Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Duolingo Owl is dead, Kayla Itsines calls out sexualisation in fitness industry + Alix Earle vs. Alex Cooper

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Duolingo Owl is dead, Kayla Itsines calls out sexualisation in fitness industry + Alix Earle vs. Alex Cooper · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space
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  every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  I am so tired today because we were just in Bondi all morning
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  interviewing someone else from the Bravo universe.
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  You guys know, like doing these little Bravo interviews, whether
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  they're for like the pod or for TikTok, like it's my passion
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  project. Bravo just brings me so much
• 0:40
  joy. So the fact that this job has
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  enabled me to interview some of like, my favorite people, I feel
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  so lucky. So I interviewed Captain Jason
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  from Below Deck this morning, and he was obviously so hot and
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  so nice. And yeah, it was just like,
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  honestly, it was just so much fun.
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  So that'll go up on our TikTok. That won't be for the pod, but
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  yeah, it was really fun. They're doing like an activation
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  right now on Bondi Beach. I think it's just for tomorrow.
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  It's not open to the public yet. Today.
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  They were just doing like, media interviews around it.
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  But it's like a giant hot tub, like a Hey U hot tub.
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  And I think Captain Jason is going to be around the hot tub.
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  I don't know if he'll be in it, but I think he'll be like around
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  it on Bondi Beach tomorrow. Anyways, that's a little update
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  on my day today. So let's get into the stories.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys is that the
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  Duolingo owl has died. Duolingo claims that their
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  unhinged owl mascot has died. And social media managers
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  everywhere are doing like digital funerals for her.
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  OK, so they announced this on their social media like
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  yesterday morning. I think they wrote quote.
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  It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that Duo, formerly
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  known as the Duolingo owl, is dead.
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  Authorities are currently investigating his cause of
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  death. Oh, it's a he.
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  Sorry. I thought it was a her
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  investigating his cause of death and we are cooperating fully.
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  TBH he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson, but what
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  do we know? We're aware he had many enemies,
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  but we kindly ask that you refrain from sharing why you
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  hate him in the comments. If you feel inclined to share,
• 2:17
  please also include your credit card number so we can
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  automatically sign you up for a Duolingo Max in his memory.
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  We appreciate you respecting Dua Lipa's privacy at this time.
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  I'm actually dead. OK.
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  So like, as they said in this, a lot of people have had a lot of
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  things to say about the marketing strategy behind that
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  unhinged owl. So regardless of how you feel
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  about the Owl and their strategy as a brand in general on social
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  media and how they like lean into Internet culture and this
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  kind of like unhinged humor, regardless of how you feel about
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  it, I think a lot of people are feeling like we have just kind
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  of evolved over the last couple of years from when they first
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  like launched this vibe, you know, And it's a bit like cringe
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  now. But you have to admit that they
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  really paved the way for like TikTok marketing for brands.
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  And it is really funny that they included some of these like
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  inside jokes in this announcement, especially the Dua
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  Lipa one, because we know that like just Duolingo Dua Lipa,
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  they sound similar. And so it's always been this
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  kind of like running joke with the brand that they call Dua
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  Lipa their mummy, like the owl calls Dua Deepa mummy.
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  And Dua Lipa actually tweeted her condolences.
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  She wrote till death duo us part Yes, I think this is obviously a
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  marketing stunt. Tons of people are wondering
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  why, like what this could mean. I'm thinking it's setting the
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  stage for a rebrand. And this would also track with
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  what we've historically seen from this space.
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  For example, planters killed off their mascot, Mr. Peanut ahead
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  of the Super Bowl a few years ago.
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  And that was in anticipation of a rebrand.
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  And a rebrand would be a pretty big deal because because like I
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  said, that owl became quite iconic.
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  Whether you love it or hate it, it became iconic.
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  But there has been a lot of kind of push back with that strategy
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  in recent years. And obviously, like the owl, the
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  strategy, all of that, like there's been times when because
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  it's so unhinged, they've kind of like made missteps in terms
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  of like what they've made comments on or like gotten
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  involved in and things like that.
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  So, yeah, that would be the end of an era for sure.
