Peak Babygirl and Blair Waldorf-Core
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a weekly trend debrief for paid subscribers.💫
Good morning from Clearwater, where it’s been pouring rain for two days. I’m having the time of my life, though, because we waited out the storm at not one but two malls, a real delight for this New Yorker. (Hudson Yards does not count!)
I went into J. Crew (terrible merchandising — fuzzy sweaters next to bikinis, though I suppose I am in Florida), Gap (seems to be getting better?), Lululemon (walked in and walked out), Alo (ditto), Nordstrom (department stores need to get it together), Dick’s Sporting Goods (I’m newly obsessed with these running shorts), Sephora (sheer chaos, but no tweens in sight!), Old Navy (utterly depressing), and Free People (I’m a convert — more on that below).
Today, we’re talking about:
What tweens are actually buying!
“Sabrina Carpenter Bangs”
The Scandi hairline
Neckties are the new bows
The bubble skirt renaissance
The next quiet luxury ‘it” bag
Gen Z likes their diamonds fake
And they like their books sexy
Dexter's signet ring is the next Connell's chain
Rebecca syndrome
Dorito theory
Everyone’s yapping on TikTok
Plus everything else that happened this week in youth culture and what I’m buying/reading/listening to. But first, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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WHAT TODAY’S TWEENS ARE ACTUALLY BUYING, FROM STANLEY (EH) TO SEPHORA (VERY MUCH YES)
A few weekends ago, I interviewed 18 New York City tweens for a New York Magazine article about what young people are buying and wearing.