Rebecca Jennings wrote a column for Vox about all the new terms that are being coined on TikTok for the clicks. She even gave the phenomenon a name: trendbait. It was a great piece and I featured it in my newsletter.
One annoying thing, though: one of her examples was a term that I had never heard of: “75 cozy”. I’m pretty versed on the latest TikTor terminology, so this was annoying to me. Doubly annoying because googling just led me to TikTok videos that don’t explain the term, and Jennings’ piece on Vox.
So what is “75 cozy”, or “75 comfy cozy”, or “the 75 cozy challenge”? (Or even “75 cosy” for British English spellers like me!)
75 cosy is a riff on the “75 hard challenge” that was created in 2019 by entrepreneur Andy Frisella. The idea of this challenge is that for 75 consecutive days, you need to follow a diet, do sports twice every day, drink a gallon of water every day, and read 10 pages of a book. If you fail, your days reset to 0.
(As an aside, when I read about the gallon of water I was like “okay”, until I converted it to litres and saw that this means drinking almost 4 litres of water a day. That is ridiculous, people. And proven nonsense, my favourite debunking podcast Science Versus did an episode about it.)
After the 75 hard challenge came the “75 soft challenge”. This is a alternative version to the hard challenge, where you basically work on yourself for 75 days, but you are more forgiving of yourself and you make your own, less mental, rules.
And then came the “75 cozy” uhm, challenge? Where you just give yourself a cosy, nice life for 75 days. Watch your favourite films, hang out with friends, bake cookies, and relax.
Do you know more about it? Let me know in the comments!
Heddwen Newton is an English teacher and translator. She is fascinated by contemporary English and the way English changes. Her newsletter is English in Progress. 1100 subscribers and growing every day!
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