A lot of people confuse the emo subculture with the e-girl/boy subculture. Emos hate it to be confused with being an e-girl/boy. Some people even think that e is short for emo. But is this true? I understand the misconseptions between these 2 because both subcultures like to have collored hair, look alternative and both are very active on social media. But because all of this, they are 2 very different subcultures. The most importand differences lay in the origins and the meaning behind these subcultures. Even their clothing style has differences:

-Origins

The term e-girl goes back to the late 2000s. This term was first used to describe women that searched online attention by men that spend their time by gaming. The name e-girl is short for electronic girl. These e-girls were known for flirting and acting sexy to gamer boys. Actually this name started as an insult and the term e-girl originaly meaned: Internet slut. But the term e-girl became a thing in the media after the 17 year old Bianca Devins was murded in 2019 by a man she met online. Bianca was called an e-girl by the media. The e-girl/boy subculture itself started on the app Tiktok. On Tiktok emerged a meme called: E-Girl Factory. This is a meme were normal looking Tiktok users transform themselves into a stereo-typical e-girl or e-boy in a video. They're entering a so-called e-girl factory. This all produced with a song named ME!ME!ME! by the by Japanese DJ Teddyloid.

Emo found it's origins in the 80s. It al started with hardcore-punk which is also a subgenre of punk. Some hardcore punk bands started to write more emotional and personal lyrics. This later is called emotional-hardcore and formed it's own music genre. The emotional-hardcore fans started to call themselves emos and created their own subculture conected with emotional-hardcore. The lyrics of emotional-hardcore are very emotional, sensitive, depressed and personal. (click here for more emo history)

-Life expression

The e-girl/boy subculture is a subculture that spend a lot online. Like the name already says: e-girl/boy is short for electronic-girl/boy. They have a big interest in social media and spend their lives with gaming. Mostly they also like anime and memes and they like to listen to Sad Boy music (a wide group of musicans which write songs influenced by sadness and mental illnesses. Such as Lil peep and Billie Eilish). They also tend to be sexy and flirty.

Emo on the other side is focust on feelings. Emo kids are very emotional people and their whole lifestyle is about their emotions. They spend like e-girls/boys a lot of their time on social media too, but this isn't what the emo subculture is about. Emos are spending a lot of their time on social media to be in contact with other emos and to share their feelings and help eachother. The emo subculture is about the music style emotional-hardcore and emos identificate themselves with this. Emos tend to be shy and emotional.

-Clothing style

The e-girl/boy fashion looks a lot like the emo fashion, but that's not that weird because their fashion style is inspired by other subcultures, including emo. I personally would describe their style more as anime like. E-girls do also have a more complicated makeup style, they use a lot more colored eyeshadow than emos and they also like to draw little signs on their face with eyeliner. They also like to color their hair in bright colors. But they don't have a speciafic hair style.

The emo fashion style looks a lot more introverted and shy. I also think their fashion style looks much more simple than the e-girl/boy fashion style. Emos don't spend much time in doing their makeup and they mostly just suround their eyes with a simple layer of eyeliner. Emos do like to dye their hair in bright colors too but they mostly prefer black. But emos do have one speciafic hairstyle. They cover one eye with their hair to look shy.

I think this were the most important differences between emos and e-girls/boys. I hope this article helped you to understand the difference and why these are 2 totally different subcultures.

Sources: Wikipedia, Thecut, Knowyourmeme, Hln