If you’ve been scrolling on TikTok these days, odds are you’ve come across @tinyjewishgirl. The page, which has 800.3K followers at time of publication, is run by 23-year-old fashion influencer Clara Perlmutter — who is, you guessed it, tiny, Jewish and a girl.
Even a quick visit to her profile instantly showcases Clara’s sense of style through the bright colors, avant-garde make-up looks and overall eclectic maximalism that explode out of her TikToks.
But there’s so much more to know about her!
Here are 18 things to know about Clara Perlmutter, AKA tinyjewishgirl.
1. Clara was born around 1999 to a Jewish family.
2. She’s clearly been a fashionista since day one:
3. Clara has a twin brother named Billy, whose TikTok account is @mediumjewishboy.
Here is a video of Clara styling him:
@tinyjewishgirl @mediumjewishboy !!! Everyone always asks me to so here it is!!! #fashion #style #outfit
4. And a younger sister named Laura:
5. Clara started exploring her fashion sense while in high school, but not everyone was supportive.
“I’ve always had a playful, distinctive style. I definitely was ostracized for a while in high school,” she told a reporter.
Adding, “I’ve never been afraid to experiment and I’ve always gone for things that are more eclectic. I aim for things to not make sense together.”
6. She graduated from NYU in 2021, where she studied cultural studies/critical theory and analysis and creative writing.
7. While in college, Clara was able to fully express her sense of style.
“I started NYU in the fall of 2017 and I was always wearing cute little outfits everywhere I went. Even if I was just running to the bodega, I was wearing something cute,” she told Paper Magazine.
8. She started her TikTok, in part, because of the pandemic!
“Then the pandemic started and I moved from my apartment on the Lower East Side into my parents’ home in Connecticut. I was just wearing pajamas every single day. Granted, I do have some cute pajamas,” Clara said. “But I was getting pretty depressed not putting on outfits every day. So I just started posting.”
9. Her videos started to go viral not because of fashion, but because of her body hair.
“I had armpit hair and, I don’t know, apparently this was not normal in June 2020. I would get a lot of hate comments about it, so that would boost the algorithm and my videos would go super viral,” Clara explained. “People would jump to my defense and I would make video responses where I responded really maturely to haters and just explained, ‘Body hair is normal. I have it, everyone grows it, whatever.’”
Body hair is normal!! Thank you, Clara.
10. She works at Steve Madden, a company that designs shoes and fashion accessories! You can see what she wore to her first day of work here.
11. In January of 2022, Clara documented shaving her own head!
In a profile for the New York Times, she explained her decision saying, “I made a deal with myself that I was going to either learn how to do hair really well so I could make it a final touch to all my outfits or buzz my head.”
Then, on a photoshoot one day, after watching a hair stylist work on a model’s hair, Clara decided it was time to buzz. “At that moment, I realized I didn’t have the emotional energy to go all out with my hair,” she said. “I went home and told my boyfriend, ‘I want you to shave my head.’ We went ham with the clippers and filmed the journey for my TikTok.”
Here’s part one:
@tinyjewishgirl TEHEEEEE just wait till u see it done
And here’s part two:
@tinyjewishgirl Soooooo happy!!! Gonna be a long cold winter but worth it
12. Clara captioned this image of a Star of David “Me tho” and honestly, same:
13. In her own words she is “a machine powered by anxiety.”
Once again, same.
14. Watch Clara style this incredible outfit to celebrate Passover with her family:
@tinyjewishgirl adding my silver chainmail chloe purse and maybe a white fuzzy headband! And taking off the makeup. Chag sameach!!!
15. She throws Yiddish into everyday speech — just check on this Instagram caption:
16. This is what she wears to get a New York-style bagel:
@tinyjewishgirl K the bagel was for my bestie bc im gluten free but dont i look fab doing my lil #miistawalk in head to toe @miista (besides the vintage jacket cuz it was chilly)
OK, Clara, we have to know: Did you get an everything bagel? Because this outfit is everything.
17. You must check out this makeup tutorial she did with the HipDot Rugrats Hanukkah collection:
@tinyjewishgirl #ad @HipDot x Rugrats Hanukkah makeup tutorialll!! Ahhh loved creating this SM! #makeup #ad #makeuptutorial
The ice queen herself, Angelica, would be so proud.
18. Ultimately, for Clara, fashion is intertwined with gender performance.
“For me, dressing up is the most performative act,” she wrote for the website Gender is a Social Construct. “Sometimes I feel like wearing full makeup and a miniskirt. For my first date with my boyfriend, I wore white men’s sweatpants, a men’s undershirt tank, men’s sneakers and a vintage varsity jacket of my dad’s. TikTok tweens would probably try to slap a label on that look. In truth, though, I don’t feel like I have one concrete identity. Every morning, I get to decide what act of becoming to take on that day. I am what I decide to be. As long as I chose to wear it, it still feels like me.“