TikTok is a the preferred social media app of many. In the case of teens, it’s the clear favorite, being one of the clearest ways in which they learn news and get involved with new trends. One of this is ‘mewing,’ a non-surgical beauty trend that teens are now deploying in class as a part of a TikTok trend.

Mewing consists of flattening your tongue against the roof of your mouth in order to define your jawline. While the idea sounds tantalizing, it’s unknown of it actually affects people’s jawlines.

Plenty of videos have been shared on TikTok, showing kids making the shush sign on their lips and then gesturing towards their jawline. The gesture is supposed to mean that they can’t answer a question since they’re mewing. It’s incredibly hilarious but must also be very frustrating for teachers or authority figures.

A teacher on TikTok shared that he’s seen mostly young boys use the trend as a way of avoiding answering questions in class or simply throw their instructor off a loop.

A teacher explains the trend

The teacher carefully explaind the trend to his followers, claiming that the question has been requested on his page numerous times. “So the trending part of it is when somebody comes up and asks you a question, particularly if it’s a teacher or a parent and you don’t want to answer the question, you hit them with the,” he said, making the gesture himself.

While frustrating, teenagers have always toyed with behaviors that are rude and that border on the disrespectful. Just because this one came out of TikTok doesn’t mean that it’s anything special. Since the behavior is now understood, it’s important for parents, educators and authority figures to try to have a dialogue with teens and avoid getting riled up by their behavior, since that’s likely the response that they’re after.