Why are Gen Zers hijacking the candy salad TikTok trend to trauma dump?

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Sep 18, 2024 at 01:13 PM

Reading time: 2 minutes

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Images courtesy of TikTok

When I think of TikTok, I think of a place where anyone and everyone can air their beef with a person, a group, a celebrity, a company, or even just the world. Whether you’re Tareasa Johnson calling out your ex-husband’s lies in a 50-part viral series titled ‘Who TF Did I Marry’ or Lily Chapman feuding with the insidious online snarking community by creating themed merch to stand her ground,  addressing one’s personal grievances on social media is nothing new.

So, with that in mind, it’s no surprise that the current trend dominating TikTok involves groups of Gen Zers using candy salads to cope with, you guessed it, trauma! I will never not adore how my generation makes light of the human experience. And while it’s of course important to remember that the internet can be a really nasty place and sharing personal information online might not always be the smartest idea, finding ways to cope with trauma collectively isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But first, before we get into the trend itself, let’s discuss what a candy salad is and how it quickly became the most popular sweet treat of the summer.

A candy salad is, well, just that: a concoction of different candies and sweets to make up a kind of mixed salad. Just instead of rocket and spinach, these salads consist of Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, and Starbursts.

Candy salad videos first began gaining traction on TikTok in May 2024. To properly get across how popular these videos have become, the term “Candy Salad’ currently has over 503 million associated posts.

Originally, the majority of the videos were of groups of kids from either sports teams or in the same classroom at school, all lining up and one by one offering up a new type of candy to be added to the bowl.

Before long, everyone on TikTok was joining in on the trend—from friends and family to couples and bachelorette parties:

While it’s quite difficult to trace the origins of the candy salad, one of the first TikTok creators to post about their love of the creation was Savannah Alexander from the popular couple’s account @joshandsav:

When you search “Candy Salad” on TikTok, you’re likely to encounter a video titled “Candy salad trauma dump.” Because it’s now become incredibly popular, particularly among Gen Z, to use this fun sweet treat to air out any grievances they might have or share about a traumatic experience that’s happened to them.

For example, the format of these videos tends to be each person will introduce themselves on camera by name, describe a traumatic event, and then present the candy that they’ve brought along for the salad. And let me be clear, while some of these videos are relatively lighthearted, some of the individuals participating in this challenge are talking about incredibly heavy topics:

Internet personalities and companies are also now jumping on the bandwagon:

So, why are Gen Zers using this originally very wholesome and innocent trend to spill the tea and trauma dump online? I personally think it has everything to do with how young people use humour to cope with distress and turmoil. If something bad happens to us, a series of jokes and gags will almost always follow suit—it’s simply the way in which the internet generation handles things.

Gen Z is known for discussing mental health incredibly openly on social media, discussing the art of delulu, and in general finding comfort and community online—TikTok is practically group therapy at this point. Plus, no one participating in this trend is encouraging young people to stay away from legitimate professional help, rather they’re just being honest about the realities of life.