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The Vine account of Peaches Monroee has over 37 million loops, thanks to an internet-famous, car-selfie declaration that her eyebrows are on fleek. Another Vine of Ariana Grande reenacting Monroee's Vine—singing her string of phrases, "We in dis bitch, finna get crunk, eyebrows on fleek, dafuq"—has been looped over three million times. And compliments of an Instagram posted by Kim Kardashian yesterday, Google queries for "what is fleek" have shot up even more.
In the event that you missed this string of events, or followed them but are still confused, let's talk about fleek. What is it? Is it an adjective or adverb? And why are IHOP and Taco Bell tweeting about it?
Over the summer, Monroee's Vine introduced the world to "fleek." Eyebrows on fleek, translated: her eyebrows look good. She probably just got them done a few hours ago. Penciled them in just so. Put very simply, fleek is just another way to say "on point." And if your eyebrow game is on lock, your eyebrows are on fleek. See how it works? Monroee's Vine was the perfect storm of a highly-viral video and the internet's obsession with eyebrows—so of course it blew up.
Once her Vine caught worldwide-web steam (it was dubbed one of the top 25 Vines of the summer by Complex), fleek infiltrated all corners of the internet—even major food chains, like Wendy's, who are trying to appeal to a younger crowd. One of IHOP's digital marketing experts explained: "Twitter for us skews younger so it's important to talk the talk when it comes to that fan base." The comments on this Adweek post say otherwise.
Pancakes on fleek.
— IHOP (@IHOP) October 21, 2014
A few days ago, rapper B.o.B. dropped a new song, "Fleek"—the intro to which is literally "dance, dance, dance, dance, fleek, fleek, fleek, fleek." That's all fine and great, but the real highlight is female rapper Lin Z's verse, which begins: "Eyebrows stay on fleek, bitch. Get 'em done twice a week, bitch." (B.o.B., ever the wordsmith, gets a lot of points for the line, "Fleekwood Mac that's me, bitch" though.)
Cut to yesterday, when Kim Kardashian posted a photo of her eyebrows with the caption "#eyebrowsonfleek." Her brows are bleached ("for a photo shoot!") and are definitely not on fleek. Fleek eyebrows would not be bleached. They would not be barely there. Fleek eyebrows have strong, defined arches. These are the opposite of fleek.