Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Diarrha N'Diaye appointed head of Skims Beauty, Teen Vogue absorbed + Xandra Pohl talks Alix Earle

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Diarrha N'Diaye appointed head of Skims Beauty, Teen Vogue absorbed + Xandra Pohl talks Alix Earle · 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 and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. OK, I think our new setup, we're
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  actually going to have Annabelle sitting in the office while I
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  record every single day. This is the first time we're
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  testing it out, so hopefully it doesn't mess me up too much and
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  make me feel embarrassed when I do mess up.
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  She does have her Airpods in right now, so we'll see how this
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  goes, but it's a very exciting development that our office is
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  big enough to facilitate that. Because our last office was so
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  small, we had to move all of the desks whenever we recorded and
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  like vice versa, like move the recording stuff when we wanted
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  to sit at our desks and we could have never done this.
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  So we are moving on up. OK, before I get into the
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  stories for today, Please remember to rate, review and
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  subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
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  We're trying to get to 1000 Spotify star ratings by the end
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  So please go do that. All right, let's just get into
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  the stories for today. OK, so the first story that I
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  have for you guys is that Jara Jai has been named executive
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  vice president of Skims Beauty and Fragrance, just three months
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  after announcing the closing of her beauty brand on Amy Cole.
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  I know that this is maybe more beauty industry related than we
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  typically report on, but this is more of a story for me than
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  anything. And I do think a bunch of you
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  guys probably followed this to an extent because it combines
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  beauty, female founder life, pop culture.
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  I think it's relevant. It's a little bit out of our
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  normal scope, but I was super interested in it and I think you
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  guys will be too. So Jara was the founder of Amy
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  Cole, an inclusive beauty brand that she launched just four
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  years ago. The brand was so beloved,
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  especially amongst women of color, and it was a huge shock
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  when she announced back in July that it was closing because they
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  seemed to be going strength to strength.
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  They were super buzzy. They had cult products that
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  people loved. They were in more than 600
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  Sephora stores. Like they were really, really
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  successful by every traditional metric.
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  Since announcing its closure, Jara has done quite an amazing
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  press run where she's been really honest and transparent
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  about the brand's quote UN quote failure, which I think has
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  really expanded her reach personally and helped her
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  develop almost like her own fandom of female founders who
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  are just loving this era for her of transparency, bravery,
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  honesty, just talking about what really happened behind the
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  scenes of a brand. Like you don't see that so
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  often. I personally am in this camp of
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  being a fan girl of her now. I have read literally every
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  op-ed she's written. I've listened to every podcast
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  she's been on talking about like this.
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  I'm obsessed with how she has handled closing her business.
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  The main reason that she cited for the brand's closure was
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  unsustainable operating costs. She said on Emma Greed's podcast
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  that she would go into like 20 Sephora stores if she was going
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  to start this again, do this again instead of 600.
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  But she just didn't know what she didn't know at the time.
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  And now it seems like all of this transparency and honesty
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  has really paid off because today it was announced that she
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  has been appointed as head of beauty and fragrance of skin
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  Beauty. So this is from Allure Quote.
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  According to the press release, she'll lead product development,
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  innovation and brand strategy for its upcoming spinoff brand,
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  Skims Beauty Quote. There are so many beauty lines
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  out there and consumers are more discerning than ever.
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  They want quality, they want delight, they want something
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  that makes their lives easier. She said.
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  I can't wait to collaborate with the SKIMS team on items we hope
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  will become essential in their regime.
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  So before launching her own brand, Zara had quite the
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  impressive resume. She worked in marketing roles at
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  Glossier L'Oreal Rebecca Minkoff, so she is well equipped
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  for this now. In case you didn't know that
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  Skims Beauty was happening, I don't even think I reported on
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  this. But in mid-october, Kim
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  announced that Skims Beauty was coming and they had closed KKW
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  Beauty. She has then said that the
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  beloved KKW Beauty products will be coming back soon.
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  So I assume that she will be relaunching those under Skims
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  Beauty. Like the lip liner, the contour
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  stick, that kind of stuff. OK, the next way that I have for
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  you guys is some more industry news.
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  Conde Nast has folded Teen Vogue into vogue.com while doing mass
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  layoffs, particularly from their politics vertical.
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  So it was announced today that Teen Vogue did mass layoffs as
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  the title prepares to be rolled into vogue.com.
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  Amid this change, Teen Vogue axed almost all of their
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  political writers, which is truly insane because if you know
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  Teen Vogue, then you know that politics is one of the major
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  beats that they cover. They do really amazing political
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  coverage and it's what's helped keep them relevant amongst other
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  things. Like they do really amazing
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  celebrity profiles, for example, But their politics coverage is
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  so good. That's helped keep them relevant
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  in this era of, you know, like dying kind of legacy outlets.
