Dumb Money and Moo Deng Makeup
“a dizzying example of late-stage capitalism”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the contrast between headlines like “Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich,” published in April by The Economist, and “The cost-of-living crisis is so bleak that some Gen Zers genuinely fear becoming homeless,” published less than a month later by Fortune. These are just two examples, but the internet is brimming with headlines proclaiming that Gen Z is perplexingly both worse and better off than ever.
To get a better understanding of what’s happening with Gen Z’s finances, Ana Teresa Solá, who is both a CNBC personal finance reporter and a Gen Zer, joined me for this week’s episode of After School.
We talk about recession pop, tradwives, and why, despite the alleged fall of the girlboss, young women — Taylor Swift included — still feel pressure to overoptimize for productivity.
This marks the last episode of season one of the After School podcast! Big thanks to Day One Agency for producing this for me (and for editing out so many of my “umms” and nonsensical rambles). I’ll share some learnings and highlights this weekend, if you’re interested.
Billie Eilish is partnering with Google Maps to offer fans “sustainable transport” to her upcoming tour; Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi” single is a certified hit; Selena Gomez reprises her role in the Disney spinoff Wizards Beyond Waverly Place trailer; and can we give Chappell Roan a break?
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by dcdx.
This morning, dcdx released Gen Z’s Top 50 Beauty Brands Report Q3 2024, based on an analysis of over 1.23 billion engagements of user-generated content in Q3. The industry report features a ranking of Gen Z’s Most Magnetic Beauty Brands #1 through #50, a matrix of brands tiered from weak to magnetic, an analysis of the industry’s major shifts in loyalty, a breakdown of the six themes driving UGC in the category for Gen Z, and more. To see the full ranking and analysis, check it out here!
TWITCH IS TRANSFORMING INTO A POLITICAL ARENA. HASAN PIKER IS AT THE FOREFRONT., nbcnews
We’ve talked about Piker previously, but it’s hard to overstate his influence: The creator — who streams eight hours a day, seven days a week — has amassed 2.7M followers on Twitch, 1.42M on YouTube, and 925,000M on TikTok, many of whom are young men. He says that when it comes to reaching his audience about politics, memes are not enough: “Communicate to them that they are worthy of attention and that their desires are valid and that you’re actually going to do something,” he said.
WHERE GEN Z IS GETTING NEWS ABOUT THE 2024 ELECTION: TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM, AND BEYOND, teenvogue
According to Pew Research, Gen Z and millennials are more likely to use social media platforms to get their news rather than through cable or traditional print publications, which is something we all know to be true, so I found it especially interesting that a lot of students that Vogue spoke to said they do, in fact, subscribe to and regularly read The New York Times and Washington Post. This quote, from a Northeastern University senior, stood out to me (and not just because there’s a timely journalism ethics joke to be made):
Journalism students and professional journalists go through years of training. Whether they go to J-school or whatever, if they work at that outlet, they go through journalism ethics. They go through how to interview a source properly. There's so much training involved.
HOW SALLY ROONEY’S NEW NOVEL ‘INTERMEZZO’ BECAME A CELEBRITY OBSESSION, msnbc
Fewer than 2,500 copies of “Intermezzo” were sent to journalists, critics, influencers, booksellers, and celebrities, inciting a galley frenzy — which, writes Hannah Holland, is “a dizzying example of late-stage capitalism” and a signal of the “renewed cultural capital of literature.” The book is currently a #1 new release on Amazon but only has two reviews (one calls it a “stare at the ceiling after finishing” kind of book, the other deems it “over-stylized”).
BEAUTY INFLUENCERS ARE TRYING TO MAKE MOO DENG MAKEUP HAPPEN, glamour
I was trying to avoid writing about Moo Deng, the viral Pygmy Hippo who Vogue called “The Moment” earlier this week, not because I’m immune to cute animals, but because cute animals — penguins, lemurs, even potty-trained pigeons — go viral all the time. (Back in ancient times — the year 2010 — CNN wrote a story called “Why we love cute animals online”; a lot has changed about the internet since then, but our collective obsession with adorable critters has not.) Now, though, Moo Deng has transcended mere viral animal status to become a bonafide consumer trend, with beauty influencers and brands sharing advice on how to achieve Moo Deng makeup (a lot of blush, for starters).
TEENAGERS ARE STEALING STRANGERS’ NIKE ZIPPERS. BLAME TIKTOK, fastco
Another inexplicable trend taking over social media: Teens are stealing the zipper pulls off of Nike Elite backpacks — and only Nike Elite backpacks — and reselling them for as much as $40. I hope Nike capitalizes on this viral moment…
One last thought:
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i wrote the glamour moo deng article and i am h o n o r e d to be in this elite 'stack <3