Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon, Bookstagram fanfic drama + is Bop House over?

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon, Bookstagram fanfic drama + is Bop House over? · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  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, let's just get straight into
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  the episode because what the hell?
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  Tricia Paytas has given birth to her son and we know his name.
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  Obviously she drops the name on the day of Mini Tech scroll.
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  OK, so yes, Tricia Paytas had her baby on July 12th.
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  She announced the name yesterday.
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  I'm sure you've all seen it, but in case you haven't, she named
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  him Aquaman Moses Paytas Hackman Aquaman Moses.
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  So I'm not kidding. When my alarm went off
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  yesterday, I opened my phone and my friend in Canada had texted
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  me a screenshot from like an Instagram post that said Tricia
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  Paytas has named her baby Aquaman.
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  My friend wrote to me like what is with this name?
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  What is going on? So literally within 2 seconds of
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  my alarm going off and me opening my eyes, the first thing
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  that I interacted with, the first thing that I saw yesterday
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  was that Tricia Paytas named her baby Aquaman.
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  Honestly, that feels right. Like that feels correct for me.
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  So look, was Aquaman a plot twist for most of us?
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  Yes. But were there also some people
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  who guessed that that would be his name?
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  Yes. Tricia is obsessed with Jason
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  Momoa and she would obviously never name her son Jason.
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  I think we all know why. Also because it would be way too
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  boring. She apparently also let it slip
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  at one of her live shows that the name was going to start with
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  A So I guess people know she's obsessed with Jason Momoa.
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  She said it was going to start with A.
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  One of the main theories was that was Atlantis but no it was
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  Aquaman and there are people all over TikTok who had guessed
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  that. So on her podcast she said
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  another name they considered they were like this close to
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  using it was water Snake. Water snake.
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  And like OK, we all know that Moses has this thing with water.
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  Like he feels like he identifies as water.
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  Like he that's like been his whole thing.
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  If you have followed their relationship and their lore for
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  a long time then you would know that.
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  So I guess water Snake is his favorite poem.
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  Moses is the year of the snake and she says she loves the name
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  Water. So they were going to name him
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  Water Snake. What do you guys think?
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  I think water snake is more normal than Aquaman because she
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  also said in this podcast like he is not awkward.
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  Like you know how they call Malibu Barbie Malibu.
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  She was like, his name is not Aqua.
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  Like his name is Aquaman. She's like, we will not be
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  calling him Aqua. So water snake, she was like, I
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  love the name water. So they probably would have
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  called him water, which I get like I think is more normal than
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  Aquaman. I actually don't even fucking
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  know Aquaman. Aquaman Moses.
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  My brother and I were talking last night like what is he going
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  to go by if he can't go by Aqua? Like I was thinking, OK, maybe
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  Aqua. But then when I watched her
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  podcast day, my brother was like maybe MO, you know, like Moses
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  MO like go by his middle name. I don't know.
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  Malibu, Barbie and Elvis are so normal compared to Aquaman.
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  Like when I was talking about it with my brother, he was like,
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  Aquaman is like not a name. Like and like obviously we know
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  that's not a name, but like it's, it's so not a name.
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  Like it is not apple coated. OK.
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  It is not one of these like weird celebrity names like
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  Aquaman actually wild. And the people who guessed it
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  were guessing it kind of as like a joke like, you know, they were
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  like that would be insane. Good for Tricia.
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  I mean truly, I saw TikTok. I'm sure you guys have seen it
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  too because it is super viral. But he was like, nobody lives
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  life like you, Tricia. And for that I'm jealous.
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  And for that I thank you. And that's I guess how I feel.
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  Do I think it's mean that she named her son Aquaman?
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  Like kind of. But also The thing is like she's
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  famous and she's always going to be kind of like Internet famous.
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  Even if she stops the podcast steps back by the time this kids
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  a teenager or whatever, like she's always going to have this
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  lore around her. I think they're going to home
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  school their kids probably forever.
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  Like I know that's they they've said that's the plan.
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  I don't know I'm like maybe it's actually not that weird because
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  they live in Lai don't know Aquaman.
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  I don't know you guys, I don't know.
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  So welcome Aquaman Moses. OK, the next one that I have for
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  you guys, I have a pretty niche like bookstagram story for you.
