on fleek

The Blue Jay

People invent slang terms all the time. They just almost never catch on, because language is organic. It doesn’t like to be forced. Then came the incredible case of on fleek.

On fleek was coined in mere seconds by a Chicago teenager, Kayla Newman. In June 2014, she, under the username Peaches Monroee, posted a super-short Vine video where she describes her “eyebrows on fleek” before going out to a party. Let the record state: Your eyebrows were very on fleek, Kayla. They were “perfectly done” and “flawless,” as the slang means.

The video went massively viral. Shortly after, superstar Ariana Grande posted her own Vine “cover” of Newman’s video, which helped spread on fleek into the mainstream. In fall 2014, even more high-profile instances of on fleek, everyone from Kim Kardashian to IHOP, helped make the slang more of a thing.

Pancakes on fleek.

— IHOP (@IHOP) October 21, 2014

Now, we can find some pre-Newman examples of fleek. Urban Dictionary enters fleek in 2003 “for smooth, nice, sweet” and in 2009 for “awesome,” but Newman says her on fleek was an independent coinage (and flash of genius). The expression calls up on point and the sounds of other slang terms like crunk, twerk, and werk.

Since 2014, on fleek has become one of the most popular internet neologisms of the 2010s, even nominated by the American Dialect Society in 2015 in its “Most Likely to Succeed” category. Although Newman’s original use has kept on fleek closely connected to aspects of fashion (especially brows and makeup), the solo fleek has come to describe anything as “excellent,” from Instagram influencers to Taco Bell grub.

me.me

Viral internet content likes to burn out like so many meteors, but on fleek has, delightfully, proved its staying power. Certainly performer Cardi B gave it further fuel in her 2016 track, “On Fleek.”