Brat Walls and Gallaghercore

after school weekend edition

Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a weekly trends debrief for paid subscribers. Your support keeps this newsletter going! 💫

I found myself in a fragile state earlier this week as I attempted to wrap up moving out of my old apartment while dealing with construction in the new one, all while tending to a rescue puppy and a grumpy old dog who just would not stop barking.

I was sleep-deprived and my whole body ached from hurtling old furniture and trash bags up and down the stairs.

It proved impossible to get any work done over the chorus of an electric saw and increasingly agitated woofs, and the only thing that could soothe my barking dogs and my broken brain was binging Boy Room.

From the creative genius Adam Faze, Boy Room is a modern-day cinematic masterpiece in the form of 9 episodes, each less than 2 minutes in length.

I watched them all dozens of times on loop and found myself for the first time ever actually commenting on a TikTok. And then another. (Like I said: Fragile mental state.)

The concept is straightforward: Stand-up comedian Rachel Costner and a brave crew go into the very real bedrooms of very real men in New York City, and the results are often more dire than you could imagine. The result is addictive, if alarming. The boys are not alright, but the future of media just might be if Adam Faze is leading the charge.

The Middle Part episode made me gasp — every single girl I know dated a guy or has a friend who dated a guy like that, I’m sad to say! — but this is the one that first pulled me in:

@boy.roomHolt, 26, Williamsburg, NY Welcome to Boy Room, the show where we investigate boys rooms. On today’s episode, @Rachel Coster goes over the bridge to Williamsburg and finds herself a man who doesn’t know how to let go. At least he resells some of it? a show by @Gymnasium #apartmenttour #nyc #messy #boys #boyroom #funny #hoarders #newyork #dirty #gymnasium

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Today we’re talking about:

• Gen Alpha mocktails

• TikTok Met Gala

• Kentucky Derby’s Alex Cooper strategy 

• Sophia Amoruso’s return to retail

• The other Sofia’s very #coppolacore lip balm

• Fancy Studs

• “New York Blanket Couple”

• Brat wall

• The “dance or get back with my dad” meme

• 🎵 Looking for a man in finance 🎵

• Veneer techs 

• Boomer lead paint stare

Plus everything else that happened this week in youth culture and what I’m buying/reading/listening to. But first, my favorite TikTok of the week:

@bre.giglioKendrick Lamar + Drake beef explained 🫖 #kendricklamar #drake #kendrickanddrakebeef #popculture #popcultureexplained #drakedisstrack #kendrickeuphoria

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WEEKLY TOP FIVE: TRENDS + TAKEAWAYS

Every week, I sift through more than 1,000 headlines on Gen Z and Alpha trends. These were my biggest learnings:

1. Kids are ordering mocktails. “I kind of hope that drinking these nonalcoholic cocktails will make them not be as rebellious when they are 14 and 15,” says one mom of Gen Alphas who imbibe in fancy zero-proof drinks. There is absolutely no way that will be the case, but it is interesting to think about how raising a generation on $18 booze-free cocktails might impact their consumer habits down the line. “This is a generation that likes to ‘adult’ quicker,” said Julie Mountain, an owner of the Granola Bar, a restaurant with seven locations in Connecticut and New York. “The kid who is sitting down to an avocado toast for lunch is ordering a strawberry ginger lemonade mocktail,” she added. “They are also taking a picture of everything on the table.”