Kia Boyz and Corn Kid

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.

Last week, Girls Night In published my latest “Ask a Gen Z” column, in which I…ask Gen Z stuff! This month’s question was: What Is Gen Z Actually Wearing? I spoke to quite the spectrum of Gen Zers — a high schooler from Connecticut, a few post-grad Brooklyners — who all had super interesting things to say.

My conversation with 15-year-old Paloma lasted almost an hour and was overflowing with fascinating intel, much of which did not make it into that actual piece, so I wanted to highlight a few more takeaways here:

• Skincare is huge and young people are spending cash on the good stuff. She name-checked The Ordinary (which is not expensive but is also not, like, Clean & Clear), Sol de Janeiro, Glow Recipe, and Laniege (the Lip Sleeping Mask and the Water Sleeping Mask, specifically).

  • The best quote from our talk: “Drunk Elephant is just okay. It’s a little overhyped. It's more for, like, 12-year-olds that want to be 15-year-olds.”

• For makeup, she likes L’Oreal Telescopic mascara and anything by Charlotte Tilbury. She also mentioned Two Faced Lip Injection Extreme Lip Plumper and Dior Lip Glow Oil.

  • She likes Glossier but prefers buying makeup IRL and doesn’t have one local. “I think being in-stores is super-important; I don’t do a whole lot of shopping online, I like to actually go to stores, and that’s the same for a lot of my friends.” Lucky for her — and for Glossier — that they’re entering Sephora next year.

• She loves Lululemon and Alo Yoga, a brand I’ve never thought much about until she mentioned it. Now I see it everywhere, and in fact, they’re also debuting their first luxury rtw collection at NYFW this year.

Read the full piece here, if you’d like!

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We have a ton to cover today — two weeks of internet! — including:

• Unexpected Hot Girl Footwear™

• CEO of the Treadmill Strut™

• The rise of “that golfer, ‘your dad’s bomber jacket’ aesthetic”

• Joey Potter fall

• Can a startup make Gen Z care about video e-com?

• Can a retailer make Gen Z care about NYFW?

• Corn. Kias. Cores!

• 2,000 words on trends, TikTok, and ridiculous internet theories

Plus everything I’m buying, reading, listening to, etc.!