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  I got this from garbage day the newsletter.
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  If you guys don't subscribe, you definitely should.
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  But this is like niche, but you know, it's it's relevant.
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  It's relevant to us. We don't really cover like
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  threads or even really Instagram news that often.
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  So this is not book talk. This is like book threads, like
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  books to Graham. OK, so books to Graham gossip
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  creator Jana and books is facing backlash for her defense of
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  fanfic writers who cover Harry Potter.
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  So there's this popular bookstogram creator called Jana
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  and books. And she makes a lot of like
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  author book talk, bookstogram gossip or like drama content.
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  And she posts a lot of it on threads.
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  Or she did and then her post got so popular that she actually
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  turned her reporting into a paid sub stack called Lady Whistle
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  Threads. She's been pretty open about the
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  fact that she covers drama in this niche for engagement when
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  really she would rather be posting like book reviews and
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  other types of content. But you know, she says like
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  negativity wins. And it does.
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  But now the community that she's built is turning on her after
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  she seemingly endorsed the new romance fanfic novel by author
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  Julie Soto. So Julie Soto wrote a new novel
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  called Rose in Chains. This novel is an adaptation of
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  an existing fanfic story that was changed essentially like
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  just enough to get around copyright.
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  So it was like a storyline that existed or like a a story like a
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  plot that existed on like Wetpad or those other fanfic sites.
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  This is like a genre that's becoming more popular where
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  authors are finding these storylines, taking them,
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  changing them just enough, but being very open about like the
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  origins of the storyline. And they're not trying to pass
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  it off like necessarily as their own.
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  So Rosen Chains is adapted from a hair Harry Potter fanfic
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  storyline where Draco and Hermione get together.
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  Soda was criticized by her audience for using Harry Potter
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  source material for this new novel given JK Rowling's anti
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  trans stance and her absolute inability to listen to reason to
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  be a somewhat decent human being on this topic at all, and Jana,
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  given she reports in this space, shared her opinion on the
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  backlash. I want to talk about Rose in
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  chains and the irresistible urge to fall for your enemy.
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  I guess this is another book before they come out next week.
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  First, if you don't want to read anything remotely connected to
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  Harry Potter because the author has upset you so much, I totally
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  get that. If you want to mute me for the
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  next while while I talk about them, I will not be insulted at
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  all. Second, if you don't know why I
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  no longer give money to the creator of Harry Potter, it's
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  because she actively campaigns for people to lose their bodily
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  autonomy and freedom of self-expression in order to
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  target transgender people. I was a huge Harry Potter fan,
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  but now actively avoid giving her a single cent.
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  I think everyone should be free to express their gender however
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  feels best for them, including people who identify as
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  transgender. So why do I support these
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  Germany fanfics turned traditionally published books?
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  One, JK Rowling doesn't receive any financial compensation. 2
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  the authors support transgender people. 3, the books are no
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  longer the fix and everything that was Harry Potter has been
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  removed. OK so that is something that I
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  forgot to say. So in Rose and Chains the two
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  main characters names like Draco and Hermione have been changed.
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  Do I think you should read the books?
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  That depends. One, if it will bother you that
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  these books might exist because they were originally Harry
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  Potter fan fiction, Probably not.
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  Two, I would encourage you to look up the content warnings,
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  especially for Rosen Chains, and decide if that's something you
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  want to read. Three, if you've never read
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  Harry Potter and like Romanticy, absolutely.
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  And finally, do I think promoting these books keeps
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  Harry Potter relevant? Probably.
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  But I think the new HBO show is also keeping Harry Potter
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  relevant, and that will put more money in the author's pocket.
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  So I plan to remind people to not support anything that gives
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  her money, alongside talking about books that started out as
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  fan fiction. OK.
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  So this was not well received. The top response to this was
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  somebody who said, I don't know, I think that trans people in the
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  book space have largely said they don't want people
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  supporting these Germany fix. I think we need to listen to the
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  marginalized group that is being affected.
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  So that was generally the sentiment towards her post.
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  OK, So the backlash kept getting bigger and bigger, I guess.
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  So Jana actually ended up disabling her account
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  temporarily and then she reopened it and she issued kind
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  of like a formal apology, I guess.
