What is I Woke Up Like This?

A selfie trend where people post photos taken right after waking up, playing off the Beyoncé lyric from 'Flawless' released in December 2013.

Where did I Woke Up Like This come from?

The phrase comes from Beyoncé's 2013 song 'Flawless.' The Tumblr blog iwokeuplikethisflawless launched the same day the album dropped and collected user selfies tied to the lyric.

What does I Woke Up Like This mean?

It is mostly self-deprecating comedy about the gap between Beyoncé's flawlessness and your own bedhead. New York Magazine framed the joke as pushback against the effortless-beauty pose sold by celebrity lifestyle brands.

How do you use I Woke Up Like This?

Post a selfie soon after waking with hair a mess, then caption it with the lyric or hashtag. Lena Dunham modeled this in August 2014 with a smeared-makeup selfie asking if it was what Beyoncé was singing about.

Is I Woke Up Like This still popular?

The trend was most visible in 2014 with celebrity posts and think pieces. The phrase is now more of a classic shorthand than an active daily hashtag, though people still reference it.

I Woke Up Like This

2013catchphraseclassic

Published August 31, 2026

I Woke Up Like This is a selfie trend where people post unflattering just-out-of-bed photos, riffing on Beyoncé's 2013 song 'Flawless.' What started as an earnest Tumblr project in December 2013 turned into a running joke about the fiction of effortless beauty, pulling in celebrities and think pieces through 2014.

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Overview

The format hinges on the gap between Beyoncé's confident 'I woke up like this / Flawless' hook and the reality of most people's morning faces1. Participants snap a selfie shortly after waking, hair a mess, pillow creases on their cheeks, and caption it with the phrase or hashtag. Some post it earnestly to show off a natural look; most use it as self-deprecating comedy, often exaggerating the bedhead for the joke3.

The phrase also became a rhetorical tool in beauty and lifestyle writing. Critics used it to jab at celebrity brands like Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop and Blake Lively's Preserve, arguing the effortless-chic pose those sites sold actually took hours of work and a lot of money1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Music (Beyoncé) / Tumblr (viral spread)

Date

2013

Beyoncé's self-titled surprise album dropped on December 13, 2013, and its track 'Flawless' featured the repeated hook 'I woke up like this'3. On the same day, the Tumblr blog iwokeuplikethisflawless launched to collect user-submitted selfies taken right after waking, framing itself as a communal photo album tied directly to the lyric5.

How It Spread

Through 2014 the phrase moved beyond Tumblr as celebrities picked it up. On August 29, 2014, Lena Dunham posted an Instagram selfie with smeared makeup, captioned 'Is this what Beyoncé was singing about?' E! Online covered the post, noting Dunham joked that the look wasn't even fueled by 'one ounce of alcohol'2.

On July 25, 2014, New York Magazine's The Cut ran an essay titled 'Why Not Admit We Didn't Wake Up Like This?' The piece used the lyric to argue that the effortless-beauty pose sold by celebrity lifestyle sites was itself a product of long grooming routines and expensive wardrobes1.

The format also fed longer-form projects. Instagram user ijustwokeup wrapped a year-long daily just-woken-up selfie series on October 2, 2014, a project MTV News wrote up as a portrait of what mornings actually look like4.

How to Use This Meme

Typical posts are a phone selfie taken within a few minutes of waking, with visible bedhead, puffy eyes, or pillow creases, captioned with the lyric or the hashtag #iwokeuplikethis. A common convention is to lean into the mess rather than clean up, since the joke depends on the contrast with Beyoncé's flawlessness3. The phrase also works as a sarcastic caption on any obviously styled photo.