Hot-Girl Books and Cringe Trends

"i go to the beach to surf"

Allbirds (somewhat bafflingly) tapped Lindsay Lohan to front its running shoe campaign; how Stranger Things landed Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” for its epic finale; and abortion misinformation is absolutely flooding TikTok.

MINIONS WILL SHATTER BOX-OFFICE RECORDS BECAUSE GEN Z IS OBSESSED WITH IT, mashable
The soundtrack “goes hard,” and so, apparently, does the movie. I’m obsessed with the fact that hundreds of young men are going to the movie theater dressed in suits to watch an animated movie for children. Sometimes pop culture is so genuinely fun and funny. On one hand, it makes sense: Gen Z grew up on minions. On the other, back in 2015, teens all over the internet begged their millennial moms to stop posting minions memes.

TIKTOK’S LATEST CRINGE TREND: GEN Z CRITIQUES THEIR FORMER SELVES, wired
Gen Zers are posting videos (more than 80,000 of them, in fact) about the things they posted on Snap as tweens, each soundtracked by a medley of songs from 2015. As Wired writes, “The trend is fun and funny, sure, but it is emblematic of something deeper. The first generation of people to grow up with social media in their pocket—the first generation to use it religiously in early adolescence—is now taking stock.” And they are embarrassed.

SHEIN’S RISE WAS NEARLY OVERNIGHT. THE BACKLASH CAME JUST AS FAST., wsj
Fashion student Ava Grand started buying extremely cheap fast-fashion pieces from Chinese e-commerce giant Shein during the pandemic. When the clothing arrived from China in individually wrapped plastic packages, she felt guilty about the waste. So she used some of her leftover packaging to stitch a tote bag that she then posted to TikTok. It soon had millions of views and positive comments.

HOW HOT-GIRL BOOKS BECAME MUST-HAVE FASHION ACCESSORIES, i-d
When Berlin-based artist Calla Henkel released her debut novel, Other People’s Clothes, earlier this year, it was immediately categorized as a hot-girl book by content creators on BookTok, TikTok’s literature community focused on categorizing, discussing, reviewing and joking about books.

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT GEN Z WON'T DRINK?, bloomberg
To answer the headline, yeah, a lot: A drumbeat of data suggests that Gen Z is at least more alcohol-agnostic than earlier generations for all sorts of reasons, from health to cost. But Big Booze is pulling out all the stops to turn the young and sober-curious into enthusiastic consumers.

One last thought: It’s my birthday! Expect tomorrow’s letter a lil later in the morning, because I’m spending the day at the beach…thanks for reading, ily.