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  But by then, the damage was. So all of this was going down a
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  week or two ago, but it was very much contained to one specific
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  niche on the Internet. Now it has expanded beyond that
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  because it has started to seep into real life.
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  So Julie Soto was supposed to be a featured guest at Romancecon,
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  which is like a big romanticy. Romanticy.
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  Yeah, romanticy. I was like, did I just, like,
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  mix up those words? Romanticy convention like book
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  convention? Shortly after the backlash
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  around her novel and then the Threads fiasco with Jana,
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  Romance Con announced they had parted ways with Julie Soto.
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  And then it kept snowballing and dozens of authors started
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  pulling out of Romance Con off the back of this.
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  This is from garbage day quote. According to the conventions
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  website, the cascade has been going on long enough for over
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  half of the authors attending Romance Con to have pulled out,
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  and Mischief Management, which is the company behind Romance
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  Con, has handed off running the convention, which at this point
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  seems to consist mostly of mopping up the mess.
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  I wanted to cover the story because I think it's so
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  interesting. It's it's a great example and
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  they said this in garbage day too, but it's a great example of
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  something expanding beyond like not just like the online world,
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  because this was like so contained like this is threads
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  drama at the end of the day, okay, like who is on threads,
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  you know, like this is very, very niche.
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  This is way more niche than like a lot of the stuff we cover, but
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  it has such real world consequences now, And I always
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  say this in any of our consulting meetings with brands,
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  like when you are trying to reach young people online, you
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  also need to consider how their offline world will be affected
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  by that. Because for, I mean, honestly
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  for all of us, like especially young people, but like at this
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  point basically all of us, there is no differentiation between
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  online world and offline worlds. Internet culture is just culture
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  at this point. What happens online impacts
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  everyone offline. We are in one blended ecosystem
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  now. Our worlds do not exist
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  separately almost at all. So I very much appreciate that
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  the book community is pushing back on this and saying it's
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  like, listen to the people, listen to the transgender
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  people, the authors, the people that are fans of this space,
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  that are operating in this space.
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  When they say any support of anything related to Harry
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  Potter, to the fan fiction around Harry Potter, whatever is
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  not OK and it's not standing in solidarity with us and it's not
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  being a good ally towards us. And I think that's really
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  important. And I guess this is the trickle
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  on effect from that. All right, the last story that I
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  have for you guys is that the BOP House might be no more.
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  So we've never really talked about the Bop House on this
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  podcast, maybe a couple of times like mentioning it.
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  And I know I did reference them when I was talking about Ash
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  Trevino once because Ash brought her young children, like minor
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  children, teenagers to the Bop House to record a podcast.
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  And that was definitely a questionable decision, to say
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  the least, because the Bop House is a content house for only
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  fans, creators and the girls are I don't know.
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  It's it's very weird because I think the sentiment around the
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  Bob house is one of two things. It's either like you think that
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  they're fun to watch. They're really like light
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  hearted. Their drama seems a little bit
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  petty. Like it's fun.
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  Like in some ways it harks back to like the original kind of
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  concept of like influencer drama where it's like, quote UN quote,
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  like not that serious. OK.
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  But on the other hand, they are all very young women and their
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  lifestyles and what they post online and how they go about
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  their careers and showcasing that absolutely glamorizes only
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  fans for the other young girls that watch them.
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  And I, I am going to assume that the majority of their followers
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  are either young women, like young girls or like old men.
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  It's like Anna Paul, like a lot of her followers on TikTok are
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  young girls. And I think it's probably the
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  same for the pop house and those creators.
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  So the Bob house, it cost $75,000 a month.
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  All the creators split the rent. And two days ago, Julie from the
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  Bob House made a video saying the content house was falling
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  apart. Everyone and their mom is
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  beeping. 2 girls can even be in the same room as each other.
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  You're wondering, are we having all film together?
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  There you go. One moving to LA.
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  One's in a secret relationship. Girls don't even want to retire,
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  let alone the group chat. I am going to leave the group
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  chat. And then Sophie Rain from the
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  house announced that she is officially leaving the group,
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  she told Us Weekly. Quote The Bob House will always
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  be a huge part of my life, but lately I felt like I was losing
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  my own voice inside of it. What started as an empowering
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  space began to feel controlling, with certain members wanting to
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  dictate how I should act, post and live.
