women just want to be girls and men just want to be carnivores
plus mental health chit chat
Quick Hits
Artists from Universal Music Group are heading back to TikTok
Rare editions of Pushkin are vanishing from libraries around Europe
Colleen Hoover thriller ‘Verity’ is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios
I know I told you guys I would give a recap of my Wednesday trip today, but I'm afraid I might have lied. My friend says this is bad form—"such small things, but always good for the reader to know they can trust you." But I think it’s much more important for my readers to know who they are dealing with- JUST A GIRL! My weapons against fatigue are few, and “leaving it till the weekend” is a tried and tested winner. I write a lot about mental health in today’s newsletter, so if you care about mine (and yours), you'll do well not to hold me too strictly to my vows—at least where this newsletter is concerned. My friend is a Big Three consultant; I am here writing about internet stuff.
NEWS! NEWS!! NEWS!!!
Bustle says photo dump accounts are the new finstas. But Mashable says photo dumps are cringe now. I say, the internet is not real, and you should post what you want!!! Personally, I love a good photo dump. I only need to show my face once or twice, but I can share all the beautiful people and things in my life. Some of my friends have these secondary photo dump accounts that are a bit more uncurated and/or unhinged, but these are different from finstas, which host gossip and mess. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I saw a finsta post. My theory is that ‘close friends stories’ have replaced finstas. Personally, I can be relied on to do an unhinged close friends rant at least once a quarter. So it’s either we’re all doing this now, or my friends hate me. I can feel another ‘close friends’ rant forming.
Freya India wrote an excellent essay about how social media makes us worse people, and I couldn't agree more. We love to wax poetic about the negative effects social media has on our mental health (facts), but I don’t see enough people talk about the kinds of people social media is making us: bitchy, self-absorbed, judgmental, bitter, competitive, unempathetic… And then there’s social media therapy culture. “Therapy culture has escalated to the point where cheating on someone is an ADHD symptom (“Hypersexuality is not infidelity. It’s an ADHD response”!)” Yikes. This newsletter is not long enough to excavate my feelings on Gen Z therapy culture, so I’ll leave things there.
Madé Lapuerta started learning to code because of One Direction, and thank God too, because now she can tell us whether skinny jeans or olive green are actually in. Madé is a data scientist, not a trend forecaster, which is what makes her Instagram page databutmakeitfashion one of my top fashion trend sources. Because of her I know y’all are lusty for the Balenciaga City bag and that my Zendaya obsession is a collective one.
Lauren Sanchez hired a new publicist. This was a long time coming. First there was the whole thing with Keith McNally and her White House State Dinner dress, which revealed that Lauren has more celebrity friends than we all thought. Then The Daily Beast hired a dedicated “Lauren Sanchez reporter”. Then that Back Row piece on how Anna Wintour is helping Lauren with her Met Gala dress because “she knows Sánchez has ‘poor taste’.” New publicist, Desiree Gruber, is a New York P.R. veteran and Project Runway producer. You guys know I love to write about publicists (and I’m not the only one!), so I foresee both Lauren and Desiree becoming as seen on recurring characters
Zara wants to become the first fast-fashion luxury brand. The stealth-wealth coded photo shoots, high-fashion models, and even those awkward poses, are reminiscent of what you might see on any LVMH-owned brand’s website. The recently launched ZaraHair line was developed by designer hairstylist Guido Palau and designed by lauded creative director Fabien Baron. Zara’s newest fragrances are created by Jo Malone. This is all part of a strategy led by 40-year-old Marta Ortega Pérez- the youngest child of Zara founder Amancio Ortega- who took over as Chairperson in 2022. The gap between the haves and have-nots of fashion is widening. Fast-fashion brands like Shein and Temu are gaining market share through ridiculously (and unethically) cheap products, while European luxury companies are commanding increasingly outrageous prices. Could Zara become the luxury option for the middle class? I think they could, although they’d face some fierce competition. In 2022, the company posted record numbers, and sales rose another 10% in the last year, bringing Zara’s sales to $39 billion as of January 2023. (LVMH made $80-plus billion, and Shein may have brought in more than $30 billion). Half of my closet that's not thrifted or Adidas is Zara, and most of my friends have similar ratios. It’s not Shein, it's not designer. It's slightly better than H&M, but slightly worse than COS.
Hollister is hosting a series of flash-mob style ‘Feel Good Concerts’ for high schoolers this summer. They say it’s for youth mental health, but it's really just to sell T-Shirts- a noble cause and my current job.