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  All right, the next story that I have for you guys, this is so
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  Rogue. I feel like there will be some
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  of you guys that like, really appreciate it and understand it.
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  And some of you guys might be like, who?
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  Kayla it's seen as is facing backlash for her take on
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  sexualization in the fitness industry.
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  So Kayla Isinas is getting backlash for calling out other
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  women fitness trainers who post content that she deems too
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  sexual. Kayla is an OG fitness
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  influencer. Honestly, I would consider her
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  like the OG girl fitness influencer.
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  She was the creator of Bikini Body Guide alongside her then
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  partner Toby Pierce. Bikini Body Guide was basically
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  a PDF that you could buy and it was filled with like I think it
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  was 20 minutes, 24. There was like a very specific
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  number. I can't believe I don't remember
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  this. I'm going to tell you guys my
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  lore about Kayla in a minute. But it was like short hit
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  workouts basically, and meal plans.
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  These guides first launched in 2012 off the back of like, you
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  know, 2000s toxic diet culture and they were so popular among
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  young women, among millennial young women.
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  These guides were also incredibly toxic.
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  OK, So just really glorifying that, like, super thin physique
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  that Kayla just naturally has and telling young women to eat
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  like 1200 calories a day. It was just, yeah.
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  And even the exercises that we were being told to do in like
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  Week 1 and stuff, it was bad news.
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  OK, It was bad news. Eventually they rebranded the
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  guides. They called them BBG instead of
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  bikini body guide. And then they launched the Sweat
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  app with a variety of fitness influencers or trainers.
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  Sorry, I mean, they're also influencers, but trainers and
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  programs for women. I would actually say Sweat is
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  probably the most popular women's fitness app around the
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  world. I would actually say so They
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  they've done a really, really good job and I actually love the
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  Sweat app. Like I genuinely love that app,
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  but yes, OK, let me tell you my lore and why I was interested in
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  this story and then I'll continue on the story.
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  So basically I obviously it was like prime audience for BG.
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  I started doing it my first year out of university, so it's like
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  2014 and my friends were all doing the PDFs.
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  We would actually just like e-mail them to each other.
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  And then when I moved to Australia, that is, I think
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  that's maybe when her app first launched.
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  I can't remember when the app launched.
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  But anyways, I got really into fitness in my second year living
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  here. So my first year I just like
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  partied and ate and just like fucked around.
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  Like, just was having like, fun expat vibes.
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  And then the second year, obviously, I was like, OK, I got
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  to get my shit together. Like, I feel like crap.
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  I need to, like, get into a better routine.
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  And so I decided that I would do Kayla's sweat app.
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  Yeah. So I guess she had just launched
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  the app and I became so fucking obsessed with Kayla, had seen
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  us. And just like, the sweat culture
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  in general. Like, I paid so much money to,
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  like, do her live boot camps. I saw her speak at various
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  conferences. Any like, meet and greet thing
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  that she did in Sydney, I would pay to go.
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  Like I was obsessed with her and that culture and like the
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  fitness industry and I really did.
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  Like I said, I love the Sweat app.
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  I actually do. The app is honestly still the
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  best fitness app that I've ever used in terms of like user
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  experience. You can tell there's a lot of
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  money behind it. I have used a lot of fitness
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  apps and most of them are honestly quite glitchy.
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  They don't work very well. They're not very smooth.
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  Like the Sweat app is seamless. And that is something that you
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  cannot fault it for. But I was truly like Akayla
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  Stan. But then the more that I learned
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  about fitness largely through the Sweat app because I would
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  just find different trainers and then I would follow them.
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  And then kind of my, I guess scope of like what fitness meant
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  expanded beyond just like skinny girls doing hit workouts.
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  And it was a lot more into like weightlifting and things like
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  that. I found other creators to follow
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  and programs to follow. And then I really could not
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  handle the content that Kayla would put out and I had to
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  unfollow her. I had to unfollow Kayla because
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  I found her content still very like triggering and toxic.
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  And I just found that the way she positioned herself in the
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  fitness industry and stuff, it felt very contradictory to like,
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  like the way she would talk about food and eating as times
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  changed and things evolved and you could no longer, you know,
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  market a program as like the Bikini Body Guide.
