Caitlin Covington, the face of ‘Christian Girl Autumn,’ is in Vermont, so fall can truly begin now

Caitlin Covington, the face of “Christian Girl Autumn,” has made her annual trip to Vermont. And once her fall photos are posted, the season has truly begun.

For the uninitiated, Covington, 33, is a lifestyle blogger and content creator with an affinity for all things pumpkin spiced.

Covington became the face of a meme years back that playfully mocks women who are obsessed with fall and its typical cast of accessories: cozy sweaters, chunky knit blankets, apple cider — you get the gist. She says she’s in on the joke and has, over the years, doubled down on her love for the season.

It’s gotten to the point that those who are chronically online use the content creator’s annual pilgrimage to Vermont as a measuring stick for when fall arrives.

Sure, on paper, fall started Sept. 23. But Covington’s Instagram page reveals she arrived in Vermont on Monday, meaning that an orange saturation on her social grid is imminent.

“MOTHER AUTUMN IS HERE!!” said one of the top comments on Covington’s introductory post. “THE AUTUMN QUEEN HAS RETURNED!!!!! ITS OFFICIALLY FALL,” said another.

Here’s what you need to know.

Covington is a blogger and content creator based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

She launched her blog, “Southern Curls and Pearls,” in 2011 while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It has since expanded into her full-time job, with Covington leveraging her Instagram content to promote affiliate links with various style, wellness, and beauty brands.

She is married and has two young daughters, who often star in her Instagram posts featuring family fit checks and product shoots. She — in line with the meme — is indeed Christian, specifically Methodist. And boy, does she love fall.

Covington told Time magazine last month that she noticed her fall-themed style and recipe posts have performed well since 2013 or 2014.

“There was a very clear distinction in engagement when I was standing next to a beautiful fall tree, or there were fall leaves on the ground,” Covington said. “So it became a thing where, every fall, I would try to find the best.”

“Christian Girl Autumn” is a meme that came to light in 2019 on Twitter (now X).

According to Know Your Meme, it often used Covington’s photos to mock stereotypical “basic women” enjoying their oversize scarves and autumnal foliage. The phrase “Christian Girl Autumn” is a play on Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer.”

“Hot Girl Summer is coming to an end, get ready for Christian Girl Autumn,” variations of tweets said at the time.

Covington told the New York Times last year that she woke up one day to find she had become a meme.

Covington leaned into it, adding her own photos to the mix with the disclaimer: “For the record, I do like pumpkin spice lattes.”

Since then, followers have clamored to her page to see if fall has started yet.

According to the New York Times, Covington plans for Vermont well in advance, monitoring foliage reports in hopes of arriving in time for peak color. She’s one of about 3.5 million people to visit Vermont during foliage season each year, according to the state’s tourism department.

She treats the trip like a “content trip” — with the purpose of farming content to post later. The Times reported that the trip cost an estimated $6,000 to $7,000 last year for Covington, her kids, and her team (which includes a nanny, an assistant, and her brother who serves as her photographer).

Covington uses the scenery as the backdrop for sponsored and partnership posts with lucrative brands that stream to her 1.3 million Instagram followers. For instance, last year she captured two sponsored posts while in Vermont — one for Saks Off 5th and one for a designer handbag rental company — amounting to payments of $10,000 and $15,000, respectively, according to the Times.

Social media users look for updates about Covington’s travels. Monday night, pop culture news account Pop Crave tweeted that Covington had “arrived in Vermont for her annual fall trip.” By Tuesday morning, the video had been viewed more than 5 million times on X.

“Fall doesn’t start without her,” one tweet said. “She’s our groundhog.”

We already have! On Wednesday, Covington dropped her first family fall photo of the year.

The timeline falls in line with her posting schedule last year, where her travel photo dropped on Oct. 11 and her first proper Vermont photo arrived on Oct. 13.

So, the orange content has officially launched. Now we know for sure that fall is here.