India, March 4 -- If you haven't heard of Alysa Liu yet, you're probably not online much. This Olympic figure skater has over the last week become a viral sensation of sorts- and more than 5 million people are invested. Here, we tell you why.

For the past few years, the "alt girl" has been both fetishized and flattened by the internet - reduced to aesthetics, eyeliner tutorials, and a carefully curated mood board of teenage angst. We saw the chokehold alt girls have on the internet last when Rama Duaji was online for her black-cat mystique and indie-art-girlie vibe. Enter Alysa Liu the Gen Z stereotype turned Olympic Gold medallist and world champion. In an athletic world that has historically policed female bodies right from the eating,...