Sabrina Carpenter landed Dolly Parton for a “Please Please Please’ remix; Tate McRae is the new face of Neutrogena; Kai Cenat and Khaby Lame are joining the 2025 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game (remember the time Justin Bieber played in it? I’ll never forget as long as I live); and here’s hoping Hurry Up Tomorrow, the Weeknd’s new movie with Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, will be better than The Idol.
NOW IN COLLEGE, LUDDITE TEENS STILL DON’T WANT YOUR LIKES, nyt
Alex Vadukul, who first wrote about The Luddite Club back in 2022, caught up with the young organizers behind the anti-tech movement to see how they’re faring amid the digital demands of modern life. Two years later, many of them remain just as committed to the cause: “It’s sort of the cool kids club now,” said Jameson Butler, 18, who runs the chapter at Brooklyn Tech. “It’s been great for my high school life socially. No one thinks I’m a freak. We do improv, rap battles and make zines together.” I’m going to be thinking about this quote for awhile:
Speaking before a crowded auditorium, she painted a bleak picture of her pre-Luddite life. “Like other iPad kids I found myself from the age of 10 longing to be famous on apps like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok,” she said. “My phone kept the curated lives of my peers with me wherever I went, following me to the dinner table, to the bus stop, and finally to my bed where I fell asleep groggy and irritable, often at late hours in the night, clutching my device.”
THE SIMPLEST WAY TO GET MORE GIRLS TO BECOME ENTREPRENEURS, ACCORDING TO A STUDY OF 750,000+ TEENS, inc
Using Danish population-wide data, researchers tracked nearly one million people from adolescence to adulthood and found that early exposure not only encouraged entrepreneurship but also led to businesses that employed more women and lasted longer than average. Interestingly, the study found no similar effect for boys, suggesting that girls benefit uniquely from being exposed to entrepreneurs.
ALEXIS OHANIAN-BACKED AI STARTUP PLOT RAISES $4.1M TO DECODE SOCIAL VIDEO, adweek
Speaking of girlbosses, one of my personal favorites just raised a big seed round. With a fresh $4.1 million in funding, Megan Duong and her team will expand their AI-powered social listening platform, which goes beyond captions and hashtags by extracting insights directly from video content. They’ve built a valuable way to track social trends, but it’s also just extremely fun to use, which is not usually the case with these kinds of tools. (Here I should probably disclose that I used to work with Alexis and his fund, but now I’m just a Plot superfan!)
TRISHA PAYTAS’S MEME COME TRUE, thecut
Earlier this week, Trisha Paytas made her Broadway debut in the sold-out, one-night-only benefit, Trisha’s Big Broadway Dream, in front of an audience that “skewed younger and smelled far more like weed than the crowds outside any other theater on the Great White Way.” The 36-year-old YouTuber is a favorite among Gen Z for her “ability to rebound from substance abuse, mental illness, and countless cancellations has been nothing short of inspirational.”
WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE SEX PARTIES?, theatlantic
High-end sex clubs have seen a surge in popularity, particularly among the wealthy, Xochitl Gonzalez reports. (Brings to mind last week’s “Everyone Is Horny Now” Dazed headline.) What stood out to me most was this detail about young members:
For some patrons, the party may not be an excuse for the sex at all; the sex may be the excuse for the party. Saynt told me that he’s noticed that younger patrons, especially Gen Z, are mostly interested in the “performance of eroticism.” “They’re not having sex at these parties as much,” he said. “They’re just coming for the costumes.”
One last thought:
the constitution is totally bussin
ugh good for Trisha she deserves this