Hurkle-durkling and Dimpleplasties
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a weekly trend debrief for paid subscribers.💫
Good morning from Vero Beach, where it’s gray and rainy but at least it’s not cold. We spent last week in St Augustine — an incredible place; go visit, if you can — and then stopped into Cocoa Beach over the weekend. At this point, I’m made of fish dip and pub subs. I haven’t been brave enough to try fried gator yet, but I’m almost there.
Earlier this week, I was interviewed by Leslie Price, whose byline I’ve been obsessed with for more than a decade. She was an online editor at Lucky Magazine (RIP), back when very, very few people understood the importance of the world wide web, Condé Nast included especially. Leslie went on to run Racked (another favorite that I miss every day) and now is the founder of Gloria, a media brand and newsletter for women who aren't still young, but aren't yet old. Gloria reminds me a lot of Lucky Magazine, just like Racked used to.
I had so much fun talking to Leslie, which you can tell because I appear to have cursed quite a lot. Whoops.
Here’s a little bit from our conversation:
I read a lot of “kids these days” stories in a sort of reflexively negative light (this is old grump behavior). I don't know how else to describe it. But you manage to present information about youth culture without it feeling doom and gloomy.
Yes, we should approach innovation with a healthy sense of skepticism. But the thing about TikTok and the stories of 11-year-olds having skincare routines is that it really doesn't seem to be so different from how I felt as a 10-year-old reading Seventeen. I got so much from teen magazines, but also [came away with] a lot of baggage. We almost had it worse because everything was so polished.
With social media, you see a candidness that we did not grow up with. Like Alix Earle – not that she's the best example of everything – has been outspoken about dealing with an eating disorder. People weren't honest about that when we were growing up.
Today we’re talking about:
WWGD? (What would Glossier do?)
In your Nerds Gummy Cluster eras
When bad content happens to good brands
The PJ sold-out collaboration that devastated TikTok
RIP Stanley
Jelqing
Hurkle-durkling
Paloma Diamond
Shik Shak Shock
Glass bottle water delivery
“High-class roadies”
Plus everything else that happened this week in youth culture and what I’m buying/reading/listening to. Before we jump in, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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What would Glossier do?
I’ve been thinking a lot about young people and makeup, and maybe you have too — what with the nonstop cycle of Sephora tween headlines, how could we not?