Lil Nas X has been tapped as YSL Beauty’s newest U.S. brand ambassador; Gen Z wants it, Christians fear it — Praying x Adidas just dropped; Taylor Swift has saved the VMAs (and announced her next album); and, actually, Gen X invented quiet quitting.
GEN Z IS SURPRISINGLY ABSENT FROM THE MILLENNIAL-DOMINATED CREATOR ECONOMY, fortune
The average creator is 40 years old, and Gen Z only represents 14% of all creators. That runs counter to the popular narrative that it’s mainly teens and young twentysomethings glued to their screens, dominating the creator force. (The same survey says 45% of Gen Z “aspire” to make money from content shared online, so while they don’t self-identify as creators yet, they’d like to be.)
A WEEKEND IN THE WOODS WITH CRYPTO’S COOL KIDS, elle
Everyone seemed less interested in the Web3 gold rush than they did in meeting their Discord friends IRL.
The uniform, as one attendee explained to me, was coded luxury: “Your sunglasses are from a truck stop and your shorts are Old Navy, but then the sneakers are Balenciaga.” On day one, I was deeply off-brand in a pink floral LoveShackFancy dress. I also had the feeling that everyone was on mushrooms without me.
USE OF MARIJUANA AND PSYCHEDELICS IS SOARING AMONG YOUNG ADULTS, STUDY FINDS, nyt
Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults reached an all-time record, and nicotine vaping and excessive alcohol consumption continued to climb. There’s also a “trend among young people, ages 19 to 30: mounting consumption of alcoholic beverages suffused with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.”
SMUTTY NOVELS ARE BLOWING UP BOOKTOK – BUT WHY ARE THEIR COVERS SO DISCREET?, independent
Smut-filled novels have been gaining traction on social media, specifically TikTok – or BookTok – where the hashtags #smut and #smuttok have 3.7 billion and 3.2 billion views respectively.
CELEBRITIES TAP INTO SECONDHAND CLOTHES TREND BY SELLING ON PRE-LOVED SITES, guardian
Harry Styles’s stylist, Harry Lambert, launched his personal store on Depop last week. Items included a yellow Prada tote bag (£1,000), a black hoodie (£140) from cult London streetwear brand Liam Hodges, and a bespoke T-shirt (£90) made for Big Little Lies star Alexander Skarsgård for a magazine shoot; most of it sold out within hours.
COMPANIES USED TO ANNOUNCE PRODUCTS. NOW THEY ‘DROP’ THEM., wsj
The Journal discovers drop culture.
One last thought: