatekeeping in which people share memes and posts in a similar format to "Who Said X Can't Y?" that is often accompanied by a follow-up reply that reads, "Who said that?"

Origin

On April 24th, 2016, Twitter^[1] / X user @champagnearii posted two photos of herself in a crop top and jeans alongside a caption that read, "And they say girls with brown hair can't wear jeans." The post gathered over 1,000 likes and 400 retweets before the account was deleted.

A screenshot of the 2016 tweet by @champagnearii that became a viral meme and inspired subsequent jokes that follow the phrasal template, "Who Said X Can't Y?"

Spread

Several tweets following the phrasal template made the rounds in the late 2010s, often by women jokingly using the phrase to rage bait other Twitter users.

For example, on June 9th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user @kayleewindholz posted a version of the meme that read, "Who said girls with depression can't wear tube tops," gathering an unknown number of likes before deletion.

Also in 2018, a version of the meme that read, "Lmao and they say girls with dimples can't be nurses" began making the rounds online alongside photos of a nurse smiling to show her dimples.

The origin of the post is unknown, however, a July 26th, 2021, Tumblr^[3] post by user @orjizzy identifies the same woman as appearing in an ad on Tumblr, gathering over 35,000 notes in four years.

By 2021, the original "Girls with Brown Hair Can't Wear Jeans" came to be referenced as a classic meme in a number of viral internet posts, as seen in a February 6th, 2024, tweet by X^[4] user @GIRL0FTHEMONTH that juxtaposed the tweet with a photo of the K-pop band LOONA. The post gathered over 55,000 likes in a year.

On November 19th, 2024, TikToker^[5] @sharcuterie_board posted a video quoting the original meme and gathering over 87,000 likes in three months.

Who Said Girls With Honey Blonde Hair and Highlights Can't Eat a Chicken Pot Pie From KFC?

Who Said Girls With Honey Blonde Hair and Highlights Can't Eat a Chicken Pot Pie From KFC? is a catchphrase used in memes and jokes inspired by a quote from a viral video posted by TikToker @aminathree in February 2025. The video shows the blonde TikToker riffing on the Girls With Brown Hair Can't Wear Jeans meme, prompting several other video creators to join in on the bit and joke about how girls with honey blonde hair and highlights can't eat chicken pot pies from KFC.