all the words I don't have for Youthforia
plus this newsletter is late because I was getting prime intel for you all!
Quick Hits
Why does the Louvre want to give the Mona Lisa her own room?
Walmart takes on Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods with new premium brand
Condé Nast Union ‘Ready to Strike’ ahead of Met Gala as tensions escalate
Instagram is updating its algorithm to surface more content from smaller, original creators
Today was a public holiday in Germany, so I took a day trip with some friends. It was gorgeous and sunny, and the little town we went to had these ancient bridges and massive statues—all very Bavarian. I’ve been thinking a lot about Gen Z being the 'sober generation' and told my friends I wanted to get some quotes for a deep dive I’m working on. They’re all Manchester girls (save my one Portuguese friend who moved here from Amsterdam), so I knew it’d be good. We ended up talking about a bunch of other stuff—90s movies, marriage and kids, Raya vs Hinge, pea milk being the new oat milk, student loans, and stuff I can’t share on here ;) I came home too tired to write, but for my Friday newsletter, I’ll be sharing our thoughts on all those topics and more, so stay tuned! Unrelated, but this is one of the first days the sun is really managing to do its thing in my apartment this year. As my friend Leia would say, stunning!
NOW TO THE NEWS!!!
Update on that Bumble rebrand: Bumble will no longer require women to make the first move. A new feature, “opening moves”, will instead let women set up prompts to which guys can respond to initiate a conversation. Basically, an indication to your match that you want them to reach out first. So like Hinge? Look, I love all the new storytelling that’s coming along with the rebrand, but I can’t help feeling a bit… underwhelmed. Because while this is a pretty significant change for Bumble, it still doesn't address the reasons young people are ditching dating apps in the first place. I haven’t been on the apps for a few years so I asked my friend who’s single what she thought about the change: “it’s interesting how when Bumble started ten years ago, the vibes were ‘Peak girlboss. Women can do anything!’, and now it's very much ‘oh the girls are tired actually.’“ Also, their new branding is very Sad Rich Girl coded, no? More on that later.
Gaming influencer collective FaZe Clan is also going through a rebrand. Co-founder, Richard 'Banks' Bengston, announced on X that FaZe had kicked out over 17 creators from its roster, retaining only 14 “core” members. People had thoughts, to which Banks responded, “I can’t apologize for doing what feels right. I can’t apologize for wanting this to be fun again.” Whenever a ‘bro’ says he wants things to be ‘fun again,’ I’m immediately suspicious. FaZe is no stranger to controversy. In recent years, they’ve faced low stock prices, record losses, a series of layoffs, an ousted CEO, and controversial team departures- so I’m sure they’ll get through this. But should they?
The mysterious case of Bella Hadid's beauty brand is finally solved. As we predicted, Bella is entering the fragrance game, (honestly wasn't that mysterious lol). Her “better for your skin” trio of perfumes are formulated with ingredients like snow mushroom and jojoba oil- add-ins that replace the alcohol base most fragrances are formulated with. In line with her personal brand and other business, Kin Eurphorics, Orebella is leaning into self care positioning. Better for your skin, better for your mind, all that jazz. A minimum donation of 1% of all net sales, "plus further support via service hours, community outreach, and social promotion," will go to supporting The Lower East Side Girls Club and PATH International. I feel like it’s becoming table stakes for celebrity and influencer brands to launch with a cause- most popularly mental health and reproductive health. Should I do a deep dive on this?
Did you know you can buy the Row at Walmart? Also, Hermès Birkins, Jacquemus accessories, Dries Van Noten apparel, and Rolexes? Conspiracy has it that some stock from the recently shuttered e-commerce platform Matches Fashion was offloaded to a reseller who then offloaded it to Walmart. Don’t get too excited though because Walmart has somehow deemed it fit to upsell many of these products. A Celine bag, for example, is being sold for $2,382.38, nearly double the price of an identical bag on Rebag. Gotta to make those margins somehow I guess.
To Youthforia, I say: y'all really shouldn’t have bothered. I feel like their team got so mad people were asking for black shades that they said, 'We’ll give them BLACK, alright!' Would love to see how they PR themselves out of this one. They always do.
Former Klarna and Amazon execs created a shoppable TV platform, Shopsense AI, which partners with broadcasters to let consumers shop everything from fashion to home decor featured on TV programs using their mobile devices. The Atlantic was right, we’re nowhere near peak stuff. Might be a hot take, but should we really be aiming to eliminate friction from everything? I think there’s something absolutely magical about the hunt- falling in love with that Carrie Bradshaw outfit and holding it in your heart as you go from vintage store to vintage store, building the outfit piece by piece and creating fun memories along the way. Stuff is so much more precious when they come with stories!
To that point, Gen Alpha parents say their kids are spending over two hours a week on average shopping online, according to a new WebPurify report. Of over 1,000 U.S. parents surveyed, 16% said their children had an online-shopping addiction, with 22% saying kids prefer online shopping to other forms of entertainment, such as watching TV. Almost half say their kids buy clothes online for themselves, followed by 32% interested in beauty products. Are you guys scared for the iPad generation? Because I am.
