"Hot Girls Read" Has Been Trademarked. It's a Problem.
The bookish community is angry. They should be.
Imagine waking up one day and deciding that a phrase the entire internet uses, born from a Black woman’s cultural movement, is actually yours. Imagine filing the paperwork, getting it approved, and then announcing it to the very community that made the phrase what it is. Well imagine no more. It happened and the book community has some things to say about it.
Allie Mitrovich’s small business, Allie Rose Co., announced early June 2026 that it had trademarked the phrase “Hot Girls Read.” If your first reaction to that is wait, can they do that? you’re not alone. And if your second reaction is where did that phrase even come from? that’s exactly the right question and it’s why folks are so riled up.
The popularity of the phrase “Hot Girls Read” doesn’t exist without Megan Thee Stallion who coined “hot girl summer” in 2019, which started on the cover of her mixtape Fever and in the lyrics of “Cash Shit,” went viral on Twitter before the song even dropped, and eventually became a Billboard Hot 100 single featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla Sign. In an interview with The Root she said…
“Being a Hot Girl is about being unapologetically YOU, having fun, being confident, living YOUR truth.”
Dictionary.com added it to their official memes dictionary that same year acknowledging that it was in the culture spreading and evolving. And of course the Black bookish community took “hot girl” energy and made it their own too. Hot girls read. Of course they do. The phrase landed because it was already loaded with meaning that people connected to. It wasn’t invented in a vacuum by someone selling bookmarks but lovingly paying homage to a community a Black woman built.
Allie Rose Co. is the brainchild of Allie Mitrovich, a 26-year-old graphic designer and content creator based in Wilmington, NC. She graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design from Salisbury University in 2020— right into the peak of the pandemic. Bored at home, she bought a Cricut machine, started making stickers from her doodles and graphic design skills, posted a TikTok about the process, and woke up to it going viral. Allie Rose Co. was born.
And for several years, it was a general lifestyle and merchandise brand. Apparel, stickers, stationery. Not a bookish business, just a design business that sold cute things.
Then reading became popular. BookTok exploded. The bookish merchandise market became one of the most lucrative corners of creator commerce. And Allie Rose Co. saw an opportunity for business growth and started selling bookish merchandise like bookmarks, stationary, etc.
On August 27, 2024, Mitrovich filed a trademark application for “HOT GIRLS READ” with the USPTO, covering bookmarks, stickers, book covers, notebook covers, adhesive notepads, shirts, hoodies, etc. The application claimed first use of the phrase dating back to January 2021. But in her own announcement post, she described getting into reading “3ish years ago” which puts that timeline around 2023. Her words, not mine.
Never mind the fact that the phrase was used for almost a decade leading to her trademark filing.
It would take two years post-trademark application for us to learn about its implementation, many speculate due to an upcoming merchandise drop (hinted at in AllieRoseCo’s Instagram “Let’s Celebrate Tuesday June 9th).
The irony is that much of Mitrovich’s merchandise was based on copyrighted intellectual properties like A Court of Thorns and Roses, Colleen Hoover books, and more— making the trademark filing particularly rich.
She even made products from non-book intellectual properties like Corona, Pantone, etc.
Mitrovich has repeatedly stated that her intention is not to target small creators or independent bookish businesses with this trademark. According to her public comments, it was pursued as a way to protect her products and business from copycats, counterfeit merchandise, AI-generated knockoffs, and dropshipping operations that routinely scrape designs from successful creators and sell imitations online— the kind of foreign businesses that develop and dissolve over night and a real issue for artists and small business owners. Anyone who has built an online brand has likely seen their work stolen, reproduced, and sold by third parties with little recourse.
