Jun 28, 2026
In August 2019, Megan Thee Stallion released her song “Hot Girl Summer.” The song was her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and also landed at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
When the song was released, it quickly became an anthem, as well as the Instagram and TikTok captions for many people flaunting their bikini-laden summer adventures.
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It’s hard to pin down exactly when this phrasing started taking new shapes like “hot girl walk,” “hot girls read,” “hot girls have tummy issues” and more, but a quick scroll through TikTok or Instagram is all it takes for you to probably see someone describing an activity or attribute with “hot girl(s)” preceding it.
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This trend has gotten so popular that you can find it in many shops, artfully printed on a shirt or hat. That being said, selling hot girl merchandise has recently gotten some creators in hot water as they trademarked the terms, leaving smaller shops and content creators in the dust.
The ‘hot girls read’ trademark controversy
On June 3, Allie Rose Co. — an online business selling stickers, bookmarks, apparel and accessories since 2020 — announced the successful trademarking of the phrase “Hot Girls Read” in the categories of bookmarks, stickers, notebooks, notepads, sweatshirts and t-shirts.
The business owner, Allie Mitrovitch, took to Instagram to share the news, writing: “Hot Girls Read™ is officially ours (3ish years ago after I started reading more consistently and finally started to love to read, I put HGR on some bookmarks and crews and the rest is freaking history!!! In the least corny way possible that lil phrase changed my life and changed the entire course of my business in a way I neeeever saw coming.”
In an Instagram story, she added that she was aware other small businesses sell merchandise with the phrase and asked them to “please remove those listings from ur site as soon as possible … with love !!!!”
Needless to say, this news did not go over well with Allie Rose Co.’s customers or the online bookish community at large. People were upset that a phrase many content creators and business owners have been using for years was now going to be owned by this one shop in particular.
In a Substack post titled “Hot Girls Don’t Weaponize Trademarks Against Small Businesses”, Emma Ilene — a fantasy and romance author — highlights the “greed problem online communities have been facing: stealing intellectual property for profit.” Ilene emphasizes that this phrase is not associated with one sole creator, and even includes screenshots of people online using this phrase as far back as 2009.
The backlash made its point — Mitrovitch surrendered the trademark and shared a video apologizing for the harm she caused to small business owners.
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“The decision was made more as like a business strategy decision than a human being decision and I take full accountability for that” she said, adding that any profits from the Hot Girls Read apparel currently up on her site will be donated to literacy charities.
Moneywise reached out to Mitrovitch for comment.
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Another hot girl controversy
Mitrovitch isn’t the only creator/ business owner to get flack for trademarking a phrase. Mia Lind’s TikTok bio proudly states she is the “Creator & Founder of the Hot Girl Walk” which has been trademarked since 2023.
In a 2024 video, Lind explains how she coined the term Hot Girl Walk back in 2020 when she was trying to get outside more during the pandemic.
“Let’s talk about what it’s like to create a viral phenomenon” she begins,“at the time there was a huge stigma surrounding walking. Nobody was walking for fitness or for fun.” She goes on to explain her “three step methodology” of things you should think about while you’re on your walk to get more comfortable with being alone with your thoughts.
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Lind has capitalized majorly on this concept, selling branded merch, hosting walking events and more. Per the Hot Girl Walk website it is a, “multi-platform brand encompassing live events, digital programming, media, licensing, and a highly engaged global community.”
Despite her success, Lind has also faced backlash from people online who question her trademarking of the concept.
The CEO of nutrition brand Glow Body Amita Massey — known on TikTok as @amitaglows — shared a post about how “the hot girl walkTM trademark ruined my PT business and my social media.”
She explained that she hosted a free community walking event and all her posts advertising it on her social media were blacklisted. When she shared a recap of the event, her Instagram account was fully deleted due to copyright infringement. Massey was using a widely popular online phrase for a free event, and it ended up losing her a huge digital following that she will now have to rebuild.
These situations shed light on the sticky crossroads of the internet and intellectual property, and might make you wonder if we should’ve just left it at Hot Girl Summer.
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Em Norton is a Content Specialist at moneywise.com. They have been with the company since 2022.
