Is Boys World the girl group we’ve all been waiting for?
Welcome to CHEW THE FAT WITH…, our long-form profile series where we invite you to sit down with fashion’s next generation as they dig deep into their memories. To chew some fat - defined as an informal conversation brimming with small talk - we encourage you to pull up a chair and take a big old bite as we spill the tea on the life and work of the industry’s need-to-knows. Just remember to mop up after yourself.
What makes a pop group in 2021? Thirty - yes, thirty - years go, when the world peaked back in the ‘90s, choreography, crop tops, Kappa, blue jeans and questionable vocals could carry a girl group through to platinum success. As the world found its feet with autotune, groups like the SPICE GIRLS were laying the foundations for the aesthetic, fan-fever, and global potential of an industry love-child born out of money, a vast roster of song-writers, a label boss who knew the time was right, and a nation-wide search for group members with chemistry. After all, ONE DIRECTION - the biggest boy band since The Beatles - were put together based on little more than height. But since then, times have changed. Whilst crop tops are still kitschy, Kappa is for uni students, catchy songs are not enough and global, record-breaking hits don’t grow out of industry backing alone. No, a pop group in 2021 has to do more.
Cue BOYS WORLD: the girl group with viral potential at their fingertips, an outlook they deem is overdue, and a name that strangely has nothing to do with boys. With almost as many followers on TikTok as sales of Spiceworld in the UK, Boys World not only creates music that’s rooted in inclusivity, empowerment and unity, they also show their followers that they’re a group of Gen Z, pimple cream wearing, TikTok creators much like the rest of us. But most importantly, they’re just having fun with it.
Speaking to them on Zoom, the 5-piece group are lined up, coffee and teas in hand to ease them into their 9am start, already bouncing off of each other with the sibling-like banter that would make any label boss waggle their finger and say, “chemistry”.
“You’re getting so good at make-up, girl!” shouts OLIVIA from one side of the table to MAKHYLI at the other. Makhyli, who claims to always be called out on these things, is recounting the time she got glue in her eye in the back of a car on the way to an important meeting. “I’m always rushing, I’m always late,” she admits.
Olivia: There was no coming back from that by yourself.
Makhyli: There was no coming back, but she had me.
QUEENIE: It was like she was just balling her eyes out, but with glue.
Makhyli: I was just like, “help me!”
The group have been living in a house together on the outskirts of LA for almost two years. In the same vein as TikTok creator houses, Boys World’s fans get to see everything that goes on in their lives. Their TikTok content ranges from videos of the group dressed up as boys, to taking part in viral trends, documenting their picnics and outings, and promoting their upcoming releases. Weaved throughout all of their content is the desire to really show off who they are and affirm to their fans - who they call their Stars - that they are just a group of girls, making music and being “chaotic”.
Makhyli: I feel like we’re all pretty chaotic. They all nod. But I feel I just have things that happen that are ungodly.
ELANA: On Easter!
All: Oh yeah!
Elana: Olivia and I were really bored that day and we were like, what can we do?
Olivia: You should tell him about the outfits we were wearing to the grocery store! We wore these elegant outfits. We were all dressed up.
Elana: Yeah! And it was our first Easter spent together because we’re usually home with our families. So we went in these fancy dresses, bought this Easter cake, and then came back and started having a cake fight in our yard. We just picked it up with our hands. We messed up our dresses jumping in the pool. We can have fun just with the simplest things.
Unfortunately for their fans, TikTok didn’t see the cake fight. The girls stress that sometimes they have to take time for themselves, to do their own stuff and have fun together, without the pressures of putting it out to the world. And whilst the main focus of the girl group is music, it is no secret that appealing to fans through funny TikToks and videos that show off the unique identities of each member will help secure the group’s success, especially for KYN Entertainment, the company that put the group together.
“I’m the messiest!” says Makhyli, taking an imaginary phone from Elana as we figure out the best way to show who they really are is through a viral TikTok trend.
Makhyli: I’m passing the phone to the one who cries because she’s in the middle of the city and she doesn’t like the air. Olivia’s mouth gapes open in shock as she puts two and two together.
Queenie: She hates the air in LA! She’ll complain about it all day.
Olivia: It hurts my soul. I’m going to pass the phone to somebody who can sleep standing on their head.
“Yeah, I nap a lot. I was gonna take a nap after this interview,” says Queenie, taking the phone and leaving us all wondering how she sleeps standing on her head.
LILLIAN: Can believe that.
Queenie: I’m going to pass the phone to the person who has set off the fire alarms like three times in this house.
Elana: I don’t do that anymore! I’m going to pass the phone to the girl who… all day you know it’s you, girl! I’m going to pass the phone to the girl who likes to do her own eyeliner for every shoot.
