Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Heated Rivalry viral look-a-like contest, WeWoreWhat vs. Reddit + Alex Warren Grammy's glitch

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Heated Rivalry viral look-a-like contest, WeWoreWhat vs. Reddit + Alex Warren Grammy's glitch · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host Lauren Meisner, the founder of the Australian
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  youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
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  OK, I'm so excited to let you guys know this.
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  If you're part of the Patreon, you will already know.
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  I've talked about this a million times on the Patreon.
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  But if you are not, I'm so excited to let you guys know
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  that tomorrow we have a new mini series coming out.
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  So for the next 8 weeks I'm going to be interviewing
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  creatives, creators, musicians, artists who are based in
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  Australia and I'm going to be talking to them about how they
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  touch grass. And the miniseries is brought to
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  us by our besties at Brita. I'm so excited.
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  We're trying to record all of the episodes outside.
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  So far the weather has held up and we've been able to do so and
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  we're actually making a trip to Melbourne next week to do some
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  interviews and record there. So I'm really excited.
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  And it launches tomorrow and it will be on our regular RSS feed,
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  so the Infinite Scroll RSS feed and the YouTube channel.
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  So you guys don't have to subscribe anywhere new for it.
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  I'm so excited. So for the next 8 weeks you're
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  getting mini tech on Wednesdays. But also touch grass with me.
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  OK, the first story that I have for you guys today.
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  Speaking of Australian creatives, I need to talk about
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  Sydney's heated rivalry look alike competition that happened
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  over the weekend. I was actually going to talk
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  about this yesterday, but I forgot to and it's an important
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  story to me, so I'm bringing it to you guys today.
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  So on Saturday there was this local look alike competition
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  hosted in Sydney for Connor Story and Hudson Williams of
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  heated rivalry to find the people who live in Sydney that
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  look the most like them. I'm sure you guys, if you're on
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  TikTok know a look alike competition.
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  They're so popular. I don't know if the first one, I
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  don't think it was the first one, but maybe it was the first
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  one was the bok one from wicked like a year and a half ago.
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  Now that one's so viral. It was in New York City and then
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  it kind of spawned all of these other look alike competitions
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  all around the world for different fandoms and different
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  TV shows and movies. I don't know if that was just
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  the first one that went like truly viral or if that was kind
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  of like the first one that happened.
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  I'm not really sure. Regardless, they got really
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  popular from this Bach 1. And I guess because obviously
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  heated rivalry is so popular, it has such a big fandom.
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  People around the world have been talking about doing these
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  look alike competitions. And so we had one in Sydney.
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  And the reason why I want to talk about this was one, it was
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  put on by my friend Lena Tuck completely on her own without
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  any, any funding, without any help.
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  And #2 what it turned into and how it was covered by the
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  mainstream media is fascinating for us to look at.
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  So Lena is a media girlie. She worked in social media for
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  huge publications, huge media brands here in Australia.
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  She went freelance last year. She's actually my guest for next
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  week's Touch Grass. You guys will get to hear a
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  little bit more about her and learn about her story next week.
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  But Lena put on this look alike competition in Sydney this
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  weekend and she said she just saw others planning it online
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  around the world and she thought, OK, someone's going to
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  do it in Australia and if I don't do this now, someone else
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  will take this opportunity, so why don't I just do it?
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  So she started posting about this on her Instagram stories.
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  She was basically like making polls and asking people who
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  follow her, you know, like, do you think I should do this?
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  Would you guys go? People obviously were saying
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  yes. So she set a date, a time, a
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  location, She made posters about it.
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  She taped these posters up all around Sydney.
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  And she also documented literally all all of this, like
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  every detail on her Instagram stories.
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  She talked about this on TikTok, but the actual like behind the
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  scenes was on her Instagram stories, which was a really
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  interesting and smart move because like I said, she's a
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  media girlie. So she presumably has a lot of
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  journalists, a lot of producers, a lot of PR people who follow
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  her. So she was getting traction with
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  this within her own closed community on Instagram.
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  And then because she was putting posters up everywhere, people
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  were posting about this because obviously he did rivalry so
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  popular. So so people were making like
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  TikTok videos and taking photos of it and posting it on social
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  media. And then that content, no matter
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  how many followers those people had, was getting like 10s of
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  thousands of views. So it was going very organically
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  viral. And then about two days before
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  it was supposed to happen, the council, so she was supposed to
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  hold it in a park in Newtown in Sydney.
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  And the council said that she would get fined because it was
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  going to end up being like so big.
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  Like I said, it was going so viral.
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  So she ended up moving it last minute to the Imperial, which is
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  a pretty like iconic bar slash pub in the the inner W It was a
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  huge success. OK.
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  She ended up having a drag queen host it.
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  She ended up renting like speakers and sound equipment.
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  So it could be like this huge event.
