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5 min readThe "Baby Woman" Trap: When Adulting Feels Optional
"I'm just a girl." That phrase, now ubiquitous across TikTok and Instagram, captures something deeper than a passing trend. According to freelance writer Shannon Keating and culture critic Ashley Reese, it's a symptom of what they call "baby womanhood"—a cultural phenomenon where women, particularly millennials and Gen Z, abdicate adult responsibility in favor of a self-infantilizing persona.
Keating, who coined the term in a piece for The Cut, describes the baby woman as "the evil twin of the girl boss." If the girl boss says "I can do everything," the baby woman says "I don't want to do any of this—someone else take over." It's not girlishness per se, but an active refusal to engage with the messy obligations of grown-up life.
From Hannah Horvath to Ariana Grande
The archetype shows up everywhere in pop culture. Keating points to Lena Dunham's Girls character Hannah Horvath as a perfect example: ambitious enough to believe in her own talent, but terrified of what adult responsibility actually requires. "The girl boss and baby woman is constantly fighting in both Lena the real person and in her character," Keating notes.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:18) **Introducing "Baby Woman"** - Host Brittany Loose and guests define the concept of a baby woman as the opposite of a "girl boss," characterized by an abdication of adult responsibility.
- 2 (03:01) **Famous Baby Women in Pop Culture** - The group identifies and analyzes public figures who exemplify the baby woman archetype.
- 3 (06:44) **Baby Womanhood in Everyday Life** - The conversation shifts to how this mindset manifests in mundane, real-world situations, like avoiding medical care.
- 4 (11:59) **The "I'm Just a Girl" Phenomenon** - The hosts explore the viral phrase and its connection to gender essentialism and a fear of grown womanhood.
- 5 (13:42) **Economic Drivers of Baby Womanhood** - The group examines how financial instability and the loss of traditional milestones fuel the desire to regress.
- 6 (16:29) **The Benefits and Dangers of Regression** - The guests explore the psychological comfort of baby womanhood and its potential destructive consequences.
- 7 (19:14) **Comparing Baby Women and Baby Men** - The conversation turns to gender differences in how immaturity and learned helplessness are perceived.
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Show Notes
“Baby woman” is a term coined by Shannon Keating in a piece for The Cut to describe a particular kind of affect some women have: it’s not just girlishness, but also some abdication of adult responsibility. And Shannon’s seen some baby women behavior out in the culture, from Lena Dunham to Amanda Batula. But what drives some women to be baby? And what do they get out of it?
To find out, Brittany is joined by Shannon Keating, freelance writer, and Ashley Reese, writer, culture critic, and author of the Bad Brain Substack.
For more episodes on the women’s relationships to themselves and culture, check out:
The price women pay for being online
Numb girls & the humiliation of caring too much
"Girl Math" does not add up to financial freedom
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