Tween CEOs and Status Matchas

little miss anti work

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya very charmingly interviewed each other about their upcoming film The Drama; Miley Cyrus is doing a Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special hosted by Alex Cooper; the trailer for Forbidden Fruits, starring Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, and, very briefly, Emma Chamberlain, is so fun; and Odessa A’zion is on the cover of Elle.

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Sponsored by Whatnot

I’ve been fascinated by live shopping since I started this newsletter in 2021, and Whatnot’s latest report goes to show that the U.S. is finally having the livestream commerce breakthrough China had a decade ago. The platform hit $8 billion in gross live sales last year — doubling year-over-year — while the broader North American and European live commerce market reached an estimated $22 billion, with Whatnot commanding nearly 60% market share. As with most innovations, young people are a driving force: Gen Z sellers are earning the highest average monthly revenue of any generation on the platform, sellers who go live daily average $69K/month, and more than half of all sellers now generate the majority of their annual revenue through live commerce over traditional e-commerce. Users spend 95 minutes a day on the app globally (105 min in the U.S.), which is TikTok-level engagement — people are not only actively buying, they are also getting to know sellers, learning about new products, and tuning in for entertainment.

The category expansion tells perhaps the biggest story: beauty (+791%), electronics (+444%), and women’s fashion (+223%) are the fastest growers, which means live selling has successfully transcended niche collectibles into mainstream retail. CEO Grant LaFontaine says, “By the end of 2026, live shopping will be widely recognized as a mainstream and trusted form of commerce,” though I’d argue we’re already there: nearly 80% of live sellers operate from commercial spaces, and million-dollar sellers on the platform have more than doubled.

Thank you, Whatnot! 🫶

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DIARY OF A 13-YEAR-OLD SKIN-CARE CEO, thecut
Though she’s not yet in high school, Coco Granderson is the CEO of Yes Day, a tween skin-care line developed with cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson, who previously worked on Hailey Bieber’s Rhode. The brand launched after a focus group of 11 girls aged 9–12 at the Grandersons’ Beverly Hills home told Robinson they wanted “the glowiest, healthiest” skin and “radiant glow looks snatched”; they were over Drunk Elephant, the girls added, because it’s “formulated to make older people look younger and just made young people break out.” Coco manages the brand’s social voice, policing generational tells — no laughing emoji, no crying emoji, no “slay girl.” There are so many good details in here:

Upstairs, Coco showed me her room. On her shelves are Vetements pumps that say COLETTE (her real name) and two pairs of Isabel Marant suede wedge sneakers her mom gave her for Christmas. Next to her sink is a mini beauty fridge the size of a toaster stocked with face masks and eye patches. She uses all the Yes Day products but has also been using the Sofie Pavitt line. Last year, she used a lot of Rhode; now she just uses its Glazing Milk and Glazing Mist. Her bedtime routine is simple, just four steps: cleanser, moisturizer (Aquaphor if her skin is really dry), Medicube acid face pad, and a serum that she doesn’t really know what it does but her facialist said to just keep using it to smooth out texture and help with redness. Between steps, she uses a microcurrent wand that makes her face muscles twitch and jiggle.

GOOD NEWS, MILLENNIALS: THE SIDE PART HAS RETURNED, nytimes
I talked to Rory Satran, the former fashion director at The Wall Street Journal turned formidable industry consultant, about the generational implications of where you part your hair and how the cool girls — TikTok’s so-called “Middle Part Baddies,” even! — are veering back to Y2K-era side parts. (As I told Rory, “It seems like there’s no millennial trend that Gen Z isn’t bringing back.” It’s true!) Because I’ve been in the midst of a big Gen Alpha project — more on that very soon! — my mind immediately went to hair part preferences in 2, 5, even 10 years as today’s kids inevitably become tomorrow’s tastemakers. I told Rory it would be nice to imagine that we’re headed toward a more “fluid future” where your teen might not be like “Ew, side part” or “Ew, center part,” but I also think teens will be teens.

AT LFW, BLANK STREET IS TURNING COFFEE INTO CULTURAL CURRENCY, vogue
Blank Street Coffee is partnering with the British Fashion Council for a London Fashion Week activation that includes serving drinks in the NewGen emerging designer space and releasing a limited-edition puffer jacket sleeve for cups. The chain, valued at $500 million with over 90 locations, has cultivated intense fandom; global creative director Mohammad Rabaa says loyalists “analyze social media for Easter eggs, just like Swifties.” Blank Street isn’t alone in dabbling in fashion: Starbucks financially backed five emerging designers at NYFW this season, including Area, Collina Strada, and Eckhaus Latta, to stage shows and co-create merch. For Gen Zs and millennials priced out of traditional luxury, small purchases like matcha and coffee function as status symbols — Rabaa describes the cup as “an accessory” and part of “people’s self-expression.”

WHY ‘BURNOUT’ FEMINISM IS REPLACING THE GIRLBOSS, LEAN IN ERA, bloomberg
The 2010s girlboss era — a period of time that was defined, at least for me personally, by Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer claiming you could work 130 hours a week if you were “strategic” about bathroom breaks — has given way to a crop of “burnout memoirs” by authors like Emma Gannon and Amil Niazi, both of whom document the toll of overwork on their lives. Parallel to this, the “lazy girl” trend — led by influencers like Gabrielle Judge, a zillennial who goes by “Ms. Anti Work” on TikTok — and the “tradwife” movement have gained millions of followers among Gen Z women. The irony, writer Alice Robb points out, is that female ambition hasn’t actually disappeared — tradwives and lazy girl influencers alike form lucrative brand deals — but the way women are permitted to talk about it has narrowed dramatically.

FARMERS ARE AGING. THEIR KIDS DON’T WANT TO BE IN THE FAMILY BUSINESS., wsj
As someone who grew up in rural Missouri, I find stories like these to be particularly distressing: The number of American farmers continues to shrink, with 315 farms filing for bankruptcy in 2025 — up 46% from 2024 — and there are now more farmers aged 75 and older than under 35, per USDA data. Don Guinnip, a 74-year-old fifth-generation Illinois farmer working roughly 1,000 acres, represents the crisis: his son and daughter both left for corporate careers, and no sixth-generation successor has been named. Farmland that was worth $1,000–$2,000 an acre a generation ago is now 10 times that, making buyouts within families nearly impossible. Guinnip predicts American farming will shift to a contract model: “When farmers owned the land and lived on the land, they took care of the land and they formed communities that worked together and solved problems and took care of everybody,” he said. “You’re not going to have that in the future.”

One last thought:

@kale_hzanything to get me thru the day 😌 #corporate #corporatelife #corporategirly #officelife #worklife

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