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  She got so much organic press. Hundreds of people showed up and
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  there actually were a few brands that donated prizes for the
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  winners. And she also said that the
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  Imperial, the bar that she held it at, said that this event was
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  bigger for them than Mardi Gras and then New Year's Eve, which
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  is insane. So what is interesting to me
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  about this is so much of the press around the event centered
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  on the actual competition and the winners.
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  Lena was posting screenshots of her emails on her Instagram
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  story when they were coming in from media outlets being like,
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  Oh my God, what is happening? You know, them asking if like,
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  they could come and cover it and can they speak to her about
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  this? Whatever.
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  And so she posted one screenshot of a mainstream media outlet
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  here saying that they didn't want to speak with her.
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  They just wanted to speak to the look like winners, essentially.
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  Like they didn't say it quite in that way, but that's basically
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  what they said. And in reading that, I was like,
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  OK, we need to cover this. It's moments like these that
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  Centennial needs to tap the fuck in that youth media needs
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  Centennial because these look like competitions.
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  They go so viral on TikTok, right?
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  And we know that mainstream media, they have been desperate
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  to tap youth culture and be part of the zeitgeist and not lose
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  relevance for so long. But the way that they covered
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  this event proved to me that while mainstream media may have
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  been able to to identify that this would be a relevant story
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  to cover, they could not identify what part of this story
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  was relevant. Because they look like
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  competition winners. Like they are just random
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  people. Especially at this point when
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  they were emailing her asking to cover them.
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  Like we had no idea who these people were going to be.
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  These are just random people that look like celebrities.
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  But any journalist who is tapped into Internet culture could tell
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  you that the real story is around Lena.
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  As an organizer of a grassroots initiative for a fandom
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  community, she had no backing. She pulled it off in a matter of
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  weeks, and it became one of the biggest and buzziest.
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  I are all phantom events. And it got there by being
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  organically viral, by getting organic traction.
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  And that is why I wanted to talk about this story because I feel
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  like that is the most important part of this story is how
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  influential fandom culture can be.
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  And the fact that she did this and she was speaking, you know,
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  like she didn't have a lot of time to plan this, but she was
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  speaking about like if brands want to tap in, if brands want
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  to get involved, anybody wants to sponsor this.
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  And people gave prizes, like I said, but this was such a missed
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  opportunity for a brand to jump in and give her like, even if
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  they gave like 5K10K to facilitate something really
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  amazing, the amount of coverage they would have gotten from this
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  and then that positive affiliation that everybody who
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  was there would have had with this brand.
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  That's literally the point of marketing.
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  I know, but I know I'm just describing marketing to you
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  guys, but I couldn't believe that, you know, she didn't get a
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  sponsor, that she pulled this off.
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  It turned into this massive thing.
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  There was so much organic press and I couldn't believe that the
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  story for most outlets was who won the look alike competition.
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  Anyway, she's going to do one in Melbourne, so if anybody wants
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  to sponsor that one, hit her up. OK, OK, the next story that I
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  have for you guys today is Danielle Bernstein of We were
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  what announced over the weekend that she has called off her
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  engagement. So fashion Blogger Danielle
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  Bernstein of We Were What announced that her and her
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  fiance Cooper Weissman had called off their engagement.
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  The two dated for two years before getting engaged 6 months
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  ago. Now, the reason why I want to
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  cover this is I cannot escape it.
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  It has sent Reddit into a tailspin because Danielle is so
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  controversial. There actually were rumors that
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  the two had split like before she announced it because fans
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  noticed that Danielle hadn't posted him in a while.
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  And then over the weekend, she put this on her Instagram
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  stories. I've been quiet about my
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  personal life and wasn't ready to speak on it until now.
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  We're stepping away from our relationship with love and
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  respect. There is no big dramatic reason.
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  Sometimes it's simply not the right forever.
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  I'm not sure what the future holds, but this choice took
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  courage. I would really appreciate
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  privacy and grace for both of us during this time.
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  Thank you for the support. OK, so obviously nobody actually
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  knows, but the two major rumors here, first that there were
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  prenup negotiations that they just could not resolve, they
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  could not figure out, and that was kind of the straw that broke
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  the camels back for them. And the second thing that people
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  are saying is that apparently at their engagement party, he was
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  caught on a hot mic moment calling Danielle fake.
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  This is all alleged, but those are the rumors for lying around
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  online. Now, the reason why people are
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  losing their minds over this is Danielle is not very well liked.
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  She's been famous for so long and over the years she's been
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  accused of a lot of really like shady business practices, I
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  would say, and photoshopping her appearance, filtering her social
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  media to a really extreme degree.
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  She's been accused of being tone deaf and out of touch.
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  So I actually have a bit of a timeline here of like her main
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  controversies for you guys because I don't know if I've
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  ever spoken about Danielle Bernstein before, but I got a
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  lot of this information from Reddit and also a Beche's
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  article. In 2018, she was accused of
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  stealing jewelry designs from smaller jewelry brands in a
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  collab that she was doing. And some of these pieces that
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  she was accused of, you know, copying the designs were
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  actually removed from the store from the collaboration amid the
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  backlash. In 2020, Danielle posted that
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  she'd found vintage 90s gym shorts that she was going to
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  remake for her brand. We Wore What?
