Maybelline Rewrites Its 35-Year-Old Slogan. The Internet Is Not Impressed

Maybelline has rewritten the most famous slogan in beauty for the first time in 35 years — and the backlash started within hours. The brand unveiled the new tagline, "Maybe. We're born with it. Maybe. It's Maybelline," on Tuesday, pairing the punctuation-heavy rework with a campaign starring global ambassador Miley Cyrus.

The original line, "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline," dates to 1991. It became one of the most recognizable strings of words in consumer marketing, referenced everywhere from SNL sketches to alternative Christian rock lyrics.

What actually changed?

The edits are small but deliberate. The company says the updated wording drops the singular "she" to broaden the saying's reach beyond one woman, and the added periods turn a tentative question into what Maybelline calls a confident declaration.

"With 'Maybe.', we're building on our legacy and inviting women everywhere, at every stage of life, to explore the possibilities within them," Sandrine Jolly, Maybelline's global brand president, said in a press release.

That claim deserves scrutiny. The revision keeps nearly every word of the 1991 original, changes one pronoun phrase, and adds punctuation. Whether consumers read that as an evolution or an edit, Maybelline has framed it as a "permanent evolution" — language that suggests the brand wants credit for boldness while changing remarkably little.

This is also the slogan's third act in a decade. Maybelline pivoted to the more evocative "Make It Happen" in early 2016, then brought back a shortened version, "Maybe it's Maybelline," in 2024. Cyrus, who joined as a global ambassador, created an accompanying jingle the next year. The latest campaign, launched alongside the new tagline, extends that partnership.

Why is Maybelline chasing teenagers?

The timing explains the urgency. Maybelline remains a behemoth of the cosmetics industry, but it has lost significant ground with young American buyers — and the numbers are stark.

• Six percent of American teenagers named Maybelline as their top beauty brand in Piper Sandler's 2025 survey of American teenagers.
• E.l.f. dominated that survey at 36 percent — six times Maybelline's share.
• Rare Beauty took second place at 8 percent.
• In Piper Sandler's 2026 survey, Rhode claimed third place, overtaking Maybelline entirely.

In plain terms: a mass-market giant that once owned the youth conversation now trails a budget upstart by a factor of six, and has slipped below a celebrity-founded brand barely a few years old. A tagline refresh is a cheap lever to pull against that decline; whether it moves a single purchase is another matter.

How did the internet react?

Swiftly and unkindly. Social media critics pointed out the similarity between the new line and the original, which raises the obvious question of why the brand bothered. Others questioned the grammar of the revised phrasing. Some commenters went further, calling the inclusive rewording a return to "woke" culture — turning a punctuation change into a cultural flashpoint.

The mockery cuts against the campaign's core bet. Maybelline is spending its credibility with Gen Z on a line designed to win that exact audience, and the first wave of Gen Z response has been ridicule. That does not doom the campaign — early online scorn is practically a launch ritual now — but it means the brand must sell the message twice: once against indifference, and once against derision.

What happens next?

Maybelline has committed to the rewrite as a "permanent evolution," and Cyrus remains the face of the push. The real test will not be social media sentiment but Piper Sandler's next teen survey: if Rhode and Rare Beauty keep climbing while Maybelline stalls below six percent, the new punctuation will look like rearranging deck chairs in a market the brand no longer leads.