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  So of course, like the way that she spoke about fitness and
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  stuff that evolved with culture, but I found that it still
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  contradicted a lot of what she, like, put out there.
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  Like, I felt like what she was telling us was not actually how
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  she feels about things. And I think that these new
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  videos that I'm going to talk about really prove that to me.
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  So yesterday Kayla posted 2 Tik Toks where she called out how
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  other women fitness influencers film their content at like
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  certain angles and she basically implied she feels like it is
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  intentionally sexualizing them for engagement.
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  I literally got off Instagram and TikTok so many times this
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  morning. The fitness industry has become
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  so sexualized and it's this angle that people are filming
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  from that is just not what I want to see when I'm having my
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  morning coffee. I know that that particular
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  angle gets likes and it gets engagement, and I know you want
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  to advertise your booty program. But like for?
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  Me, I think it's more like because I have a daughter and
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  I'm scrolling, she's sitting next to me and I'm like, I don't
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  want you looking at another girls from that angle.
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  Like I just that is not something.
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  OK. Do I think as somebody who was
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  like entrenched in fitness influencer culture for years, do
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  I think that fitness influencers film at certain angles for prime
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  engagement? Like, yeah, of course I do.
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  I think one of the main jobs of being a content creator is to
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  figure out obviously how to optimize your content.
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  And one of the realities of the fitness industry is that it can
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  be a very vain industry. Like whether you are positioning
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  like your fitness journey and the content that you promote as
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  like, you know, oh, it's all about just like feeling good
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  from the inside, mental health, confidence, whatever.
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  At the end of the day. Again, as somebody who is very,
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  very entrenched in that space, I made like a million YouTube
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  videos about all of these guys. I actually forgot to tell that
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  part of my lawyer. Like I would review all the new
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  programs that came out on the Sweat app and I was like in
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  contact with some of the different like creators or like
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  fitness trainers or whatever on the app who are obviously, like
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  I said, influencers, creators themselves.
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  At the end of the day, like the fitness industry, yes, it is
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  about like mental health and confidence and being healthy,
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  but it's also about like what you look like.
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  And that is really something that Kayla is seen as has
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  promoted indirectly for years. Also directly.
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  I mean, her first guides were called bikini body Guide.
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  So women are now calling Kayla out because these videos
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  honestly just feel like really hypocritical given how harmful
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  her early guides and content really was.
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  I also just want to say I know that this doesn't necessarily
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  matter, but I just find like the moral high ground this like kind
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  of high horse that she's sitting on it really.
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  You guys know, I don't normally like feel I feel this angry
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  about a story you're triggered and talk this much shit, but I
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  honestly like, I feel so personally impacted by Kayla
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  Edzina's and by just in general the fitness industry, like the
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  influencer culture in the fitness industry.
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  And this whole situation has just triggered me so much
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  because I feel like I was duped by a lot of this and by Kayla as
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  an influencer. And I actually unfollowed her
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  For these reasons because I felt like she was quite hypocritical.
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  I think there is a bigger conversation that needs to
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  happen absolutely around the fitness industry, around
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  sexualization on TikTok. Like all the points that are
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  being brought up. Kayla, in my opinion, is not the
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  right person to bring that up because she still has not even
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  answered to all the harm that she created and a lot of what
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  has happened in the fitness industry.
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  Like she was a pioneer in this industry and like social media
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  influencing in the fitness industry.
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  It's a culture that she actually helped create.
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  And I feel like she is now just sitting on this like moral high
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  ground, like this high horse, like telling other women in this
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  industry like how they should or should not be creating and like
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  judging them for the content that they're putting out.
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  When I feel like she has not still or a lot of not just her,
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  but like the early fitness influencers, a lot of them still
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  have not held themselves accountable for the culture that
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  they helped create and the harm that they perpetuated.
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  And this just, this wouldn't bother me so much.
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  And I think I'd be able to see this a bit more neutrally if it
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  wasn't about Kayla specifically. But like I said, I've just been
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  on such a journey with her. I was on such a journey.
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  And I just, I feel personally impacted by this story and I'm
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  obviously very triggered by it. I'm sure some of you guys are
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  going to be listening, being like, girl, chill out.
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  It's really not that big of a deal.
