Allow us to explain the term #hotgirlsummer before you see it everywhere.

Are you ready for #hotgirlsummer?

Nope?

Neither are we. In fact, we’ve started to see this hashtag all over Instagram and up until now we weren’t entirely sure what it meant. So we’ve done some investigating.

The #hotgirlsummer origin story

The term “hot girl summer” was born earlier this year, largely thanks to American rapper Megan Thee Stallion (she earned her stage name thanks to her 5 foot 10 stature.)

The 24-year-old, known for her strong stance on empowerment and self love, refers to herself as Hot Girl Meg. And because every musician’s fan base has a name (see: Ariana Grande has her “Arianators”; Demi Lovato has her “Lovatics”) Megan’s fans are her “Hotties.” So the word “hot” is ingrained in her lexicon.

Still with us?

Back in May Megan released a single ‘Cash Sh*t’ that started with the lyric: “Real hot girl sh*t.” Inspired by this, her fans coined the phrase “hot girl summer.”

One of the first recorded appearances of the term was courtesy of Twitter user @sweetliketeaaa who shared a bunch of pics on the app with the caption “I heard it’s a hot girl summer.”

From there, it became a fairly niche meme with other fans following suit and posting their own pics, then the rapper noticed and Tweeted it herself.

So Megan did not actually coin the term, but she owned it. And, wise woman that she is, she turned it into a song.

In August this year, she released the track ‘Hot Girl Summer’ which featured Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign. From there, it became a party anthem and THEN, just like Drake’s 2016 hit ‘Hotline Bling’, it snowballed into a social media movement.

The phrase went mainstream in the US over the course of their summer, and now that we're getting the first waves of warmer weather over in our hemisphere, you're about to see the same effect on your favourite social feed.

But before you get up in arms about it, pls read and digest the below.

Important note: it's not as derogatory as it sounds.

The hot girl summer concept isn't actually, by nature, superficial. "Hot" in this case is about self-confidence, says the artist, whether you're posting on social media or just living your life.

"It's about women and men being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time, hyping up their friends, doing you and not giving a damn about what anybody's got to say about it," Megan Thee Stallion told The Root.

(And if you've got #fomo, know that you don't have to be a single girl going out with your single girlfriends to take part: "If you are cuffed up you can still have a hot girl summer," Megan clarified.)

With all the social posts united under the hashtag, the term has clearly been resonating with women all over the world - which shows the meme is more inclusive than it would suggest. Anyone can have a hot girl summer, because "hot" is up to their own definition.

Naturally, because the internet, plenty of people are using the term to poke fun at themselves - in fact a whole subculture has emerged around using the phrase ironically, with people suggesting how not-actually-that-hot they feel. Which is also okay.

And when it comes down to it, hot girl summer is not so much about fitting into any type of social media stereotype. Like so many other viral trends, it's more of a mood. A big mood.

So there it is. Bring on the posts, we're ready.