TikTok's 'Girl Dinner' goes viral

NEW YORK - "Girl dinner" is the latest viral trend taking over TikTok, turning a plate of random, no-cooking-required snacks into a hashtag with nearly 400 million views, spawning appreciation, jokes and genuine concern.

Fundamentally, a girl dinner is exactly as it sounds; Whatever a girl wants for dinner.

Olivia Maher is the micro-creator that started the trend.

"I was chatting with another girlfriend and we were discussing what we were going to have for dinner that night, and I was like, oh, well, my boyfriend's not home. I'm just going to kind of have a girl dinner is what I call it," Maher said. "I just kind of picture the fridge...I had some wine leftover, I had some grapes. Oh, here's that salami and cheese and some bread leftover… I’ve got to get rid of it before it goes bad."

Even fast-food chain Popeyes is getting in on the act, introducing a 'girl dinner' option consisting only of sides. 

In reality, the girl dinner has been around for ages, with Charcuterie boards, tapas, aperitivo, a bento box and meze. However, there is concern this new branding of a haphazard meal will celebrate disordered eating.

Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietitian and the CEO of New York Nutrition Group, said, "If you're looking at it as a more restrictive meal, a meal that has smaller portions or less and less of the certain food group, then for a lot of people, especially on social media, who so often compare their looks, their actions, their behaviors, their lifestyles, and certainly the way they eat and how much they eat, it can be quite harmful."