"It was just really, really, really stupid... then that somehow became my brand," Madison Sinclair, the 22-year-old owner of BUGGIRL200,(opens in a new tab) tells me. The really, really, really stupid thing was the ironic Twilight shirt(opens in a new tab) of Robert Pattinson that Sinclair designed for her best friend's birthday in 2020. On it, Pattinson's smolder is framed by the text "Bite me big boy" and "I love my vampire boyfriend" in mismatched bubbly font. The back reads, "Edward Cullen number one fan."
Sinclair posted the shirt on TikTok, accidentally launching her brand. Two and a half years later, she's still going strong — and she has a warehouse and three full-time employees. On TikTok, she posts to her 268,000 (and counting) followers; meanwhile, the buggirl200brand Instagram(opens in a new tab) boasts an audience of over 46,000.
Sinclair is fluent in a particular brand of irreverent internet humor that taps her into a market of extremely online, celebrity-obsessed young people. Her tongue-in-cheek designs range from a necklace reading, "I am an adult Directioner and I deserve to live freely in society" to a T-shirt with a photo of heartthrob Logan Lerman that says, "I was raised to cook and clean for my husband." They all proclaim the wearer in on an inside joke and are characteristic of a moment where reclaiming your fandom is cool.
Her designs are so of the moment that Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo posted a photo of Iris Apatow wearing a BUGGIRL200 T-shirt that reads in big bold letters, "I think the Twilight movies are AWESOME!!!!! If you don't think that makes me SEXY and COOL, DON'T FREAKING TALK TO ME!!!!! I am not even kidding" on Instagram(opens in a new tab).
I chatted with Sinclair about how she turned her viral T-shirt into a viable business, who she thinks her average customer is...and her undying love for Taylor Swift.
Mashable: How did this all start?
I never ever, ever set out to start this. I never even fathomed that this would be my career path. I'm very lucky that it is, because I have trouble imagining myself in any other field. But it originally started because my best friend and I watched Twilight together for the first time in summer 2020. Since we had just watched the movies, I made her a shirt for her birthday. I wanted it be so ugly and horrible you don't wear it outside. I just wanted to make the worst shirt you've ever seen. And that turned into the first design I sold on a pretty big scale.
I [initially] made one for me, one for her. I posted a TikTok wearing mine. People commented, "Please let me buy this." I was like, "Are you serious? because OK..." I hopped on Depop and I started selling, made a website, got my domain, and kept throwing out some designs. In the beginning, every time I sold something my jaw dropped. You want to buy things from me that I make? That's weird.
How did you make it?
I straight up got them done on Custom Ink. Then I started getting orders, and Custom Ink wouldn't give me a bulk discount for buying the same design 80 times. Originally, I was not trying to make a buck on these. I was giving them to people for the price Custom Ink would charge me. Then I realized I can do this more affordably and actually make money. I literally went on Amazon, and I got a heat press, a heat transfer setup with a printer, and all that stuff. I started making T-shirts in my house, and now, several processes later, we've got a better handle on doing it ourselves. The first run was pretty rough, but I'm grateful I got to do it and start exploring all of this.
Why BUGGIRL200?
Everybody asks that. BUGGIRL200 was my TikTok username. I wasn't thinking ahead because I never, ever thought that this would be a long-term thing, so really — no significance.
On your TikTok, you're promoting the brand, but you're also a personality. How do you balance that?
I honestly don't balance it at all. I feel like I should post my brand more, but I just don't put the effort in, and I don't have the time to make the videos. But I also feel lucky that I am able to be a real person, interact with people, and have a personality that's not just a brand of clothing. I have made so many friends from people keeping up with me and my brand, and it's cool to actually kind of know these people. I keep my TikTok more on the fun, silly side of things; usually I post normal stuff like me talking or whatever. If I'm ever doing branded stuff, it's because I have forced myself to kick into that gear.
When you were starting on TikTok, it was a huge moment for ironic T-shirts. Do you think it's ended?
