The Little Miss meme trend, explained

Odds are if you’ve been on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok the past several weeks, you’ve seen the colorful emoji-like characters from the children’s book series, Mr. Men.

The 2D characters have become the face of a viral meme trend as people use them to share their “red flags” and express communal angst over the general state of the world. It seems that the trend transcends any platform. At time of publication, the “Littlemiss” hashtag on TikTok has over 89 million views, and individual posts on Twitter have received as many as 43,000 likes.

In case you’re not up to snuff with the canon of British children’s literature, the characters come from an illustrated book series called Mr. Men. Roger Hargreaves wrote the series, which was published in 1971. This series has been published in dozens of books. It also includes Little Miss and an animated TV series. His son Adam Hargreaves assumed the responsibility for the series after Roger Hargreaves died.

Every Mr. Men tale introduces a different character with a unique defining trait. (For example, Mr. Impossible’s single trait would be that he can do anything and nothing is impossible for him.) While the characters are well-known for being the subject of memes, T-shirts and silly jokes (most people recognize Little Miss Sunshine), the popularity of the characters began to increase on social media in mid-July.

People are now posting images of the characters, with captions explaining what their possible characteristics might be. It’s 2022 though, and people can’t help but make light of more flawed characteristics. Popular versions include “Little Miss won’t ask for help even with a knife in her leg” or “Little Miss indecisive.” Mainly, people are dragging themselves and others.

Where did the Little Miss memes come from?

It is hard to determine the cause of the spike in interest but there have been some viral versions. Dreamgirltat, a Twitter user, posted the following April 17th. posted an image with the caption “Little Miss smokes too much weed” that got over 36,000 likes. Know Your Meme also credits Instagram user Juulpuppy, who posted nine photos on Instagram in a carousel on April 19. This post earned the meme an estimated 39,000 likes within three months. The popularity of these images was helped by a series of viral posts, regardless of their origin.