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  But yeah, I just think we need to have a bigger conversation
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  about fitness, influencers, content creation, all of that
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  stuff. And Kayla could be the right
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  person to do it, but she's not because she has not, in my
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  opinion, in my opinion, properly taken accountability or even
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  really addressed any of her early content, the culture she
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  helped establish, what she's perpetuated, and then the
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  hypocrisy in this particular moment.
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  I feel she kind of almost doubled down with that second
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  video. We.
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  Wouldn't care if I didn't have any kids.
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  I thought you do you be I'm unfollowing you.
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  I don't want to see that. I don't want to see your ass.
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  But I have a daughter and I'm trying to be an example to
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  women. No drinking, no drugs, no
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  smoking, no highly sexualized content.
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  It's everywhere. It's everywhere.
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  Everyone's like, yay, amazing. I'm like what?
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  Anyways, that's the team. All right.
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  The last word that I have for you guys is that speculation is
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  heating up that Alex Earl and Alex Cooper are feuding.
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  So there have been rumors about a rift between the two of them
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  for probably maybe like six months, maybe even longer.
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  But it's starting to be covered now more like, seriously by,
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  like, entertainment journalism. And I don't know, People are
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  just, like, talking about it a lot now.
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  And neither of them have addressed it.
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  So I think that's also part of it.
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  So I'm sure I have mentioned this in the past on the pod, but
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  I'm going to give you, like, a quick recap about everything and
• 15:03
  tell you why people feel like now more than ever, something is
• 15:05
  wrong. Alex Earl joined Alex Cooper's
• 15:07
  Unwell Network as one of her founding podcasts and it really
• 15:11
  did seem like the perfect fit at the time for Alex Earl, like
• 15:13
  Alex Cooper, it was almost like she was passing the torch of
• 15:16
  this like hot messy blonde who like spills all her party
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  stories, right? Like she was passing that torch
• 15:22
  on to Alex Earl. And it made perfect sense
• 15:24
  because it aligned with the content that Alex created on
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  TikTok. And you know, going into this
• 15:30
  long form format, Alex Earl being or Alex Cooper being able
• 15:33
  to kind of usher her in as the next generation like that all
• 15:37
  aligned. Despite seemingly spending a lot
• 15:39
  of time together in the early days of the Unwell Network,
• 15:43
  things started to get distant between the two.
• 15:46
  So first people noticed that Alex Earl seemingly stopped
• 15:49
  attending Unwell Network brand events and fan events.
• 15:53
  Harry, Josie, Madeline, RG, like some of the other like early
• 15:56
  signs, they were like people that signed.
• 15:59
  I mean, like creators that were signed, they were still
• 16:02
  attending events, but like Alex Earl rarely was.
• 16:04
  And when they did attend events together, they didn't really
• 16:07
  seem to be like photographed together or anything like that.
• 16:09
  Then the Unwell Network's Instagram account moved Alex
• 16:13
  Earl's podcast to the back of its list in its bio, so it no
• 16:17
  longer lists the podcasts that are on the network.
• 16:20
  But it used to, I used to have like, I don't know, five of them
• 16:22
  or whatever. And Alex Earl's podcast was at
• 16:25
  the very back. And, you know, in the scheme of
• 16:28
  who was signed at the time, like Alex Earl was the most famous
• 16:32
  and like, the most, like, mainstream, well known.
• 16:34
  So people thought, OK, that's weird.
• 16:37
  And then in December 2024, so just a couple months ago, Alex
• 16:41
  Earle did a podcast with her dad, who is now her manager.
• 16:44
  So this is an excerpt from Marissa Dow's piece for Betches
• 16:48
  Quote. TJ Earle manages the careers of
• 16:51
  his daughters, Alex and Ashton. And during the episode, Alex
• 16:54
  mentioned TJ is good at having hard conversations with people
• 16:57
  throughout every deal when they don't realize Alex's full
• 17:00
  potential or what she needs to be doing.
• 17:02
  She also mentioned a recent incident where he had to handle
• 17:05
  some drama for his daughter without involving her and
• 17:08
  described the incident as, quote, a business situation.