What’s more corporate fetish than an oversized blazer and a beige office tour? Ever since reading Emily Sundberg’s essay on corporate fetish, I can’t stop seeing it everywhere. A few weeks ago, Shay Mitchell blessed us with a Beis office tour, and yesterday, we got a peek into the Rhode and Jacquemus HQs. Questions: Do we think a discount for tags situation happened here? How many people do we think actually work from these offices daily?
Emily Weiss bought two townhouses in 5 months, and we all want to know why. First, she and her Stripe executive husband bought a five-bedroom Greek Revival rowhouse in Greenwich Village NYC for $17.9 million last November. Then last week, the couple was apparently also in contract for a $22 million landmarked five-bedroom townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. It’s the second-most expensive sale ever recorded in Brooklyn. Here’s a TikTok explainer if you’re that way inclined. And if you don't understand why this is important, I can’t help you.
I think this Gap linen collection ad is cool. The pieces are fun too. Lauren Sherman (yes, her again) shared some solid intel on how Zac Posen—a controversial choice for Gap Creative Director—has been doing, three months into the role. Word is, he’s easy to work with, a good delegator, and actually present. That last one comes as a surprise to most. Staffers haven’t been too sure about his initial design concepts, though. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
Bearded men reign supreme! But we already knew this. According to Dating.com's new study, 86% of singles love facial hair on men, but 77% think it’s only cute if it’s kept groomed. My boyfriend has a perfect beard; one time he had to shave it all off, and let me tell you... it was a rough time for the relationship.
Did you guys know I read 162 books last year? No? Well, trust me to throw that fun fact into the conversation every so often. No one reads that much just to not tell people. A good chunk of the books I read can be classified as Sad Rich Girls Literature, (think Virgina Woolf meets Daisy Buchanan) so I obviously ate up this LitHub piece breaking down the different types of Sad Rich Girls and their “unhappy endings born of blessed circumstances.” As always, happy to share recommendations.
“Show me a discontented daughter of privilege who wiles away her days agonizing over how dull life is, complaining about nepobaby accusations, or—most deliciously—wishing she were poor so there was some damn romance in her life, and I’ll read late into the night. I love nothing more than a protagonist who has so much free time she can ponder the meaninglessness of existence.”
Beauty Papers partnered with Dua Lipa on a guerrilla zine celebrating the “complexities, contradictions, and obsessions of what it means to be Dua-” whatever that means. I love zine culture. May it never die. Dua Lipa is in that category of artists where I never listen to their music, but absolutely love their vibes and all they do for the culture. Sabrina Carpenter is also in this category.
Niche social platforms like Spread and PI.FYI are springing up as social media alternatives for people looking for algorithm-free online spaces. Tyler Bainbridge, the brains behind popular newsletter, Perfectly Imperfect, built PI.FYI with hopes to 'bring back human curation.' Bustle called it a Gen Z MySpace. On Spread, a social app currently in closed beta testing, users can't create or upload original text or media. Instead, all posts on the platform are links to content from other services. Posts on both platforms are displayed in chronological order.
I listened to a Vogue Business podcast yesterday on 'How Gen Z Really Feels About The Algorithms,' which validated a feeling I've had for a while: Gen Z doesn't hate algorithms nearly as much as the media claims we do. On the podcast, Tora Northman and Tariro Makoni talked about how they've been able to train their algorithms to serve them relevant content that makes their online experiences enjoyable. Of course, this requires users to invest substantial amounts of time on platforms, and algorithms being too good can create a whole slew of problems. But I think it's always important to acknowledge the difference between what people say they want (and what is likely better for them) versus what they actually respond to. These are sometimes the literal opposite things. I have a pretty healthy relationship with social media- I hardly use it- but I'll be happy to give these apps a try. Thoughts?
Look at a headline I saw on The Telegraph today. This is what they are feeding the British public.
How long do we think Mattel can juice these Barbie collabs for? Last month we had pink BBQ sauce mayo with Heinz. Today, Olipop announced a new Barbie Peaches & Cream flavor. Personally, I’m a Poppi girl, but someone let me know if this is good. I know what’s in this for Mattel—their Q1 sales missed forecasts, reflecting the Barbie hype dying down—but is the payoff for these CPG brands that big? Last year this would have made so much more sense… but now?
I hate to end things on a sad note, but 'New Job' scams targeting young professionals are FLOURISHING! New college graduates eager to get their first professional job are being targeted by scammers who use information available online to claim a school dean or professor the target knows has recommended them for a job opening. The goal is to get them to apply for a job and then steal their identity or bank information. In other cases, the scammers might try persuading them to put up money for home-office equipment. Something similar happened to a friend of mine, and I’ve seen a few TikToks of people sharing their experiences with this scam. US white-collar job growth has stalled, and even with many Gen Zers turning to vocational work and the creator economy, the job market for recent grads is still pretty rough. But you know what they say, where there’s a need, there’s a scam.