In a time when we’re used to typing out words much more than we write them, it might seem like analyzing someone’s handwriting is pretty irrelevant. There’s a theory that suggests a certain style of writing should be avoided at all costs, though.
Handwriting feels pretty random, but experts say it can be meaningful. For example, a 2022 study found that a person’s handwriting is typically linked to their personality. The idea that you can tell everything you need to know about someone based on their handwriting sounds like an overgeneralization, but some people swear by it.
One woman claimed that a glance at someone’s handwriting is all you need to determine if they’re ‘pure in heart.’
Content creator Brighton insisted that “the mean girl litmus test is giving her a pen and paper” in a TikTok video. She used her friend Zoe as an example. “Her handwriting? Proof that she is pure in heart,” she insisted. “I’m just saying that there’s mean girl handwriting and she doesn’t have it.”
Zoe wouldn’t let Brighton show a sample of her handwriting in the video, but others were intrigued by the concept and sent her pictures of their own to judge. In a follow-up video, Brighton judged various submissions she received as “impure,” “pure,” “mean girl,” and “neutral.”
The impure and mean girl handwriting did have a specific look to it that can’t really be described. As stereotypical as it sounds, it reminds me of the way the popular girls wrote when I was in school, and I so badly wanted my own handwriting to more closely resemble their rounded, cutesy letters.
Other TikTokers have shared similar thoughts on handwriting, like one named Timarie, who said the kind of writing she saw on a whiteboard outside of a store resembled “the handwriting of a girl who would have bullied me in high school.”
Another woman named Meghan showed the way a barista wrote her name on her Starbucks bag, with the observation, “The meanest girl you know has handwriting like this.”
Handwriting analysts believe that the way someone writes does reveal certain clues about their personality, but not in such a sweeping way.
The study of handwriting is known as graphology, and certified graphologist and psychotherapist Annette Poizner explained that it can be used in mental health treatment. According to Poizner, graphology is a bit like dream interpretation in the sense that it does provide some information about a subject, but it shouldn’t be the sole thing an expert relies on.
Anastasia Shuraeva | Pexels
Poizner said that very small details about the way a person writes, from the size of the letters to the direction the words slant in, can help those who understand graphology determine truths about their personality, intelligence, talents, and motivations.
Others disagree, though. In a 2015 study, researchers called handwriting analysis “a debatable issue.” It’s also been proven that someone can change their handwriting over time if they put in the necessary effort, which calls into question how one’s writing could be related to unchanging traits.
The ‘mean girl handwriting’ theory may not be legit, but people still love to debate it.
I’m not a fan of stereotypes, especially when they’re based on gender, but even I can’t deny there’s just some sort of indescribable difference between most men’s and women’s handwriting. Although there isn’t an abundance of research on this topic, a 2020 study might provide some scientific basis. Researchers found that there were differences in the parts of the brain activated when writing for men and women.
This has been discussed extensively on Reddit, where one user shared a photo of a random handwriting sample and insisted, “95% of girls have handwriting just like this.” The writing was flowy, connected, and rounded.
Reddit
In another post, a male teacher said he was a bit miffed when one of his students called out his “popular girl handwriting.” Commenters requested that he share a photo of his writing, and once they saw it, they confirmed that his student was, in fact, not wrong.
There are so many different factors that can influence a person’s handwriting, so it’s impossible to use that as a definitive judge of character. At the same time, it seems like there’s a lot more to how our brains cause us to write than we fully understand.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
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