‘Just looking like a wow!’ – how this catchphrase is going viral
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The trending phrase originated from New Delhi retailer Jasmeen Kaur's Instagram Live video.
PHOTO: DESIGNMACHINESUITSLIVE/INSTAGRAM
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A new catchphrase, “Just looking like a wow”, has taken social media by storm, inspiring a flurry of memes and even entering the lexicon of Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities lately.
The trending phrase was coined by Ms Jasmeen Kaur, owner of a humble traditional Indian clothing store in New Delhi. Like many other small-business owners, she had jumped on the live-stream bandwagon to sell her clothes.
In one Instagram live session, she was seen dressed in a bright yellow set of salwar kameez, a traditional combination dress with a shawl.
She started by saying, “So beautiful, so elegant... Just looking like a wow”, as she showed off her eye-catching outfit, before moving on to talk about the sizes and colours available for sale.
The video, which she later uploaded as an Instagram reel on Oct 9, has clocked more than nine million views and over 300,000 likes to date. Many viewers said they found her enthusiastic sales pitch cute, funny and memorable.
The clip was also posted on TikTok in late October, and it has since inspired viewers from Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, Canada and other countries to produce their own meme clips featuring her infectious voice.
Soon, Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone also caught up with the trend when she used Ms Kaur’s voice in her Instagram video. This further popularised Ms Kaur’s catchphrase, with more celebrities, cricketers and even ministers playfully adopting it when making reference to anyone or anything that looks great.
American singer-songwriter Nick Jonas also used the catchphrase to compliment his wife, actress-model Priyanka Chopra, in an Instagram story – a picture of Chopra in a lime green designer saree and the line “so beautiful, so elegant... just looking like a wow”.
American singer and songwriter Nick Jonas using the phrase to praise his wife Priyanka Chopra’s look.
PHOTO: NICKJONAS/INSTAGRAM
Ms Kaur’s overnight fame has earned her media coverage and advertisement deals.
Her Instagram shop now has 672,000 followers, and she is ramping up her Instagram live sales in the lead-up to Deepavali.
“I am feeling wow. My life has changed. I am just giving back-to-back interviews,” she told Hindustan Times in a report last Friday, before adding in Hindi: “After working so hard, this comes as a boost to my life.”
