Keep scrolling for the beauty brand that dropped black face paint as a foundation shade.
All Internet Roads Lead Back to 2014
With Addison Rae single-handedly reviving the 2014 Tumblr aesthetic and indie sleaze making a comeback thanks to Saltburn, the spirit of 2014 is returning in full swing. However, this era isn't just shaping our current beauty and aesthetic preferences; it also left a significant mark on internet culture, according to Steffi Cao in a new piece for The Ringer.
Reflecting on 2014, it was just before affiliate marketing became mainstream, and the internet was saturated with sponsored content and seemingly trivial debates.
“Over the past decade, social media has waffled into a multitentacled corporate entity, becoming not just a factor but often a key player in our politics, interpersonal connections, and self-perceptions,” Cao begins. “Yet much of this was incubated in 2014, the year of Gamergate, the Ice Bucket Challenge, and that one inescapable Oscars selfie.”
Interviewing veteran content creators like Tyler Oakley, LaurDIY (whose full name is Lauren Riihimaki), Remi Cruz and Cassey Ho, Cao reinforces her hypothesis that 2014 marked a pivotal moment for internet culture.
“It was definitely during that period that I started to see more brands warm up to the collaborations between brand and creator,” Lauren tells Cao, referring to her first brand deal in 2014, promoting the release of the first Divergent movie.
It was before the time when teens and tweens actively pursued careers (or side hustles) within the creator economy, with many of these creators initially starting YouTube as a hobby that later blossomed into full-fledged careers.
Reflecting on the mid-2010s, Lauren remembers that "the energy was high" as influencers were gradually gaining recognition from brands.
“It was around this era when Los Angeles also became cemented as the go-to destination for creators who wanted to expand their burgeoning businesses. Riihimaki was one who made the jump; Oakley moved in 2013,” Cao continues. “Content houses like David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad and Jake Paul’s Team 10 formed in 2015 and 2016, respectively.”
As online communities were flourishing and opportunities seemed boundless, 2014 also heralded the early days of cancel culture, apology videos, and influencer hate campaigns. While some view this wave of accountability negatively, it ultimately paved the way for the activism and movements online today.
"[In March 2014] YouTubers and fans came forward in videos and on Tumblr to accuse more than 40 male YouTube creators of sexual harassment and misconduct,” Cao reflects. “The subsequent YouTube apology videos in the years that followed…would become an ever-continuing meme as more creators in power were held to account.”
Though much of digital culture has its roots in 2014, today's digital environment is far more advanced, especially when it comes to monetising content. Likewise, the rise of short-form content and overnight fame has made consistency, agility and authenticity online more important than ever.
“Evolving is everything on the internet,” Lauren tells Cao. “Consistency—with the exception of taking necessary time off for your own sanity—paired with the ability and willingness to pivot and try new things is what creates a long-standing career.”
Read the piece via The Ringer.
Speaking of the mid-2010s, it was around this time when the digital world transitioned from static websites to algorithmically-driven content— essentially rendering the traditional home page obsolete. In a new article for The New Yorker, Kyle Chayka explores how the home page operates in the current internet culture zeitgeist.
As social media and algorithms took over the internet, users grew accustomed to accessing news and content through recommendations. Consequently, numerous publications and companies abandoned traditional websites and home pages.
During this period, social networks such as Twitter and Facebook functioned as “digital big-box stores for media content,” Chayka notes.
“News articles circulated as individual URLs, floating in the ether of social-media feeds, divorced from their original publishers,” he continues. “With rare exceptions, home pages were reduced to the role of brand billboards; you might check them out in passing, but they weren’t where the action lay.”
However, with the rise of artificial intelligence and misinformation online, social media platforms are becoming less reliable for news distribution. This trend is prompting internet users to revert to older forms of news consumption: home pages and websites.
“Surrounded by dreck, the digital citizen is discovering that the best way to find what she used to get from social platforms is to type a URL into a browser bar and visit an individual site,” the journalist writes.
Speaking with the founders of digital news outlets like The Verge and Semafor, it's clear that many publications have integrated features from social networks to make their home pages more engaging and interactive. By mimicking such platforms, digital publications can entice users while offering curated and reliable information.
“[Twitter was once] a place where you could find diverging good-faith arguments about shared facts. Social media has stopped doing that,” Ben Smith, the co-founder of Semafor, tells Chayka. “People are interested in things that are curated by humans.”
Though the home page may be making a comeback, its success is not guaranteed.
"Website home pages will continue to reckon with the structural problems of the social Internet," Chayka concludes. “Individual sites trying to replicate the dynamism of social platforms must reckon with the fact that they are doing so at a far smaller scale.”
Read the story via The New Yorker.
In a new piece for Yahoo Entertainment, Kelsey Weekman breaks down the rise of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan — Gen Z’s new favourite pop girlies.
Weekman notes that both Sabrina and Chappell are currently “in the ‘middle class’ phase of notoriety.” Essentially, both singers are well-known, have distinctive aesthetics, and are gaining popularity as rising stars.
