Bhad Bhabie and Millennial Burgers
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a not-so-brief trends debrief for paid subscribers. Your support keeps this newsletter going!
In addition to writing a newsletter, I subscribe to a lot of them, and I find that, as a reader, my attention disappears when writers disclose updates they’ve made to the design or format or even content of their newsletters. I think that’s because, as a reader of a lot of newsletters, I don’t notice changes from one letter to the next — even changes that feel monumental to the writer. I just want to hear from the writers I like; I don’t care how the words are delivered.
That said, I’m…going to tell you about a newsletter change. You might notice that this letter is heavier on culture and lighter on style and beauty than usual. (Or, per my previous paragraph, maybe you won’t…)
I realized while struggling through the millionth “Fashion Trends Set to Dominate This Season” article that I’ve become extremely fatigued by “trend” pieces. So often, the “trends” are just a couple of people wearing the same thing or a single viral TikTok. Are red pants really a hot new trend, or did two celebrities just happen to wear them this week? Is the “cup bob” really having a moment, or did a hairdresser just coin a new term to describe a short haircut?
The writers and publications are not to blame for this. They’re just trying to hit aggressive traffic goals and publishing quotas.
It’s still important to me to track style and beauty trends — even micro ones! — but I want to be more discerning about what’s a real trend versus a click-y headline, hopefully freeing up space in both my brain and this newsletter to write about larger cultural shifts. Feedback, as always, is appreciated!
How my brain feels rn:
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In today’s letter:
The babydoll top every teen on my feed just bought
The Gap pants going viral among cool girls
A new Gen Z beauty “collab house” is suddenly all over my FYP
LoveShackFancy’s latest sold-out partnership
The “millennial burger place” meme
Mary Kate Cornett, the Ole Miss student whose life was upended this week by online rumors
Gen Z really loves Bhad Bhabie
“Lemony miso gochujang brown butter gnocchi”
The 27-year-old TikToker telling young moms to get their shit together
And so much more, plus everything I’m buying, reading, and listening to. But first, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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Before I jump into trends, let’s talk about Madewell for a second.
While J. Crew has successfully turned things around in the last few years — largely due to the very glamorous creative director and head of design Olympia Gayot — Madewell has struggled to entice younger shoppers. They’ve also simultaneously lost their devoted millennial customer. I know this because I used to be one of them.