When Mitrovich announced the trademark publicly, she followed up by reminding other businesses that if they were selling products with "Hot Girls Read" on them, those listings needed to come down. She has since said she doesn't intend to go after small businesses — but taking down a listing isn't consequence-free. Shops like Etsy or Shopify do not refund listing fees when a listing is removed. Any inventory already produced with the phrase on it becomes unsellable. Ad spend promoting those listings is gone. And an established listing carries SEO value, reviews, and search visibility that takes time and money to rebuild from scratch.
One thing worth knowing if you’re a small business owner or creator: trademark attorneys commenting publicly have noted that anyone using the phrase before her August 2024 filing date can continue using it. And if prior use before her claimed January 2021 date can be demonstrated, the registration itself could be challenged and cancelled. Do your own investigating. I’m not an expert.
This announcement allied the, typically divisive, bookish community. Bookish creators had been using the phrase “hot girls read” for years both in content and on bookish merchandise because its a common phrase with identity behind it— one of womanhood and specifically Black womanhood.
Now we’re being told they were infringing on someone else’s intellectual property.
Let that sit for a second.
I’m obviously not the right person to speak to what this feels like from the inside and I encourage you to see what Black women are saying on this topic. However I am exactly the right person to say this to the women who look like me who might not have thought about where this phrase came from before they bought the bookmark. Because this is the part that goes beyond a dispute about bookish merchandise. A phrase that exists because of a Black woman’s cultural contribution, that spread because a community embraced and built on it, has now been legally appropriated by someone with no evident connection to that lineage. And that claim is now being used to exclude the community that made it valuable from profiting off it commercially.
That follows a pattern that Black creators and business owners have been watching play out forever. Black culture creates something, the mainstream absorbs it, and then somewhere along the way a door closes on the people it came from.
It’s modern day colonization whether intended or not.
“On fleek,” coined by a sixteen-year-old Black girl named Peaches Monroee in a 2014 Vine, ended up on T-shirts and in marketing campaigns while she got nothing. Megan Thee Stallion herself spent two years fighting the USPTO to trademark “Hot Girl Summer” because brands like Forever 21 and Wendy’s were already using it freely in their marketing without her involvement or approval. She told Allure…
“When I saw Wendy’s and Forever 21 saying ‘are you having a Hot Girl Summer?’ I was like, ‘Hell no, Forever 21, you’re going to have to pay me.’”
It’s obvious to me that this appropriation occurred like many instances of appropriation— with lack of research and ignorance. With the audacity of a young white person thinking they in fact contributed something unique to the world. At least I hope that is the case, because it’d be the best case scenario. Malicious or not, trademarking a general and popular phrase, to me, gives the air of entitlement and opportunism.
When I look at Allie Rose Co.'s platform I don't see a book community account. I see a general lifestyle influencer who sells bookish merchandise. She's mentioned that reading is a newer hobby for her, which is genuinely fine. Reading is for everyone. But there's a difference between falling in love with a community and identifying it as a market. And when I look at this trademark through that lens, it's hard for me to see it as protection. It reads more like someone who arrived recently, saw something valuable, and wanted to capitalize on it. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. But the phrase was never hers to trademark, regardless of intention.
Trademark Cancellation Request
Update: June 6, 2026
As of yesterday, the story developed further. A cancellation proceeding was formally issued at the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on June 5, 2026. This means someone filed to challenge the trademark through official legal channels, not that Mitrovich cancelled the trademark in good faith based on feedback.
You can verify the status yourself at USPTO.gov using serial number 98719017.
Thanks for reading. Ok I love you goodbye!
Ash Wren
I wasn’t aware this was happening, but your article was very informative. It’s truly upsetting for small businesses that have dedicated their heart, soul, and creativity to their passion for reading and being part of this community for 10+ years. I always believed that the sun shines for everyone, but this situation feels more like someone taking advantage rather than protecting her brand. While I support everyone joining the reading community, I don’t believe that reading for three years grants someone the right to own a phrase so closely associated with us.
the trademark has officially been cancelled. YESSSS!!!! the worst part is that the creator is tryna act like she voluntarily gave it up, no she was sued and had ti give them up