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  Even more disappointing, Conde Nast laid off almost all of Teen
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  Vogue's black writers. So this is a blue sky post from
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  former politics writer at Teen Vogue.
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  Lex Mcmenamin quote. Now that this is public, I can
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  confirm that the majority of today's layoffs were women of
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  color. There are no longer any black
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  women working at Teen Vogue. Lex also confirmed that there
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  are no longer any trans staff members left at Teen Vogue
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  following the layoffs. In addition to these layoffs,
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  Teen Vogue's editor in chief will be leaving, and the
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  publication will be overseen by our controversial fashion girly
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  Chloe Mal. OK, So obviously, these layoffs
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  are so disappointing. I mean, layoffs are just par for
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  the course of. I mean, I feel like every
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  industry right now, but you know, media, especially these
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  past, let's say five years, but these particular layoffs laying
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  off basically all of the people of color, all of the trans
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  staff, like just leaving what like hetero white people like
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  this is going to have serious consequences for the outlets
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  reporting. So this is from The Hollywood
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  Reporter, quote. The Newsroom union claims the
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  change is throttling staff diversity and muting the
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  magazine's progressive political bent.
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  The union told The Hollywood Reporter Quote management plans
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  to lay off six of our members, most of whom are by POC, women
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  or trans, including Teen Vogues politics editor.
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  Continuing the trend of layoffs at Conde disproportionately
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  impacting marginalized employees, Teen Vogue now has no
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  writers or editors explicitly covering politics.
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  As of today, only one woman of color remains on the editorial
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  staff at Teen Vogue. I fear this is going to be the
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  end of Teen Vogue relevancy, which is so sad.
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  But I don't know how you could cover politics, culture, even
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  fashion, you know, without an intersectional lens.
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  And obviously, as per the union, this has become a trend at Conde
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  Nast, which I guess should not be that surprising to us knowing
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  who's at the top of that organization.
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  But yeah, it's very disappointing.
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  And I'm really feeling for all of the staff amid the layoffs.
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  As a media girlie myself, I understand how that feels.
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  You know, I had some friends when we were in our early 20s,
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  like 2324 who had already been through two or three layoffs at
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  that age. Like that should not be
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  normalized. It's so horrible.
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  All right. And the last right that I have
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  for you guys is that Xandra Poll.
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  This is like a, a very different, like a sharp pivot
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  here. Xandra Poll has addressed for
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  the first time publicly her friendship falling out with Alex
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  Earl. OK, so I do want to note, I hate
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  to give this podcast dimension, but Xander Pole was on the toast
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  today and she publicly spoke about her infamous friendship
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  breakup with fellow TikTok star Alex Earl.
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  Unsurprisingly, shouldn't really say that much.
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  She basically just said that they drifted apart after
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  college. I feel like there's certain
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  things. There's no bad blood, there's no
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  problems. I feel like you're in college
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  and you're really close to people and then, yeah, you
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  graduate and everyone's kind of going their own separate
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  directions and that's life. And I'm still close with a bunch
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  of my other college friends. But you know, it's people are
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  always going to be curious. People are always going to bring
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  stuff up. It's always going to be like a
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  part of my story. But I feel like, I don't know,
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  I'm doing so many other amazing things and I live an amazing
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  life and have an amazing friend. So whenever people say that, I'm
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  like, I get where you guys are coming from, but it's really
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  just not that deep. Do we believe this personally?
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  Not really. I think there's enough evidence
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  over the years that prove that they've intentionally stayed
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  away from each other and avoided each other, but I don't think
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  that we will ever actually get the T on anything bigger that
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  happened between the two of them at this point.
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  Now, she also did address her breakup from Jack, who she dated
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  throughout university and she was dating when she became
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  really TikTok famous. And they went through this
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  infamous breakup, and Jack has been dating a New Girl now, and
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  they've been making a lot of content together.
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  And people are kind of like trolling them because I guess he
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  had a lot of issues being in Xandra's content and didn't like
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  that she was very online. And now he has a girlfriend
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  who's basically trying to do the same thing.
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  He pleaded with me to, you know, not talk about all his
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  atrocities that he did with me. And I said, you know what, For
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  the sake of our relationship and like, how long we were together
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  for, like 4 years. And it was a very traumatic 4
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  years. But like, I loved him a lot at
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  one point, even though he did all those awful things.
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  So then I was like, you know what, fine.
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  You don't want to be on the Internet.
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  Don't bother me. Yeah, and I won't talk about you
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  and all this thing. And then all the sudden I was
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  like, oh, interesting. Anyways, guys, that's it for
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  many scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
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  and subscribe, please Spotify star rate US.
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  Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow and then I will talk to
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  you on Thursday. Bye.