Foot Botox and It Thongs

after school weekend edition

Hi friends! Welcome back to After School ✨weekend edition✨, an extra long and extra opinionated youth culture digest for paid subscribers.

As Twitter becomes increasingly unreliable, I’ve been thinking a lot about social communities and online platforms that allow us to connect with people we actually want to talk to.

This week, I went to a party hosted by Lean Luxe, which has been one of my favorite newsletters (and Slack channels) for years. Paul, the founder, has thoughtfully built a really impressive community of founders and creatives, and the event felt like a really good Slack channel come to life.

These days, it seems like every newsletter has a community, whether on Slack or Discord or Facebook Groups or IG Close Friends. (Paul did it first.) And as people leave Twitter and seek out other spaces to connect with like-minded people, there is going to be a huge influx of these chat communities. In the year and a half of sending out After School, I’ve certainly been tempted to start something similar. But I always come back to this question: Does anyone really need another thing to join? I can’t keep up with my texts much less a bunch of different channels spread across a dozen apps.

Last week, Substack, who has not been especially shy about trying to grab Twitter’s remaining user base, debuted an especially well-timed new chat feature. If you subscribe to other Substacks, I’m sure you’ve gotten invites. It’s pretty slick! But it’s more like Slack or Reddit than Twitter, and it requires you to download an app. And again: does anyone really need another thing to join?

I’m realizing that for the second week in a row, I’ve unintentionally turned what was supposed to be a short intro paragraph into a diary entry and/or therapy session, and for that, I am sorry!

What I’m trying to say is that I’m very grateful for the internet, and this Twitter stuff is bumming me out, but I am optimistic that we’ll continue having meaningful interactions online, regardless of the platform. And if you’re an investor — there are a bunch of you here! — please use your power to finance more actually-good platforms and please stop giving your money to Elon. (And SBF.)

Aubrey Strobel @aubreystrobel

if you log off of Twitter and go outside, you'll find out that most people are not fighting about Elon or discussing the FTX collapse

Today, we’re going to talk about:

• Sapphic pop

• Nordstrom x Dimes Square

• Gen Z jazz

• It thongs

• It engagement rings

• Influencer scores

• Dunners

• Natty wine bars

• The holiday gifts selling out this year

• The chic coat that is the outerwear of the winter

And everything else that’s happened this week in brands, trends, and digital culture, plus everything I’m buying, reading, and listening to!