TikTok's 'lucky girls' say they manifest success by simply believing things always work out for them — because, why not?

• "Lucky-girl syndrome" is a buzzy new TikTok trend centered around willing good luck into your life.
• "Lucky girls" say they manifest financial and professional success via positivity and affirmations.
• Insider spoke with three of them. Here are their stories.

"Ever since I can remember, I have always made it a point to tell everyone, 'I am so lucky,'" Laura Galebe said in a TikTok post captioned, "Let's talk about The 'Lucky girl' Syndrome."

"I just always expect great things to happen to me, and they do," she added. 

It might sound like the words of a tech bro, guru, or life coach, but "lucky-girl syndrome" is a corner of TikTok buzzing with the belief that you can use manifestation, positive thinking, and affirmations to create financial and professional success.

It makes sense that young people would be looking for a feeling of confidence and control amid pandemic and war. When essentials like healthcare, housing, and financial security are seen as the responsibility of the individual and not the collective, people have to make do for themselves. 

Natasha Badger, a 23-year-old New Yorker, said that while "you obviously can't all bank on "lucky-girl syndrome" to fix all your problems," it can give you a much-needed shot of self-esteem. When she was interviewing for jobs, for instance, Badger said she exuded confidence because of her "lucky girl" beliefs.

"You come to the table with a certain energy that you belong there, versus you're yearning for this job," Badger, who works in marketing, said. "I think that's something that isn't really tangible, but people pick up on that." 

Feeling lucky in an age of disillusionment 

Multiple media outlets, including Vox, have pointed out similarities between "lucky-girl syndrome" and "The Secret," a book that came out in 2006 that says you can turn thoughts into reality. The Washington Post likened it to the 1952 self-help concept in the book "The Power of Positive Thinking," written by the Methodist minister Norman Vincent Peale.

The "lucky girl" technique has been criticized as pseudoscience, wishful thinking, and little more than pop psychology.

"It's magical capitalism," Melissa Fisher, a cultural anthropologist and visiting scholar at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge, told Insider. "It's not about labor; it's feeling that you're taking control into your own hands in a world that feels out of control."

This trend is resonating with millennials and Gen Zers at a time when economic headwinds are forcing them into a lower standard of living than previous generations enjoyed. Homeownership is out of reach for many. Some are delaying marriage and parenthood for financial reasons. Meanwhile, many young adults are drowning in student-loan and credit-card debt. 

Many Gen Zers are rejecting old notions about how to get ahead at work — keep your nose down, always go above and beyond, and work yourself to the bone, which can lead to burnout. This newest generation of workers is reimagining how work fits into their lives, rather than the other way around. 

To be clear: Galebe, who brought the concept to the TikTok masses, is not a scientist or psychologist. She's a Gen Z content creator with 21,000 followers who says she "genuinely believes" that she's lucky and credits her success with that. Laura Amy, a 35-year-old career coach in Birmingham, England, also says she's a true believer.

Amy uses the tenets of "lucky-girl syndrome" in her personal life as well as with her clients, she said. For her, the trend is about meditating on an idea and then taking action. 

"The women who are talking about it haven't just sat there and thought about doing something — they've proved they can start a business or do something great in the corporate world," she told Insider. "If you want to be that lucky girl, you've got to step into her and embody her."

"Lucky-girl syndrome" also gives her a sense of empowerment.

"Like a lot of people, I don't have much faith in anything right now because the world is going crazy around me," she said. "There's always another crisis to deal with and the goalposts keep shifting — especially for women."

She sees being a lucky girl as a "way to have control and hope," she said.

'Everything I touch wins'

Many media outlets have written off "lucky girls" as delusional and said that the trend could lead practitioners to blame themselves when things don't go their way. Some have also said the majority of "lucky girls" are white, able-bodied, and conventionally attractive women. 

According to Stephanie Synclair, the 41-year-old Black founder of the luxury-tea company La Rue 1680, those critiques are valid but dwelling on them misses the point. Synclair said she'd been a "lucky girl" since before it became a "thing."

"I carry the mentality of, 'Why wouldn't I be successful?'" she told Insider. "I focus on the positive and, not to sound arrogant, but everything I touch wins."

Synclair points to her thriving new company as proof. She founded it from her garage in Atlanta in fall 2020. Business was slow at first. 

But then, while binging the Netflix romantic drama "Bridgerton" on Christmas Day that year, Synclair had an idea: a tea package centered around some of the show's characters. She worked up a prototype and put it on her website.

"Vogue reached out to me about the package later that week," she said, adding that soon after, her company was featured on "Today," on CNN, and in Southern Living.

Sales are now good: She's moved her business from her garage to a fulfillment center in Asheville, North Carolina.

"There is action and work that comes with being lucky," she said. "When you believe you're lucky, you follow the cues that come to you, and trust that the universe will do its part."

The 'universe' as a spiritual force

An Oliver Wyman survey on the state of the generation that polled 10,000 adults found Gen Zers were nearly one-quarter less likely than other generations to believe in God or religious deities, or life after death. It found Gen Z was also 138% as likely to believe in the power of manifestation as other generations, and more than one-quarter of respondents said positive affirmations, uplifting phrases, or mantras helped combat negativity and boost self-esteem. 

"We still want that feeling of connecting to the energy and the world and the spirituality that is in our universe, but in our own individualistic way," Badger said.