BritTok and and Babar Cool

Your daily digest of youth culture

Jun 25, 2021

Hello, and happy Friday! Now that I’ve been doing this for a few months — and now that there are a few thousand of you — I wanted to take a moment to a) thank you for subscribing and b) ask if there’s anything else you’d like to see here in the future. More analysis? Trend deep dives? Interviews (with Gen Zers… with founders…)? A rundown of every single item I’ve bought because Gen Z told me to? More me? Less me? Would love to hear. Click reply, or email me at caseymorrowlewis@gmail.com. — Casey

Lily Collins is playing Polly Pocket in Lena Dunham's new live-action movie (how’s that for a headline?), Dua Lipa landed a Versace campaign, the Gen Z-founded period brand August (previously mentioned here) just raised $2 million, Tyler the Creator released a feature-filled album, Rihanna couldn’t get into Barcade, and…

THE TIK LIST: HOW THE GEN-Z SOCIAL SET CONQUERED TIKTOK

“All over Britain, society’s young and genetically blessed are setting up kingdoms on TikTok. There’s Princess Olympia of Greece, 24; model Stella Jones, 18, the daughter of The Clash guitarist Mick Jones; and Tilly Ramsay, the 19-year-old daughter of TV chef Gordon Ramsay, who has 9.4 million followers 103.3 million profile likes.” tatler // In other BritTok™ news…The rise of BookTok: meet the teen influencers pushing books up the charts. guardian

AÉROPOSTALE TO STEP OUT OF THE SHADOWS FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL

They are, unsurprisingly, “doubling down on both TikTok and our Instagram presence.” yahoo via wwd

SAMSUNG GALAXY & DEPOP MAKE APPEAL TO GEN Z 'SIDE HUSTLERS' WITH NEW PARTNERSHIP

Depop is partnering with Samsung Galaxy to “bring new life to video on the platform” and to help creators “show off individual style centered around seasonal and cultural moments.” That’s just a long-winded way of saying Depop added a video feed to the explore tab, and it happens to be sponsored by a phone brand no teens actually use. thedrum// Related: GOAT just doubled its valuation. I’m beginning to think this whole resale thing might really be something… retaildive

WHY LUXURY BRANDS MUST JUMP ON CHINA’S CUTE “MENG” TREND

As Meng culture extends its influence beyond China in this interconnected world, brands that swap glam for cute will have an edge in the Gen-Z market. jingdaily // Related: Rowing Blazers and Babar the Elephant Reunite to Celebrate the Character's 90th Anniversary…doesn’t get cuter than Babar. hypebeast

AMERICANS SPENT ON AVERAGE MORE THAN 1,300 HOURS ON SOCIAL MEDIA LAST YEAR

Gen Z users spent almost 53 minutes per day or 297 hours a year on Instagram, and 50 minutes per day spent or 277 hours a year on Snapchat. (No word on TikTok, which seems like a massive oversight.) forbes

One last thought (per yesterday’s discussion):