My Favorite Memes (as a Communication Girlboss Chasing That Bread)
- dinadaiuto
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
My website focuses on communication, creativity, entrepreneurship, and professional growth so let me share three memes that I feel many peers of mine, such as other students, young professionals, and business leaders, will appreciate: Girlboss, Let's Get This Bread, and How The Email Finds Me. These memes are so silly, but they genuinely are bits of the internet that make me laugh, and that I refer to very often at this point in my life.
Patrick Davison in his "The Language of Internet Memes," explains that internet memes can be understood through three parts: "the manifestation, the behavior, and the ideal". He defines the manifestation as the visible form a meme takes online, the behavior as the actions people take to create or share it, and the ideal as the concept or meaning behind it . This framework helps show why memes are more meaningful than they first appear.
Let's start off with my personal favorite. The term Girlboss originally became popular through women-led entrepreneurship and branding culture. According to the Know Your Meme database, it was coined by Sophia Amoruso and became associated with "woman-owned and managed business" (Know Your Meme, Girlboss).
I personally use this term very often as a noun, adjective, and verb. For example, my friends and I will text each other "Hey, are you free to girl boss tomorrow?" meaning
"Are you free to hang out and do homework together for hours?"
Yes, these are actually real texts my friends and I send to each other very often. And yes, we are all college students who care deeply about our grades.
Here is a meme that shows how we use "Girlboss":
Using Davison’s framework, the ideal is empowerment, independence, and ambition. Its behavior spread through social media, business branding, and later ironic meme culture. Its manifestations range from motivational posts celebrating women in leadership to satire, such as "Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss". This meme relates to my audience because many young professionals value leadership while also recognizing when empowerment language becomes overused.
Moving on to the phrase "Let’s Get This Bread". This is used to describe earning money or working toward success. Know Your Meme defines it as "a slang expression for earning money," while noting that people often use it “ironically, mocking sincere desires to earn lots of money and work hard” (Know Your Meme, Let’s Get This Bread). Its ideal is motivation and hustle, which is why so many of my peers and content I consume use this phrase often. Its behavior spread through Twitter posts, image macros, and work-related humor, and its manifestations include captions about internships, deadlines, or trying to
survive a busy week. It also is used by people shows the lengths they will go to for money (as demonstrated by the image to the right sourced from Know Your Meme picturing a Baskin-Robbins). The ways "Let's Get This Bread" manifests in this hustle culture are all highly relatable to students balancing academics, career goals, and are willing to do anything to get a step closer to success.
This third meme is something that if I were any less of a professional, I would start attaching to emails (if you are a potential employer, just know that that was a joke and I would NEVER). The meme I'm referring to is the "How The Email Finds Me", as this is especially relevant to communication majors and business professionals. Know Your Meme explains that it “parody[ies] the typical email greeting ‘I hope this email finds you well’ by posting a humorous photo representing the poor mental and physical state of the poster” (Know Your Meme, How The Email Finds Me).
To the right is the example of this meme from the Know Your Meme database:
Its ideal is the contrast between polished professional language and real stress. Its behavior spread on Twitter during the pandemic when remote work and nonstop emails became common and its manifestations vary depending on the image selected, but most express burnout, confusion, or exhaustion.
Below is another example:
For me, these never get old because I always see this meme resurface with new images expressing different emotions attached, and usually, my algorithm is accurate enough that I relate to that expression deeply. I find a lot of amusement in the honesty of the meme, because it says what so many people are actually feeling while still keeping the humor lighthearted. It perfectly captures the reality that behind every formal email is often someone who is tired, overwhelmed, or just trying to make it through the day. That relatability is what keeps the meme funny and relevant, especially for students and professionals constantly emailing or managing inboxes.
I hope you enjoyed exploring my favorite memes, as they are most relevant to my life right now. Overall, these memes appeal to my audience because they combine humor with real experiences involving careers, communication, and ambition. Writing this blog post made me realized how our humor grows with us through each stage of life. Five years ago, I probably would not have found these memes as amusing as I do now that they are super relevant to my college life. This shows me that memes are more than entertainment and that they are really modern cultural tools that reveal how people think and work. Most significantly, memes allow us to connect with others through shared experiences and common struggles, and I find that when the internet is used for community, it is beautiful.
Sources:
Adam. (2020, September 2). How The Email Finds Me. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-the-email-finds-me
Brandon. (2022, February 24). Girlboss. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/girlboss
Conor Davage. (2025, June 4). How Your Email Finds Me. Netiquette, Memes, and the Breakdown of Digital Politeness. Brutish. https://brutish.agency/blogs/notes-on-emails/cc-the-digital-carbon-copy-how-an-office-memo-hack-shaped-internet-etiquette?srsltid=AfmBOopJGtM0RTJQ_Oa3TTVXApAq6CAfM013SEk48Se_NhBGmxQLFD8l
Mandiberg, M., & Davison, P. (2012). The social media reader. New York University Press.
Matt. (2018, September 11). Let’s Get This Bread. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lets-get-this-bread
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