{{Short description|Christian lifestyle blog and YouTube channel}} thumb|Logo '''Girl Defined''' is a Christian lifestyle blog and YouTube channel run by sisters Bethany Beal and Kristen Clark which focuses on purity culture and navigating mainstream America as an evangelical Christian.
== History == Sisters Bethany Beal and Kristen Clark started ''Girl Defined'' with a focus on high school and college-aged girls, after their first project, bairdsisters.com, failed to gain traction.<ref name="Vice 2020" >{{cite web |last1=Brobst |first1=Scout |title=How Young Evangelical Women Are Navigating a Sex-Positive Internet |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-young-evangelical-women-are-navigating-a-sex-positive-internet-girl-defined/ |date=October 19, 2020 |website=Vice |access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref> In 2016, the sisters began posting videos on YouTube and published their first book, ''Girl Defined: God’s Radical Design for Beauty, Femininity, and Identity''.<ref name= "Vice 2020" />
Girl Defined became the subject of an Internet meme in 2018 after comedy YouTubers Cody Ko and Noel Miller featured Girl Defined's content on their series ''That's Cringe''. This began a trend on social media in which influencers and regular users made videos parodying and mocking Girl Defined.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McNeal |first1=Stephanie |title=How These Small-Time Christian Influencers Became A Viral TikTok Meme About Purity Culture |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/girl-defined-tiktok-meme |website=BuzzFeed News |date=November 5, 2019 |access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref>
The sisters started posting on the platform TikTok in the 2020s.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vilanova |first1=Constance |title=Aux États-Unis, le culte de la virginité s'installe sur TikTok |url=https://www.telerama.fr/ecrans/aux-etats-unis-le-culte-de-la-virginite-s-installe-sur-tiktok-7013909.php |work=Télérama |date=January 20, 2023 |access-date=February 9, 2023 |language=fr}}</ref> In 2021, Beal went viral for sharing her story of having her first kiss at the age of 30 during her wedding.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Weekman |first1=Kelsey |title=What Happens To Christian Influencers When They Get Married? |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseyweekman/christian-influencers-purity-culture-marriage |website=BuzzFeed News |date=July 6, 2022 |access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref>
== Views == Girl Defined promotes biblical womanhood. Many of their ideas are borrowed from purity culture which was popular in the 1990s and early 2000s.<ref name= "The Conversation" >{{cite web |last1=Thwaites |first1=Elle |title=The impact of Christian purity culture is still being felt – including in Britain |url=https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-christian-purity-culture-is-still-being-felt-including-in-britain-182907 |website=theconversation.com |date=June 28, 2022 |publisher=The Conversation |access-date=February 8, 2023}}</ref> The organization has been labeled as Christian nationalist by Hope College scholars Sage Mikkelsen and Sarah Kornfield.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mikkelsen |first1=Sage |last2=Kornfield |first2=Sarah |title=Girls Gone Fundamentalist: Feminist Appeals of White Christian Nationalism |journal=Women's Studies in Communication |year=2021 |volume=44 |issue=4 |page=563-585 |doi=10.1080/07491409.2021.1911895 |s2cid=242451674 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07491409.2021.1911895 |access-date=July 27, 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> === Feminism === Girl Defined has referred to feminism as an "attack on God's design for womanhood."<ref name= "The Conversation" /> They have stated their intent to build an online community to support women and girls while "taking a stand against feminism."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hugh |first1=Jess |title='You can't cancel me': embattled TikTok star reinvents herself as a warrior for Jesus |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/05/brittany-dawn-davis-tiktok-christian-social-media-influencer |website=The Guardian |date=October 5, 2022 |access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref>
=== Gender and sexuality === The sisters discourage kissing and other sexual or sexually suggestive acts before marriage.<ref name= "The Conversation" /> They advise girls who are attracted to other girls to "seek God" instead. They also argue that transgender people should renounce "choices" that they have made about their gender.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Phillips |first1=Jessica |title=YouTube's Fundamentalist Influencers Are Preaching Abstinence and Anti-Abortion |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/youtubes-fundamentalist-influencers-are-preaching-abstinence-and-anti-abortion/ |date=January 20, 2021 |website=Vice |access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref>
== See also == * Abstinence-only sex education * Chastity
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://girldefined.com Website] Category:Blogs about religion Category:Christianity and women Category:Antifeminism Category:YouTube channels Category:Female critics of feminism