Radical Toxicity and Stay-at-Home Girlfriends
Radical Toxicity and Stay-at-Home Girlfriends
"where we all pretend to be boomers"
Today’s letter is brought to you by Day One Agency
Reading a daily newsletter about youth culture 🤝 creating award-winning campaigns that connect with Gen Z. My friends at Day One Agency are looking for creative thinkers and problem solvers to help leading brands earn Gen Z’s attention (see: the recent Chipotle X Roblox launch). If that sounds like you, drop a line at afterschool@d1a.com and be sure to check out their recently relaunched youth insights arm Ask Gen Z.
Gen Z’s favorite couple is breaking up; Insta-famous skincare brand Starface is collabing with Sesame Street; “stay-at-home girlfriends” are the new trad wives; please tell me “hair scarves” are not going to be a thing; Cowboy Bebop, explained; and Hello Kitty NFTs are coming.
WHY SELENA GOMEZ IS COFOUNDING A MENTAL HEALTH MEDIA COMPANY WITH HER MOM MANDY TEEFEY AND NEWSLETTER WHIZ DANIELLA PIERSON, entrepreneur
Selena and her mom are partnering with the founder of The Skimm-esque company ‘Newsette’ (which Entrepreneur calls “a trendy Gen Z newsletter,” though it seems pretty millennial-y to me) to start WonderMind, a media company focusing “on mental health in a way that has never been done before.” What does that mean, exactly?
Rather than taking a medical or preachy tone, that content will be filtered through the lens of lifestyle and entertainment. It will roll out with a podcast network and daily articles filled with tips, resources, and interviews, and follow with a line of innovative tools for mental fitness. It will also bring in revenue through corporate partnerships and development of intellectual property — books, essays, and podcast episodes about a wide range of related topics — into potential TV series and films for the Hulus, Netflixes, and Universals of the world.
HOW EMBRACING YOUR TOXICITY BECAME THE LATEST INTERNET TREND, i-d
Gen Z obviously values authenticity, but this self-awareness (see also: self-own) is on another level: On TikTok, “users are posting videos listing everything from commitment hang-ups (“I never let myself feel anything for people so I don’t get hurt”) to their unidealised personality traits (“I get jealous really easily” and “I have a huge ego”).
↳ ‘Manifestation TikTok’ believes a song called “Time In Oblivion” is magically changing their lives. Can I manifest an end to this ridiculous trend?
HOW TIKTOK AND SNAPCHAT BECAME THE SURVEILLANCE STATE IN THE CLASSROOM, mel
This “new normal” has made teachers “hyper-aware” of the fact that at any given moment, anything they say or do can — and most likely will be — be posted online.
↳ In other young-people-laughing-at-the-olds news: A Princess Diana Facebook group is secretly populated by Gen Z trolls mocking 'boomers,' members say
WHAT’S GEN Z’S NEXT BIG APP?, glossy
This article does not answer the question it poses in the headline, so let me save you a click: According to executives attending Glossy’s Beauty Summit, brands are seeing promise with shopping-focused social apps, and they remain pretty bullish on livestream shopping (Talkshoplive, Supergreat, and Shop LIT Live) and community apps (namely Geneva, which you already know I love):
Among those with promise, they said, is Slack-like group app Geneva. One attendee said her brand uses the app to host a Gen-Z focus group. Including Gen Zers in business decisions is a growing practice among beauty brands. In addition to asking the group to weigh in on product specifics, the exec said her company asks them to weigh in on pop culture trends and to share their tastes in a variety of categories.
BLACK FRIDAY DROPS ARE BRANDS’ LATEST SALES STRATEGY, glossy
Definitely something to keep an eye on: This year, limited releases may trump Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales (or that’s what some brands are hoping, anyway).
One last thought:
