Blind Boxes and Manic Pixie Dream Boyfriends
Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
Blind Boxes and Manic Pixie Dream Boyfriends
"softcore-looking photographs of jocks"
Hey friends, I’m signing off for a few days of flights and family and food. Have a great Thanksgiving and see you back here next Tuesday!
We are living in the age of the Manic Pixie Dream Boyfriend; WGSN names ‘energizing’ orchid flower color of the year for 2022; Yellowjackets brilliantly captures the brutal side of teenage girlhood; can TikTok tell when you've had your heart broken?; Dua Lipa is launching podcast and newsletter (one week after Selena Gomez announces similar plans); and how Grind became the coffee of choice for hip young Londoners.
HOLLISTER IS PARTNERING WITH SNAP FOR AN AUGMENTED REALITY HOLIDAY MARKETPLACE, modernretail
Hollister joins Coca-Cola, Prime Video, Under Armour, Verizon, and Walmart in offering virtual Snap storefronts — designed to look like modern convenience stores — on Black Friday. The draw, beyond Snap’s significant teen audience, is Snap’s AR lenses, which the company claims accumulate 6 billion plays a day.
THE TEENS WHO HATED ABERCROMBIE ARE THE ADULTS SHOPPING THERE NOW — AND THEY CAN’T BELIEVE IT EITHER, wapo
Look, I looooooved Abercrombie as a teen, but I appreciate the retailer’s campaign for relevance nonetheless.
Spend any time on social media, especially TikTok, and you’ll soon spot Abercrombie’s newer wares, which do not readily announce themselves as such…Perhaps you clicked through an outfit on Instagram expecting to land on Everlane or Aritzia’s website only to find yourself on Abercrombie.com where, in the place of softcore-looking photographs of jocks fondling footballs, were smiling models of varying ethnicities and body types.
DATING BLIND BOXES TAKE OFF IN CHINA AS YOUNGER GENERATIONS LOOK FOR LOVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA, scmp
Inside the emerging industry targeting Gen Z singles in China that allows “people to randomly purchase the social media contacts of a potential partner for just 1 yuan (0.16 US cents).”
JEWELRY CHAINS DISCOVER A NEW GENERATION OF SHOPPERS AS A PANDEMIC WEDDING BOOM GETS UNDERWAY, cnbc
Two notable stats: 1) Next year — 2022 — is expected to bring about 2.5 million nuptials (one of which will be mine!), marking a four-decade high. 2) Brilliant Earth says about 87% of its active consumer base is either millennial or Gen Z.
“If people still had a job and were working from home ... developing this Zoom lifestyle, luxury became a way of celebrating life,” she said. “And one of the best feel-good purchases in luxury is jewelry because there are often stories behind [it].”
THE KIDS WHO GREW UP ON SOCIAL MEDIA WILL BE THE ONES TO FIX IT, ms
An excellent essay by Flox founder Jamie Lee (who you already know I love).
Most people my age were not surprised at all by the information the Facebook whistleblower brought forward, especially as it related to Instagram’s impact on teen girls. The experience of using Instagram is markedly different for women than it is for men. Men can open the app and judge women’s looks, but were not socialized to post their own photos for scrutiny or validation. While boys were encouraged to have traits and qualities outside of their image, girls were increasingly socialized to feel their image was the most important thing about them.
THE GEN Z MUSLIMS ADOPTING THE MEMES OF THE FAR RIGHT, mel
A look inside Islamogram, an online ecosystem boosted by Gen Z Muslims and fueled by regressive far-right symbols.
One last thought:
