There's a cliché going viral on TikTok right now about "popular girls" who dress up as the Dr. Suess character The Lorax every year for Halloween. Some believe that the "Lorax Costume Girls" are unfunny and cringe.

Teenage and co-ed boys on TikTok are brandishing the Lorax Halloween costume as a red flag. If you're crush ever puts on an orange body suit in October, you should run in the other direction, according to the memes and viral videos shared on the app.

But where did this backlash come from? Who started criticizing the Lorax costume, and who was the first "Lorax Halloween Costume Girl?" Let's explain.

Where Did The 'Female Lorax Halloween Costume' Trend Start?

A TikToker named McKenna Douglas (@mckenna_douglas) is credited as the first woman to don a Lorax costume and post about it online. She shared a string of videos around Halloween 2023 in which she was dressed as the character.

That year, meme creators revisited the animated film The Lorax from 2012. Several trends based on songs and scenes from the film went viral on TikTok, including, "Let It Grow," "The Lorax Leaving" and "How Bad Can I Be?"

@mckenna_douglas Digital footprint… 🧡🧡🧡 #lorax #fyp #foryoupage #foryourpage #halloween #happyhalloween ♬ original sound – Slim 199x

Douglas' 2023 videos achieved viral success when they were posted, amassing millions of views and likes, coinciding with the other costumes spreading on the algorithm during Halloween week.

In subsequent years, women paid homage to Douglas' blueprint, as viral videos surfaced on TikTok each Halloween that showed women in the same Lorax costume letting loose and being silly, like Douglas was in her original videos.

@allie_riecke #lorax #groupcostume #savethetrees #happyhalloween ♬ JT Coming – JT

How To Dress Up As 'The Lorax' For Halloween

McKenna Douglas' The Lorax costume boiled the character down to his simplest form. Her rendition was innovative because it was so easily replicable, hence why so many women have redone the costume in recent years.

The costume requires:

• Orange Morphsuit or bodysuit
• Fake yellow mustache and eyebrows
• Pillow, which is stuffed into the morph suit to create a potbelly look.
• Optional: orange tu-tu

@j.bolzman if we don’t win I’m suing @Ellasyn09 #lorax #homecoming #dressup #fyp ♬ Original Sound – Unknown

Where Did The 'Lorax Halloween Costume Girls' Memes Come From?

In August of 2025, a TikToker named @lawliet_toes shared a video meme, showing a handsome man walking confidently paired with the caption, "Girls with the humor of a 10-year-old getting ready to dress up as The Lorax for Halloween every year."

@lawliet_toes hilarious #fyp #halloween #thelorax #lorax #foryoupage ♬ Hey Big Head – BoofPaxkMooky

The video's punchline struck a chord with many TikTokers at the time, and in the following months, others harked on the same criticism, which identified the female The Lorax costume trend as tired.

For instance, a TikToker named @kit.lee01 shared a video on the topic at the end of September, seemingly getting ahead of the discourse that'd likely ensue come All Hallows' Eve.

"If you think your life's bad right now, just think about all the boyfriends out there in the world whose girlfriends think dressing up as The Lorax and Pitbull is the funniest thing in the world," he said, also referencing another female costume trend of dressing up as recording artist Pitbull.

@kit.lee01 Pray I never have to go through that experience again #relatable #funny #fyp #kitlee01 #guys ♬ Piano famous song Chopin Deep deep clear beauty – RYOpianoforte

The criticism of girls who dress as The Lorax continued in the following weeks, largely spearheaded by young men on the platform, who expressed that the costume gave them "the ick." But the reason for the costume's popularity, at least according to some, among women boils down to the expectations of them on Halloween.

In one of McKenna Douglas' original 2023 TikTok videos, she used the monologue about Halloween from the comedy film Mean Girls in which the narrator talks about Halloween as the only night when girls get the pass to dress scandalously.

The Lorax costume, and others like the Pitbull costume, obviously subvert that expectation, and that's what's at play in the trend's logic.

@mckenna_douglas 🗣️lEt iT GroW LeT It gROw And yes, I will be posting all my drafts, what about it 🤨 #fyp #foryoupage #halloween #foryourpage #lorax #fypagee #fypage #forypage ♬ original sound – omgitslilny

What Are Some More 'Lorax Halloween Costume Girls' Memes?

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7558149043294113054

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7558235807773969695

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7556886833452485908

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7557428673436011792

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7558617362908417293

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7556935928732847374

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For the full history of The Lorax Halloween Costume Girls, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.