I only became aware of Jools Lebron, the “very demure, very mindful” TikToker last week, thanks to RuPaul featuring her on Jimmy Kimmel Live when Ru was guest-hosting. (Millennial here, with the social media savvy of a Boomer.) Like I said at the time, I thought Jools nailed her TV moment; she was funny, quick, and on brand. And Ru isn’t the only celeb who’s taking notice of Ms. Lebron, as J.Lo and none other than Snoopy have nodded to her in their socials. While Jools is not new to TikTok, the “demure” posts only began in early August. It’s crazy how much she’s taken off in just a month! But now there’s a hitch: someone else has filed to trademark “very demure, very mindful,” seemingly out of Jools’ hands. Jools was so distraught about it, she even posted a video where she described feeling like she messed up and “didn’t try hard enough.” You know what’s not very demure? Stealing someone else’s catchphrase…

Trans content creator Jools Lebron, who popularised the “very demure, very mindful” TikTok trend, was left in tears after someone else reportedly filed to trademark her viral phrase.

TMZ reported on 23 August that a person under the name of Jefferson Bates, from Washington, filed to trademark Lebron’s phrase, “very demure, very mindful”.

According to court documents obtained by the outlet, the trademark is intended for use in marketing, advertising, and promotion.

In a since-deleted TikTok video which saw the star crying, Lebron said that the situation was “really f***ing me up”, adding that she “invested so much money and time into this”.

The makeup mogul said in the 24 August clip: “I feel like I did it wrong, I feel like I didn’t try hard enough, and I just feel like I dropped the ball.

“I feel like I f***ed up, and someone else has it now,” she said of the trademark. “And I don’t even know what I could have done better because I didn’t have the resources.”

PinkNews has contacted a representative of Jools Lebron for a comment on the matter.

The TikTok star’s success began when she posted a selfie video on the platform earlier this month, satirically telling her followers how to act “mindful” and “cutesy” when going to work.

“You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful. I don’t come to work with a green-cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work. You see how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job,” she said.

The TikToker popularised the phrase on the social media site, even catching the attention of Penn Badgley to Snoopy. After experiencing viral fame, Lebron previously announced that she now has the money to pay for her gender-affirming care.

“Hey, maybe you should make the videos. Because one day I was playing cashier and making videos on my break and now I’m flying across countries to host events and I’m gonna be able to finance the rest of my transition,” she said in a TikTok video. “I finally said it without crying.”

[From PinkNews]

Oh honey, don’t beat yourself up so much! And I say that as someone who’s spent a lot of her life beating herself up. (But it’s always so much easier to tell someone else not to do it, funny that.) Jools has since resumed creating very demure, very mindful TikToks, so I’m hoping that means her mood has lifted. And she does have reason to be optimistic: from my one-hour online degree in US trademarking, I’ve learned that the first person to file is not necessarily the first person to be granted the trademark. Get this, kids, in America you can use a trademark before tending to the legal bits (the filing), and generally be granted first dibs. So, like squatter’s rights? In any event, I’d say Jools has a very strong case to make of having used the trademark in a demonstrably public way, ahead of anyone else. But just to be certain, I’d love to see one of her celebrity admirers hook Jools up with the resources to get proper representation. Please people, I’m invested now! Anyone who gives us the perfection of a video titled “How I come out of a weekend depression in a demure manner” needs to be protected AT ALL COSTS.