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  Leaving wasn't an easy decision, but I realized I needed to put
• 13:52
  my mental health and personal freedom first.
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  I'm grateful for the memories, the success, and the sisterhood
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  we once had, but it's time for me to move forward.
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  So after all of this, Camilla, Julie, and Aisha went on the
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  official Bop House TikTok account and said they're doing
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  auditions next month in LA for the newest member, which I also
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  have some feelings about. But I wanted to talk about this
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  story because regardless of how we feel about the Bop House and
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  what they may be directly or indirectly promoting to their
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  audience, I think this story is just another example of how
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  content houses don't actually work.
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  They work for a period of time where everybody is collaborating
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  together and kind of cross promoting each other.
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  Obviously that's going to grow their follower count.
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  Then they have one main account together, which I'm sure they
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  all split the money where the money that they make from that
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  account goes into the house or whatever it is.
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  But how many times since the inception of content houses,
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  which is like really like gaming houses, right?
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  Like streamers and then we kind of had the OG like YouTube vlog
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  houses. None of them work.
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  They always end in absolute disasters where people are
• 15:03
  making like exposes, people are accusing each other of like
• 15:06
  horrific things. I mean Thomas Petrou just had to
• 15:08
  do like a multi part series on his TikTok.
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  I think it was earlier this week or last week where he was saying
• 15:13
  like I and showed receipts. I didn't really watch all of it.
• 15:16
  So because I just feel like the hype house is like so, so done.
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  So I didn't cover it. But you know, he shared receipts
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  trying to say, like, I didn't steal anybody's money.
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  Like there's still this narrative going around.
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  It is just an absolute disaster. I think when you take like tons
• 15:29
  of young people who are making so much money, they are on the
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  right of their lives. Like, they probably are so high
• 15:36
  off of like, fame and success and power and all this money
• 15:39
  that they have. And it happens like that, right?
• 15:40
  For so many creators, you put them all in one house together.
• 15:43
  That's already going to be crazy.
• 15:45
  But then not only do you put them in a house to all live
• 15:47
  together and collaborate together, but then they're in
• 15:49
  business together as well. So then they're also all making
• 15:52
  money. They're all responsible for
• 15:54
  splitting all, all of these bills.
• 15:55
  There's going to be so many issues with certain people not
• 15:58
  pulling their weight. People feeling like, oh, well,
• 16:00
  you know, I had a really good month and I gained X amount of
• 16:03
  followers and like, you barely grew.
• 16:05
  So like, I should get more of a cut.
• 16:06
  Like, whatever it is, it gets so messy.
• 16:10
  And they're all just like partying and going crazy.
• 16:12
  And it's like, yeah, it sounds like so much fun, but it also
• 16:15
  sounds like an actual living nightmare.
• 16:17
  I feel like it's just too complicated.
• 16:19
  We have seen, we have maybe actually I should do a deep dive
• 16:23
  into like the history and progression and like what we've
• 16:27
  learned about content houses. That could be really interesting
• 16:30
  because I was going to say, how long have we had content houses
• 16:33
  for at this point? Like honestly, 15 years, maybe
• 16:35
  not quite, but like probably around that.
• 16:37
  We have a lot of proof that this doesn't work.
• 16:39
  I don't think it's going to go away anytime soon, but I don't
• 16:42
  think content houses are as popular as they once were.
• 16:45
  Anyways, guys, that's it from any scroll today.
• 16:46
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 16:49
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
• 16:51
  There will be a deep dive tomorrow Pro Very exciting.
• 16:54
  Oh my God. Also, I didn't even say this at
• 16:57
  the beginning of the episode, but we rebranded.
• 17:00
  If you guys follow us on like Apple or Spotify or any of the
• 17:03
  podcast, so you don't listen to us on YouTube, then you'll
• 17:05
  notice that all of our cover art has had a little bit of a glow
• 17:07
  up, a little bit of a rebrand. My face is no longer in it,
• 17:10
  which makes sense because now we have Annabelle on Wednesdays and
• 17:13
  like, you know, like the feed in general is just so different.
• 17:15
  The podcast is so different than when I relaunched last year.
• 17:18
  So yes, anyways, a little bit of a refresh guys, I love you and
• 17:25
  there will be a deep dive tomorrow and then I will talk to
• 17:26
  you on Monday. Bye.