I think terrible items of clothing are still around for sure. But I do think the fad has ended, which obviously scared me when I was starting out. Is this a sustainable thing? But at this point, I feel lucky: I've been able to build my skills into work and designs that are more the fun creative side of my brain instead of [just a] really crazy catchphrase. In the beginning, I definitely wasn't super proud of the products I was making. It was exciting to be able to sell something, but it wasn't anything I would want to put on a resume. It was just very unskilled and I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Now I'm able to make whatever I want. I've been able to weasel into an avenue where I don't have to keep up with those silly, crazy, ironic catchphrases anymore. I can add those if I want to, but people have been really supportive of me doing stuff that's more along the lines of my creative style.
Do you think there's an average customer or type of person who's attracted to your designs?
It's mind boggling how many different genres of people engage with my stuff. I have moms, literally grandmothers, even 17-year-old guys will comment on my stuff sometimes. I'm like, "How are you in my audience?" I love it. I'm so happy.
Mostly I see younger, 16 to 25-year-old Harry Styles fans that are very up on the pop culture, very online — not in a bad way. The best descriptor of my customers is that they definitely know what the inside jokes are with celebrities at any moment, probably even more than me. Sometimes they'll comment, "Hey, did you hear about this thing that happened? Are you gonna make a shirt about it?" And I had no idea that was even a thing in the celebrity world, but thank you for telling me. I would say, young women who I could be friends with. That's my genre of people.
Your designs often require online knowledge or a sense of humor. Have you been online for a long time?
I definitely grew up in the social media age. I got my first iPhone when I was 14. From that moment on, I loved social media. Although it definitely did rot my brain a lot, I am reaping the rewards of knowing what's going on.
A lot of your designs are Swiftie/Directioner–forward. Are you a longtime fan of them, or were those later in life obsessions, like Twilight?
That stuff comes from like core childhood; really, really deep roots. For a while, it was fun to take the type of people you got bullied for liking in high school, like One Direction, and go in the opposite direction and be like, "Fuck you, I love One Direction." I'm a grown woman, and I'm going to wear the shirt proudly.
When you started in 2020, there was an explosion in fandom and reclaiming what was uncool as cool. Why do you think that happened?
Maybe enough people got to the point where they realized, "Wait, we're missing out on a lot of fun because we're so busy with the idea of being cool." Coolness can be really restricting, honestly, in your self-growth, your creativity, everything. If you set out every day to be the coolest person in the room, you're going to be A: the most boring person and also a very stagnant person. You really have to embrace the cringe in order to grow. You have to let yourself be embarrassing and experience life.
Are all the celebrities featured in your designs people that you ride for?
Most of them are people that I ride for. The only person I am gonna get in a Thanksgiving dinner argument over is Taylor Swift. Me and all my friends talk about how if you don't like Taylor Swift, we don't care. That's fine. That's valid. But if you hop on the Taylor Swift hate train a little too loudly, you're probably just misogynistic. That's like the one where I'll be like, "Oh, you don't like Taylor Swift? Why? Tell me why right now." I'll get into that one.
But other than that, celebrities are literally not real. Everything we see about any of these people is PR and marketing. I ride for the energy of liking these people, having the community of the shared interest or music or film. But in real life I wouldn't stake anything on any of these people. I'm sure a lot of them are really, really great, but we really don't know them. They're literally characters to us.
What's been your most requested design subject?
Recently, it was Pedro Pascal. I get a lot of requests based on who is hot at the moment. Nathan Fielder is another one that to this day, every single day, I get comments saying, "please release more Nathans."
Are all your designs rooted in a commitment to the bit?
Honest to God, yes. This is the longest possible bit I've ever committed to. Every day, I wake up, and I'm just like, "I cannot believe that this is my life." And I'm very happy with it! I love it! But it's really interesting and not something I could have ever really set out to do.
Everything I do with my brand is authentic — but in a way where I'm gonna do a lot of bits within my brand, because that is the brand. It's silly. It's fun. I really like to do really stupid, weird marketing — being able to take some of the hard, weird business stuff like marketing and just turning it into stuff that's not even a convincing ad, but is just so silly and stupid that it works.
Do you have a favorite design of all time?
I really, really love my one-of-a-kind pieces. Those are my favorites, because I take a lot of time to make them, and they're all unique. They're all printed all over. I recently did some Harry Styles one of a kinds for his birthday on Feb. 1. I had a lot of fun doing those. That's my favorite probably.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