For mental health awareness month, Topicals (a brand after my own heart), launched the #UnfilteredWithTopicals campaign. For every unfiltered, unedited, selfie posted with the hashtag, $1 will be donated to Joy Day. Topicals knows how to create a good community activation- this one is in partnership with their Spottie Sphere community. You guys need to check out this interview with Topicals founder, Olamide Olowe. Goosebumps.
Allow me to introduce you to the world of Substack Publishing Industry Drama. For all my bookish readers, this is your weekend REQUIRED reading. I want impassioned opinions- nothing else will do. I read a lot. Did I already mention that? And a very niche genre I love is books about the publishing world (academia too!). Favorites include Yellowface, Disorientation, and Writers & Lovers. No one is more unhinged than a woman trying to get her book published.
!!ANOTHER!! Boeing whistleblower just died. We should all be freaking out more.
LinkedIn launched 3 logic-puzzle games to get people to spend more time on its platform. I think it’s a fact that spending too much time on LinkedIn is bad for your mental health, and also makes you more annoying- which is bad for our mental health. But this might be a genius move from LinkedIn. People love word games (just ask The Times), and we know Gen Z is in its Crossword era. I guess people are about to get a lot more annoying.
Your weekly tech layoff report:
The real-life 'Up' house will soon be available on Airbnb to rent. This is part of the company’s 'Icons' offering, which will also let power users rent the X-Men Mansion and the 'Purple Rain' House. CEO Brian Chesky wants Airbnb to be an experiential company (but not a hotel company) that immerses visitors in pop culture. This won’t be a profit-making venture for Airbnb (for now), which leads me to think it's one very expensive way to make headlines.
Does your boyfriend eat meat and only meat? I want to interview him! We might have thought 2023 was a year for ‘the girls.’ We might have celebrated with girl dinners washed down with sleepy girl mocktails, but while we were lost in delulu land, the manosphere was breeding carnivores—men who will literally only eat meat products. The carnivore diet consists of meat, seafood, and eggs. But the strictest “carnivores” adhere to what they call B.B.B.E—beef, bacon, butter, and eggs. Health experts are skeptical ('it really bucks nutrition science'), but these men are adamant that they’ve never felt better—'these men' being Joe Rogan and his acolytes. But who am I to judge? As with all things, only time will tell. Unrelated but related: Florida just became the first state to ban the sale of lab-grown meat. How on brand.
My favorite olive-oil-as-a-lifestyle brand is back at it again. What could Graza 2.0 be? Olive oil on tap? Graza skin? Graza in the metaverse? They’ve already done soap and potato chips, so the low-hanging fruits are gone. Snaxshot’s Andrea Hernandez said she got a preview of it and “can’t wait for all the chatter it’ll make.” I’m ready.
Update on yesterday’s newsletter: the Olipop x Barbie Peaches & Cream soda is reportedly outselling eggs. I guess I was wrong—the Barbie effect stays strong.
Erewhon could be making upward of $16 million a year in revenue from just their celebrity smoothies, and other things I learned about Erewhon today. Disclaimer: this newfound knowledge will NOT stop me from getting the $19 Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie the next time I visit LA.
Brand-name products that want to be name-checked on the celebrity smoothie ingredients list have to pay. We’re not sure how much.
Uber and Lyft drivers reported that they’ve picked up travelers from LAX who asked to be immediately driven to the nearest Erewhon.
Celebs are paid $1 per smoothie sold, but are encouraged to donate this sum to charity. Erewhon itself “throws another $2 per smoothie to the cause.” Said causes are undisclosed by Erewhon.
Executive Vice President Vito Antoci revealed that Erewhon sells about 40,000 Hailey Bieber smoothies across its 10 locations every month.
The store sold its highest number of Hailey Bieber smoothies at the height of her “feud” with Selena Gomez.
They’re saying Botox is the new Gen Z status symbol—Botox, lip fillers, and other anti-aging non-invasive treatments. Would love to call BS, but alas, I cannot. I hear there’s nothing the girls love more than a poke here and a poke there. A study that looked at Gen Z Instagram users found that people who used filters to edit their photos were more likely to get cosmetic work done. Another report from the vitamin and supplement company Thorne, which surveyed a group of 13- to 17-year-olds, found that one in four plan to get cosmetic surgery to combat the appearance of aging.
Disney clearly read this report, which is why they are partnering with Gen Alpha skincare brand, Bubble, to promote their upcoming animated film Inside Out 2. At least it’s not Drunk Elephant.