Each member of Boys World has something that makes them stand out, like any group that has come before them. The naming of each of the Spice Girls, for instance, gave them an identity and role within the band. But together, Boys World stands out in a different way. Whilst many people have been quick to compare the group to FIFTH HARMONY or LITTLE MIX, it’s hard to ignore the fact that this girl group is on their own unprecedented trajectory, bypassing a narrative that could otherwise be written for them.
Makhyli: I think sometimes it comes naturally for people just to compare. Sometimes it’s not even a bad thing, it’s just finding similarities in groups that they love. So it’s not just like, oh you’re just like them, you’re copy cats. It’s like, oh my gosh you have cool energy like the Spice Girls, you have something we haven’t seen in a long time. We all obviously are very different. And we will show that later when we’re popping off... at the Grammy’s!
Olivia: I think we’re definitely doing our own thing as Boys World, but we also have to keep in mind that there were girl groups before us who have done different things and who have kind of paved the way for other girl groups to arise. I think following in their footsteps but also doing our own thing is important.
What Boys World are doing is more than what most pop groups have done in the past. Rather than simply producing hits and generating content that their Stars love, the group is determined to be as close to their community as possible, and promote inclusivity, unity and empowerment through their music. The video for the group’s song Girlfriends that was released back in October last year, which pushes for sisterhood between girls globally, kicks off with Olivia answering the hotline in Portugese, Makhyli using American Sign Language to offer advice, and Queenie chatting in Tagalog. But beyond speaking to their global network of fans in multiple languages, the band want each of their songs to re-enforce the qualities that they want to see more of in the world; an ambition that they know their new EP, While You Were Out, will set in motion.
Lillian: We just want to put positivity out there. There can never be too much positivity, especially nowadays.
Elana: I feel like if I was a little girl, I would love to see a girl group like us and love to be inspired by them and be a fan. That’s what we always think about: what would our younger selves feel if they saw us, and how can we better ourselves so our fans are inspired and confident and feeling great.
The cares and concerns that the girls have about their generation and fans is even built into the premise of their name. Boys World is an acronym of Best Of Your Self, and that is what they want to be. And the ‘Boys’? It’s nothing but a conversation starter.
Makhyli: It’s just a contradiction of a girl group being called boys world, and that means you can do whatever you want.
Queenie: It starts a conversation. And now we can have a conversation about what it really means and it gets people to interact and be more interested.
Elana: I have something to say.
Makhyli: Oh! Speech!
Elana: We were at Starbucks and this woman was there and was watching us make a TikTok. She was staring at you and was nice at first. She was like what’s your TikTok and we showed her, like yeah it’s Boys World. And she was like, “I hope you’re not being objects for men.” And we were like, that’s not what it is at all. The irony of it, I guess sometimes people do think this is a girl group about boys.
Queenie: I feel like it comes naturally to us when we’re together, how we’re the best of ourselves. From my personal experience, at high school girls were very mean to me. So, even coming into this I was nervous for the fact that I didn’t really get along with girls but I’m here now and looking back like, I literally get along with these girls… and it has been a commitment when it comes to communication and being vulnerable with each other. For someone who has always been conditioned to think ok these girls are out to get me, you kind of have to hop out of that.
Boys World aren’t just the next big girl group. They are the girl group that so many girls have wanted to see for such a long time. A group that is belated in their eyes, and one that is embracing individualism and what makes us human in a way that has been almost alien to commercial pop groups for so long. Queenie’s story is one that many can relate to. Her and the band’s commitment to allowing themselves to be vulnerable and using social media to show that it’s okay to go through it, and find the confidence to be the best version of yourself is what brings them as close to their fans as possible. Discussing their new EP, they want to put out music that their fans can relate to in the most personal ways and allow their listeners to realise they aren’t going through it alone.
Makhyli: Okay, start from the top ladies:
Elana: Girlfriends is about being with your friends, you’ll always have your girls by your side. If you don’t like them then that sucks because they’re always going to be around. Wingman is more about ok you have your girls but you’re also independent on your own. Tiptoe is about you meeting somebody and it sucks because they’re sneaking around you doing sketchy stuff and you’re like dang why are they doing this? Relapse comes in, you still can’t get over this person. It’s a toxic cycle and you just feel like why am I doing this to myself. Touched by an Angel is like you’re finally healed. You’re over them and you don’t know you’ve been touched by an angel.
The band speak about While You Were Out as if it were an anthology of poems that explores the cycle of love, the ups and downs, the euphoric moments, but also the times when you don’t feel whole. The girls pride themselves in pouring their hearts out whilst in the booth, expressing all of the emotions they have and packing them as tightly as possible into their music. They understand what their fans want because they make the music that they would want to listen to and want to become the role models that they themselves would want to look up to. But above all, everything they want to achieve is wrapped up in a group of young women having fun with the capabilities of changing their world.
So, what makes a pop group in 2021?
5 young women hugging coffee cups, making TikToks, ruining fancy dresses with cake, and spreading as much positivity as they possibly can.