G Challenges and Teeny Tiny Martinis
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a not-so-brief trends debrief for paid subscribers. Your support keeps this newsletter going! 💫
Today we’re talking about:
Emma Chamberlain’s viral underconsumptioncore video
Wide-leg jeans are over
Kate Spade’s new Gen Z strategy
Are young people really no longer getting piercings? I asked Studs founder Lisa Bubbers
The Hailey Bieber x Matilda Djerf collab (and ensuing social media meltdown)
Gen Z caused a Guinness shortage
Why everyone’s commenting, “Raw. Next question” on videos of hot guys
Making sense of the Wicked x Sexxy Red trending soundbite
Call Her Daddy as a recession indicator
Plus everything else that happened in style, beauty, and culture and what I’m buying, reading, and listening to.
Also! I’m adding a weekly trend-o-meter for paid subscribers to better track rising and falling trends week to week. Here’s a blurry sneak peek, the real thing is down below:
But first, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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(This made me laugh harder than it should have.)
Earlier this week, I mentioned that I’d watched hundreds of Christmas wishlist TikToks and Black Friday hauls, and that I’d also watched Buy Now, the Netflix documentary about overconsumption and corporate greed.
A reader, Michelle, commented:
After watching Buy Now, Casey, didn't watching "hauls" just absolutely disgust you? How can we get these age groups to understand the actual cost of Shein, Amazon clothes, Temu? Not only is it just so much waste, but the fuel and plane usage to bring these items overnight has completely eliminated any carbon reduction we made in the past TEN YEARS. I think instead of the anticonsumerism trend, there needs to be a full-scale backlash from Gen Z/Alpha to these companies.