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  But it turned out that they were made to order pieces from an
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  Etsy seller, and she ended up blaming the mix up on a team
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  member after being called out online.
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  And then around the same time, during lockdowns and COVID, she
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  sold linen masks with detachable chains.
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  Another small brand, Second Wind, pointed out that the
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  design was nearly identical to theirs, and Danielle had even
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  asked them for samples beforehand.
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  After the backlash, she defended herself and donated masks and
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  then quietly deleted these posts.
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  And then across those years, like 2020 to 2021, various
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  designers and brands claimed that we were what designs looked
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  very similar to theirs. In 2022, when social media was
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  raising awareness for the Ukraine war, she posted bikini
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  pics with the caption. You can care about both war and
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  self promo. And then she also launched this
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  credit card. So she launched a Co branded
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  Visa card marketed with rewards. But it was pointed out that the
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  cash back couldn't be redeemed as cash and had to be spent at
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  her brand's shop, which led to a lot of backlash and accusations
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  of predatory marketing. In 2025, a former employee
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  publicly described Danielle as controlling and frugal and how
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  she treated staff at her brands. And then most recently, in
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  November 2025, a bride on TikTok talk accused Danielle of
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  stealing her wedding speech, which Danielle gave at her
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  engagement party. So this speech that Danielle
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  gave at her engagement party, this bride was like, she took
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  this, I posted this on TikTok of my like me giving this speech at
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  my wedding and it was nearly word for word.
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  So Needless to say, people are invested in Danielle Bernstein.
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  She just, like, keeps doing shady stuff, out of touch stuff.
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  She's been, like I said, famous for so long.
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  I think because she's one of the original bloggers, Like, people
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  just keep taps on her, even if she doesn't really have a culty
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  following in the same way that she probably once did.
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  People just keep up with her because she's like, an OG for
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  them. And yeah, she's highly
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  controversial, I would say. All right.
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  And the last story that I have for you guys today is we need to
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  talk about Alex Warren's Grammy performance Glitch.
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  This is actually really sad. So Alex Warren, former Hype
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  House star, now singer of the hit The Ordinary, he sang The
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  Ordinary as part of the best new artist medley with his fellow
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  nominees at the Grammys yesterday.
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  Alex started at his performance at what seemed to be a stall,
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  selling popcorn, and he hands over cash.
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  And then the attendant gave him a microphone and he starts
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  singing. He's walking into the arena and
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  eventually he ends up on stage. And it quickly became clear
• 12:46
  throughout this performance that there was something wrong with
• 12:48
  Alex's in ear monitors. He was repeatedly touching them.
• 12:52
  He appeared to be trying to touch like the mic pack on his
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  back. And he eventually took them out.
• 12:57
  And this was also made evident because he wasn't actually
• 13:00
  singing in line with his music. The crowd cheered him on at the
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  end, but he seemed so upset. And then he later posted a
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  TikTok with the text. When you're performing at the
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  Grammys and all you hear is this in your ear and it's the music
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  playing his song just like echoing over and over and over
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  again. This is devastating.
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  I imagine performing at the Grammys, getting nominated for
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  best new artist, you know, performing at the Grammys, like
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  biggest career moments of your entire life.
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  And then this happens. And like, everybody was so
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  supportive, like every celebrity, everybody's in his
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  comments section being like, you did such a good job.
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  You still sounded so amazing, you know, whatever.
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  And of course, he did like he made the best of what he could
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  have that situation. But it's still so heartbreaking.
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  And I feel really bad because, you know, as a former TikTok
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  star, whether you think he deserves is this or not, you
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  know, the hyper and his song or not, being a former TikTok star,
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  you are so underestimated regardless, especially when you
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  try and pivot and he beat the odds like he had the number one
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  song of 2025 in many respects. And then to be performing in a
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  room filled with your, I guess new peers, I imagine you'd have
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  some level of imposter syndrome. You'd probably be crazy not to
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  entering that room and having to perform for them.
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  And then that happens. I feel really bad for him.
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  Very, very unfortunate. However, I do imagine in a few
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  years he'll look back at this and he'll be like, wow, that was
• 14:20
  really funny. He'll be able to laugh at it.
• 14:22
  Right now, maybe he's crying, but he seems to be in good
• 14:25
  spirits about it. He seems to be handling it well.
• 14:27
  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 14:29
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 14:31
  Please remember to rate review and subscribe.
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  Please Spotify star rate US. It helps us grow.
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  It helps us so much and I'm so excited for you guys to hear the
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  first episode of Touch Grass tomorrow.
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  So please show us some love on that when it goes up.
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  I would love for you guys to give it a shot, to listen to it,
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  to comment, and of course, comment thanking Britta because
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  much and they keep us going here at Centennial.
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  OK, bye. Centennial World Podcast Network
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