Caitlin Covington (born 1990 or 1991) is an American lifestyle blogger andinfluencer.The New York Times described her as the face of theinternet meme "Christian Girl Autumn", which satirizes a "certain type of, usually white, woman who is obsessed with all things fall".[1]
Covington started her blogSouthern Curls & Pearls originally for personal purposes in 2011, when she was ajunior studying broadcasting at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation, she worked at a public relations and marketing firm inGreenville, South Carolina while continuing her personal blog and Instagram profile. A local shop owner offered to send her a dress if she would wear it for a photo on her Instagram profile.[2]
In the mid-2010s, Instagram became dominant over other forms of social media content, including blogs, and Covington became mainly known for her lifestyle content on Instagram.[3] By 2016, she had 370,000 followers on Instagram, and had been spending more than on her social media posts. Using techniques such asaffiliate marketing andsponsored content, she said her posts gave her asix-figure income.[2] Design changes by Instagram in 2016 led touser engagement of her content to drop, and she later determined that would need to diversify her sources of income to not depend on Instagram.[3]
| gio (@lasagnabby) tweeted: |
Hot Girl Summer is coming to an end, get ready for Christian Girl Autumn 🍂😍
A 2016 photo of Covington and her friend and fellow influencer, Emily Gemma,went viral on the internet in 2019 after it was reposted to Twitter by New York–based college student and online influencer Isabella Markel (who posted under the name Blizzy McGuire) with the description "Hot Girl Summer is coming to an end, get ready for Christian Girl Autumn".[1][6] Covington and Gemma were described byBuzzfeed News as wearing "swooping scarves, matching leather bags, brown ankle boots, and terrifyingly well-coiffed curls".[5] Inspired byinternet memes based onMegan Thee Stallion's song "Hot Girl Summer", which was released earlier that year, Markel found and republished the photo without knowing the identities of the photo subjects.[5]
In response to the memes, some social media users made jokes which made judgements on the assumed "cultural ignorance" and anti-gay attitudes of the women in the photo.[5] Covington and Gemma addressed judgements of their character in an interview with Buzzfeed News, in which Covington said "I'm a nice person and I love everyone and I'm accepting of everyone".[1]
Covington has continued to publish similar themed social media posts in the autumn.[1][7] In 2020, she donated $500 to aGoFundMe fundraising campaign started by Markel for her medical costs.[1]
Covington was born in 1990 or 1991.[8] She is aMethodist Christian.[1]
