Teenagers Share Their Stories of “Lucky Girl Syndrome” On TikTok, But Does It Work?

TikTok is the home of trends that live and die. One that I’ve always had my eye on, just for the sheer bizarre nature of it, was manifestation. Manifestation is a popular spiritual self-help strategy about making ideas, wishes, and goals come true through mental visualization, which sounds reasonable. The strangeness began when Tiktok videos began feeding watchers instructions on how to manifest longer hair, changing hair types (say, from curly to straight), and even changing eye color. Yes, you heard me right.

Well, it seems that there’s a new version of that trend, but under a different name. Instead of manifesting certain traits or goals, we’re going for pure luck, thus the name “Lucky Girl Syndrome”.

What Is Lucky Girl Syndrome?

Lucky Girl Syndrome is more of a mindset than a syndrome, if we’re talking psychology, but I suspect that this is an evolved form of manifestation. By truly believing good things will happen to you, good things will come. It’s like karma but without any of the morality bit.

Lucky Girl Syndrome started from a single TikTok video from creator Laura Galebe, which has now amassed a total of 205 million views as of writing this article. In the video, she discusses how she believes the odds are always in her favor just by, well, believing it always will be. “I just always expect great things to happen to me, and so they do,” she said in the snippet.

Sure enough, this ideology took off. People began posting videos of how lucky they were just by believing in the trend. Some are rather impressive, and some are… well… I wouldn’t exactly call keeping a noodle place open past its closing time some burst of good fortune brought upon by simply willing it to happen.

Does This Work?

No.

Now, for most of you, I will be preaching to the choir with this. However, for those of you who might want a little bit of backing behind my denial, I’ll gladly give you a few reasons why you shouldn’t really believe in willing good fortune into existence.

I don’t condone this mindset entirely, as it can be genuinely helpful for those with a self-defeating attitude. There are many things that should be pointed out.

Some TikTok college girls had pointed out that they’ve done well in exams, rather than giving themselves full credit for working hard and studying. After all, college exams are the exact opposite of luck-based. Promotions at work, landing dream jobs, finding solutions to difficult problems; these are all things that are based off of their hard work, and it is a little disheartening that they aren’t allowing themselves to take all the glory of putting in the hard work to fulfill these goals.

So what about things like finding money on the ground, winning a bet, or gaining a winning scratch-off ticket? Well, those are actually luck based. Pure, genuine luck, and because of one lucky event, it feeds into a confirmation bias that tricks those who believe in the phenomenon that it actually works. And if it doesn’t work? Well, you just didn’t believe hard enough. You need to believe even harder for good things to happen, and if bad things still happen? Well, I don’t know what to tell you, hon. You need to believe more.

How about material items? Expensive bracelets, coveted Taylor Swift concert tickets, a new purse; those sorts of things. So, allow me to beat around the bush a little bit here. Do you notice anything in common about a majority of the women who appear in these TikToks? Anything at all? Maybe a few too many expensive items you’d see for a regular teenager? Perhaps a certain… wealth status?

All I’m saying is that seeing something you like, buying it, and not having to worry about the cost has absolutely nothing to do with luck, and it’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

Does It Do Any Harm?

It depends on how you see it, honestly. Some psychologists do believe that using this mindset can be a form of self-help to clear a head of overly negative thoughts. It can be that way, too. Many have a rather self-defeating attitude when it comes to certain hopes and dreams, believing that the world at large is against them. However, having a mindset that if you believe in wishing for good luck, good things will happen, it may motivate one to put the work in achieving those goals.

Key word: work.

I know that I might be walking on the edge here by bringing this up, but I think of it like those that pray for good things from the deity of their choice. If believing that good things will happen actually resulted in this massive shift in luck, the entirety of human history would simply be a children’s book where life is great and everyone is happy. Like prayer, having this mindset can help, but you need to get yourself involved, or else you’re banking on pure luck. If you’re not a rich TikTok chick with everything handed to her on a silver platter, things might not turn out all that well for you.

Luck is the very definition of unpredictability. It’s like flipping a coin: heads or tails, good or bad. So to try and bring some order to it by just crossing your fingers and believing in it is not only absurd, but honestly a little insulting to those who work hard for the things they have in life.

If you want good things to happen, you can boost your chances with some good wishes to yourself or maybe a prayer, but unless you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth like many of these TikTok teenagers were, you’re going to have to involve yourself at some point. That’s something that many of these TikTok stars may not have experienced in their lives, other than a few nasty comments.