• 17:11
  But it was also something else and elaborated that he wasn't
• 17:14
  happy about it and still isn't. So just the way that they spoke
• 17:18
  about business on this podcast and how Alex had entered into
• 17:22
  some deals that were maybe not the best.
• 17:26
  And now obviously, TJ, her dad is trying to kind of like
• 17:29
  rectify that for her career. People are like, oh, are they
• 17:32
  talking about unwell? Is that what they're referring
• 17:35
  to? And also, like, I did see
• 17:37
  somebody say this on TikTok and I kind of agree with it.
• 17:39
  It's like Alex Earl does talk about partying and, you know,
• 17:43
  all that kind of stuff. She is like a messy girl on
• 17:45
  TikTok, but she also films with her like little kid siblings.
• 17:50
  And she does kind of still have that like family friendly brand
• 17:55
  around her, you know, even though she is like partying for
• 17:59
  24 hours and like, you know, partying so hard and doesn't
• 18:02
  want to go to the bathroom. So she like pees in her pants.
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  And I don't know, like she does like it.
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  She is kind of contradictory, but she still does have this
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  like family values, kind of family friendly, like lean to
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  her brand. And obviously Alex or Alex
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  Cooper. Sorry, this is all very
• 18:21
  confusing. Alex Cooper with the early Call
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  Her Daddy. You know, she brought on Alex
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  Earl and some of their podcast episodes together when Alex's
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  podcast first launched. Like she was trying to really
• 18:31
  extract like crazy stories from Alex Earl and Alex Earl, like
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  really wasn't having it, you know, in terms of like sexual
• 18:37
  stories and stuff because that's what Call Her Daddy was all
• 18:39
  about in the early days. And she was really trying to
• 18:42
  recreate that magic. And I think it probably got to
• 18:45
  the point where she realized like, oh, Alex Earl is not going
• 18:48
  to be the next call her daddy for me.
• 18:51
  Like she's actually not going to like a dive in to her personal
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  life and her sexual, you know, experiences and things like that
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  on the Internet in the same way that OG call her daddy did.
• 19:04
  And then something else that happened was Alex and Alex had
• 19:07
  Grace and Brie on their podcast, but separately.
• 19:10
  So like Alex Earl had Brie on her podcast, Alex Cooper had
• 19:14
  Grace and you know, obviously they this all happened.
• 19:17
  Like literally, I think it was within in the same week and they
• 19:19
  were feuding obviously, as we know.
• 19:21
  And then what really has made people be like, okay, something
• 19:25
  is definitely wrong is that it was the Super Bowl as we know
• 19:28
  this weekend. And I guess both of them were
• 19:30
  there. I saw obviously Alex Earl was
• 19:32
  there, but I guess I don't know. I do follow Alex Cooper, I
• 19:35
  think, but I don't I didn't see that she was there.
• 19:37
  But people were saying like it was super weird that Alex Earl
• 19:40
  went to like a million parties. She went to like eight parties
• 19:43
  in one night, one of the nights and like none of them overlapped
• 19:48
  with unwell with Alex. Like they are not cross
• 19:52
  promoting each other seemingly at all anymore.
• 19:56
  I think as always, it just comes down to the simplest, you know,
• 19:59
  answer is the reality here. I think Alex Earl probably got
• 20:03
  herself into a deal that her father, or just even Alex
• 20:07
  herself doesn't feel like was totally fair.
• 20:09
  And Alex, this career has gone like Alex Earls career has gone
• 20:13
  strength to strength and she probably is worth a lot more
• 20:16
  than maybe her initial deal with Alex Cooper.
• 20:19
  I don't know. But yeah, something is
• 20:20
  definitely going on. Anyways, guys, that's it for
• 20:24
  Mini Scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 20:27
  I love you guys. Please rate review and
• 20:29
  subscribe. Oh, and there's going to be no
• 20:31
  deep dive tomorrow. I totally forgot to say this.
• 20:34
  So we are working on a really big one for next week.
• 20:37
  So we had to take this week off and we just had like a lot of
• 20:40
  like interviews and just like stuff going on.
• 20:42
  So there's going to be no deep dive tomorrow, unfortunately.
• 20:45
  But I will talk to you on Monday.
• 20:47
  OK, bye.