Noodle Boys and Hinge Crashouts
just the way the cookie crumbls
Matt Rife and Owen Wilson are starring in a new movie set at Rolling Loud; Charli XCX joins the cast of The Gallerist with Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega; Taylor Swift mined the vault to launch “Eras Archive” site; and Devin Williams, one of the best and most plugged-in people I know, is hosting an event — a holiday gift exchange! — for her newsletter
tomorrow night. It’s going to be cute. See you there.
NEARLY HALF OF US TEENS ARE ONLINE ‘CONSTANTLY,’ PEW REPORT FINDS, apnews
45% of American teenagers say they are online "constantly,” though it’s worth noting that this exact headline was also published last year at this time when Pew reported that 46% of U.S. teens said they were online constantly” (so…progress?!). YouTube remains the most popular platform among teenagers, with 90% saying they watch videos on the site, down from 95% in 2022. There was a slight downward trend in the use of several popular apps among teenagers, including TikTok, Snapchat, and X; WhatsApp was a rare exception, with the number of teenage users increasing to 23% from 17% in 2022.
STARBUCKS IS THE NEW VENMO FOR GEN ALPHA, fastcompany
According to a new report from Cafeteria, a youth insights platform, teens aren’t just paying each other back with cash (or Cash App) — they’re settling up tabs by treating to Starbucks when they owe each other money; notably, Starbucks was the only brand that teens mentioned using to reimburse friends. The brand is so popular with teens that 89% know their best friend’s Starbucks order.
THE $1 BILLION COOKIE EMPIRE THAT TEENS LOVE AND PARENTS HATE, wsj Crumbl has become a sensation among tween and teen girls, with over 9.6 million TikTok followers and over 1,000 franchise-owned shops. The brand’s social media strategy, which includes a 30-person team, has been key to its success; weekly menu changes generate excitement and — perhaps more importantly — FOMO. For teen girls, the appeal is less about the doughy cookies and more about the “Crumbl aesthetic,” which includes pastel-colored frosting, an abundance of sprinkles, and pale pink boxes that some fans like to collect.
THE RISE OF THE NOODLE BOYS, nyt
Hollywood’s white boy of the moment, writes Jacob Gallagher, is the “noodle boy.” He’s young, slender, and floppy-haired — a “quieter kind of brooding masculinity” embodied by Timothée Chalamet, Dominic Sessa, and Mark Eydelshteyn. The rise of this wispy male star can be “read as repudiation of the something-to-prove CrossFit bros who populate the right-wing manosphere,” Gallagher explains.
LONGCHAMP’S LE PLIAGE IS THE BAG UNIFYING MILLENNIALS AND GEN-Z, marieclaire
I talked to Marie Claire editor Emma Childs about the Le Pliage, Longchamp’s $155 nylon tote that first launched in 1993 and has become an unexpected “it” bag among Gen Zers over the last few years. Morgane Speed, who works at the fashion tech platform Lyst, reported a 10-percent increase in demands for Longchamp Le Pliage bags over the last three months, following a 56-percent spike the previous year.
One last thought:
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The comments are telling. Here’s the top-liked one:
wait this is actually kind of adorable-- "they’re settling up tabs by treating to Starbucks when they owe each other money... The brand is so popular with teens that 89% know their best friend’s Starbucks order."
treating ur bff to their fav frappuccino vs. venmo-requesting them to-the-cent feels like a step away from the transactional friendships of late!