

Discover more from After School by Casey Lewis
TikTok star Bella Poarch covers Cosmopolitan; it's officially short king spring; Kid Cudi will make his directorial debut in Teddy, a Netflix movie in which he’ll also write and star; and this Nigo album — out Friday — is going to be massive.
TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME? LANDLINE PHONES OFFER A LIFELINE., nyt
The latest nostalgia-fueled collectible is the humble landline, a resurgence fueled by millennials who yearn for an antidote to screen fatigue. All I ask of you is that you read until the Alexander Graham Bell anecdote.
“During the pandemic I wanted to disconnect from all of the things that distract you on a smartphone,” said Ms. Karr, 30, who works in marketing and ticketing at a music venue near her home in Alexandria, Ky. “I just wanted to get back to the original analog ways of having a landline.”
TWO THIRDS OF THE UK’S YOUNG PEOPLE MISS LOCKDOWN, theface
The Face is doing a whole series on the “Covid Generation,” and a whole lot of it is interesting, but I was especially fascinated that “an overwhelming majority of respondents reported that, yeah, actually, they did miss lockdown life – 66.9 per cent of them, to be exact.”
CAN TIKTOK HELP SAVE THE OSCARS?, vanityfair
Tl;dr: Probably not this year, but if they hire some Gen Zers to help bring the antiquated awards show into the future (or, let’s be real, even the now), maybe!
The creators who spoke to V.F. were all too happy to suggest ways to boost the Oscars’ social media presence. Making the swelling music that cuts off speeches into a TikTok audio cue, for instance. Inviting stars like Jessica Chastain and Ryan Reynolds to post from the red carpet. Or interacting with popular Hollywood accounts, like Lionsgate’s, which has deftly adopted Gen Z sensibilities and drawn 3.8 million followers. Feldman says Lionsgate has succeeded because “they take risks and take on trends, forming their content around the app itself,” rather than just transferring a dated social model to a new platform.
MIU MIU MINI SKIRTS, KIM KARDASHIAN & THE "END OF THE BBL", nylon
Rachel Rabbit White explains, “To celebrate the supposed ‘end of the BBL’ is synonymous with the desire to kill the ways in which Black women, especially Black trans women, and especially Black trans sex workers, have shaped the culture and were co-opted by the mainstream.”
IT'S OFFICIAL: SKINNY JEANS ARE OUT, WIDE-LEG DENIM IS IN, adweek
We knew it was coming: U.S. sales of straight-leg women’s denim have officially surpassed revenue for skinny jeans in 2021, making the more relaxed fit America’s best-selling style, according to market research firm The NPD Group.
One last thought:
TikTok Oscars and Landline Lifeline
I just bought a magazine at the airport for the first time in well over a year. I noticed about that magazine and this issue of Cosmo that the design is so different than magazines I have known over the years. They have a distinctly European vibe. I thought March Vogue with Kim K was for sure not American Vogue. So much open space on the cover.