Sabrina and Chappell are moving through the mid-tier pop girl phase while serving as opening acts for Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, respectively.
The endorsement of established artists is helping Sabrina and Chappell gain momentum in the public eye, expand their fanbase and cement their status as next-gen pop stars.
According to Jason Lipshutz, the executive director of music at Billboard, Chappell is the “most successful opening act placement in recent memory.”
As Olivia's "GUTS Tour" and Taylor's "Era's Tour" gain significant traction on TikTok, Sabrina and Chappell have emerged as the platform's new favourite artists. Despite being between albums, both singers have treated fans to new singles — Chappell with 'Good Luck, Babe!' and Sabrina with 'Espresso.'
Although they are both signed with Island Records, a division of Universal Music Group, users have found ways to bypass TikTok's UMG ban, propelling both women to a new level of pop stardom.
Although Sabrina and Chappell are completely different artists with distinct audiences and journeys to fame, TikTok has been instrumental for both of them— reaffirming the app's ongoing influence in the music industry today.
“Roan and Carpenter have opposite backstories — Roan seemingly came out of nowhere, but Carpenter has been grinding away on her Disney label for years waiting for a hit,” Weekman adds. “They just happened to deploy similar playbooks for their breakout moments.”
Read the story via Yahoo Entertainment.
Beauty brand Youthforia is being called out for a new foundation shade
TikTok users are coming for beauty brand Youthforia after the company released a pure black foundation shade. Lauren Meisner, host of the 'mini scroll podcast,' breaks down the backlash in a recent episode.
Last year, Youthforia came under fire after releasing a skin tint serum foundation with a non-inclusive shade range.
The foundation had 15 shades, and the darkest was a golden brown. Considering the beauty industry's long problem with diversity, social media users were understandably frustrated.
Now, the brand has found itself in more hot water after the launch of its darkest shade, Shade 600, which social media users have likened to jet-black face paint.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserAfter backlash started circulating, Youthforia allegedly sent a message to brand ambassadors confirming that Shade 600 is not black face paint. They also explained that the shade was an attempt to be more inclusive.
“This is an interesting message to touch on because it shows that they expanded the shade ranges in response to the backlash,” Meisner notes. “This is a very telling post.”
To make matters worse, when Youthforia released the expanded shade range, there was no model for Shade 600.
“It seems like that was intentional because they were trying to use this marketing collateral and create this series where they went in search of somebody who suits that skin tone,” she explains. “They did not create the
shade with anyone in mind, they did not have anyone they tested this product on.”
Although the brand eventually found someone to model the shade, Meisner questions if they were compensated and why Youthforia would treat this individual differently from other featured campaign models.
“The implication of doing a model search for Shade 600 is that you couldn't find any dark-skin models that you felt were worth paying, like all of the other lighter skinned models.” Meisner adds. “This was such a disingenuous attempt at ‘being inclusive.’”
Watch the full episode via TikTok, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
The endless quest to replace alcohol
In a recent article for Vox, Rebecca Jennings explores the growing trend of alcohol alternatives among Gen Z and Millennials, examining how this shift is connected to the wellness culture on social media.
Jennings argues that "sober curiosity" is directly linked to the increasing interest in wellness and associated influencers during the early 2010s.
“Perhaps people were searching for ways to really feel the experience of being in one’s body when everything else felt increasingly abstract; perhaps we simply wanted to look hotter for Instagram,” she writes. “But by 2019, the buzziest trend in alcohol was drinking less of it or none at all.”
This sort of content, Jennings notes, made consumers increasingly aware that alcohol can worsen many issues— with many being the very concerns targeted by wellness culture. Consequently, young people started turning to alternative substances like weed, kava, and shrooms as replacements for alcohol.
Contributing to this shift is TikTok, especially as users come up with different ways to improve their sleep and alleviate anxiety. That isn’t even to mention the growing popularity of nonalcoholic drinks within the digital space.
“Earlier this year, women concocted “sleepy girl mocktails” made of tart cherry juice, magnesium, and soda water.” she continues. “Supplements like ashwagandha, Vitamin D, and magnesium have all gone viral as young people search for solutions to sleep woes and stress, while also allowing for a guilt-free novelty and a way to ritualize certain moments in the day.”
Gen Z also experiences the pressure of "near-constant social surveillance." Due to the consistent need to document and engage on the likes of Instagram and TikTok, this demographic is hesitant to fully let go because "Drunk doesn’t look good on social media."
“On TikTok, young people have expressed nostalgia for an era of club culture they imagine existed before smartphones, one where everyone danced wildly to songs about “getting crunk” rather than the current state of some lounges: people standing around filming each other,” Jennings writes.
That being said, while Gen Z may be moving away from alcohol, Jennings argues that the perception of this demographic embracing total abstinence "is often exaggerated or misunderstood."
Read the story via Vox.