Every few months, the internet invents a new aesthetic.

Cottagecore. Clean girl. Tomato girl summer. Mob wife chic. Now, gen Z has turned its gaze toward the grandmother figure, with “nonnamaxxing” emerging across TikTok and Instagram feeds as a romanticised return to old-world domesticity, slow-living and European nostalgia.

For those who have missed the rise of “maxxing”, the term broadly refers to optimising or intensifying an identity trait or lifestyle aesthetic. Originally born from online self-improvement subcultures – “looksmaxxing”, “gymmaxxing”, “sleepmaxxing” – the phrase has slipped into mainstream vernacular to the point that even politicians and public commentators use it casually. The suffix has become shorthand for turning a lifestyle into an identity performance.

Nonnamaxxing sits somewhere between fashion trend, cultural yearning and algorithmic theatre. Across social media, young women film themselves making slow-cooked ragù, hand-rolling gnocchi, tending tomato plants, hanging washing in sunlit courtyards or dressing in linen and cardigans reminiscent of Southern European grandmothers. The aesthetic leans heavily Italian, Greek and Balkan – all tiled kitchens, espresso cups, olive oil cakes and inherited recipes. It is nostalgia rendered through a soft filter.

The “nonna” derivative itself is telling. Nonna, the Italian word for grandmother, has become detached from its linguistic and cultural specificity and repackaged into a consumable aesthetic category.

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