“Amish bikini”

“Amish bikini” begins as a caption on an image taken from the hot-tub video of Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky. The phrase becomes a recurring joke in the novel: first imposed on them by classmates, it later returns in Peter Kavinsky’s teasing and helps turn a humiliating public meme into a private reference between the couple.

Origin as a Meme

When Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky arrive at school together, Peter Kavinsky stops in the computer lab to print an English paper. The wallpaper on the computers shows a still from the video, overlaid with mocking captions. One version uses “Amish bikini,” making the phrase part of a school joke built from an image of the couple and comments about it. The nickname does not identify a garment so much as attach a taunt to the circulating image.

Public Spread and Reaction

Over the next several days, versions of the image spread onto students’ Instagram accounts and Facebook walls. Some add a dancing shark; another replaces the couple’s heads with cat heads. These alterations make the image a repeatable meme, while “Amish bikini” condenses the joke into a short caption. Peter Kavinsky’s lacrosse friends find the memes funny but deny making them; at lunch, Gabe protests that he does not even know how to use Photoshop.

A Private Reframing

Later, Peter Kavinsky tells Lara Jean that sophomore girls praised him after he left Principal Lochlan’s office, calling him romantic. He teases that there is only one girl he wants to see in an “Amish bikini.” Lara Jean laughs, despite disliking the attention he receives, and concedes that the gesture was somewhat romantic. The phrase thus reappears in a different setting: no longer only a caption circulated by others, it becomes part of their flirtatious exchange.

When Peter Kavinsky visits Lara Jean in her room, he asks why she is not wearing her “Amish bikini.” She moves to swat him, but he pulls her into a hug and apologizes for everything happening because of him. Lara Jean tells him she knows it is not his fault. The joke sits beside his apology, giving the expression a double tone: it recalls the public mockery while also marking the couple’s ability to tease one another amid the fallout.