"Larp" used to mean exactly one thing: Live Action Role Play, the hobby where people dress up and act out fantasy scenarios with foam swords. If you're 35+, that's probably still the only definition you know. Kids don't mean that anymore.
On TikTok and in classrooms, calling someone a "larper" — or saying they're "larping" — means they're faking it. Exaggerating a story, pretending to have a lifestyle they don't actually have, performing a personality instead of just having one. It's landed somewhere between "poser" and "cap," but with its own specific flavor: a larper isn't just lying, they're play-acting a role they clearly haven't earned.
Teachers have been documenting it heavily this back-to-school season as one of the phrases spreading fastest through Gen Alpha classrooms, alongside a handful of other new insults kids are testing out on each other and, occasionally, on their teachers.
The shift makes sense linguistically — "larping" already implied performing an identity that isn't really yours, so stretching it to cover exaggerating online was a short jump. It's also a good example of how slang keeps recycling old subculture terms for new purposes; the original hobbyists are, understandably, a little tired of it.
Check the decoder for "larp" and "larper" if you're trying to keep up with what's landing in your kid's group chat.