R. Dar

Freshman Cera Kamdar excuses her excessive shopping spree using girl math. “For my birthday my aunt and my friend both gave me amazon gift cards so I just added a bunch of stuff to my cart, because since it’s a gift card it’s basically free,” Kamdar said.

The term “girl math” has gained popularity, with millions of TikTok users paying attention to one of the least factually based trends yet. Girl math is used to make light of some girls spending excessive amounts of money or managing time poorly. 

People who have cited their use of girl math find ways to deny spending money and justify their purchases by using gift cards and discounts or product usefulness. 

“[Girl math] is a very questionable application of math,” senior Varsity Math Team (VMT) member Mihika Dusad said. “One example of when I’ve used girl math in my daily life is when I’m estimating how long something will take. If I have to leave at 6 p.m., I know I have to start getting ready by 4 p.m., but girl math is me thinking I can get ready in 20 minutes and still make it on time.” 

Junior VMT member Marina Lin has had less hands-on experience with girl math. 

“I haven’t [used girl math]. I’ve mostly seen it on social media. I wouldn’t say I use it in my daily life,” Lin said. “Everyone at TJ has [a] higher STEM level than the average student so it makes [girl math] seem more exaggerated.” 

Senior VMT member Akshaya Chakravarthy discusses why she thinks girl math has exploded on social media. While she can’t see the logic in the thinking, she finds videos on social media posted about girl math entertaining and funny. 

“I think that girl math has taken the internet by storm because many people think that girls are typically the ones who make unreasonable purchases, and it’s a funny term that describes this way of thinking,” Chakravarthy said. 

However, because girl math is unrealistic, it has garnered criticism. Some girls have taken to seeing the term as an insult. Others refuse to use it because they feel that it perpetuates harmful beliefs that girls make excessive purchases. 

“The term girl math is not as humorous as people think it is because it creates a negative stereotype that girls don’t use logic when considering their purchases, which is far from the truth for many,” Chakravarthy said. 

SophomoreVMT member Olivia Wu, however, believes there is no harm to using the term in daily life. 

“Girl math is the mental process almost every girl goes through when spending money,” Wu said. “People might misunderstand girl math to be [girls being] irresponsible with money, but another part of girl math is rounding up all our costs because of tax. It’s better to overestimate your expenses [than underestimate].” 

Lin, however, doesn’t see the hype and has a different opinion on the trend.

“[Girl math] is probably based on historical stereotypes but I don’t think the people who post [about it] mean it in a negative way. Now it’s more of a joke,” Lin said. “I don’t think people are [using girl math]  to target girls in math or to say [all girls] are like this.”