Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Whitney Simmons pregnant unfollow debate, MrBeast "purchasing" views + Isabel Marant at the bins

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MINI SCROLL: Whitney Simmons pregnant unfollow debate, MrBeast "purchasing" views + Isabel Marant at the bins · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  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.
• 0:10
  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
• 0:13
  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, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  We know about 40% of you guys don't, and let's just get
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  straight into it. So the first story that I have
• 0:41
  for you guys today is I'm going to break down the discourse that
• 0:45
  has been going on the past month on TikTok around unfollowing
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  influencers, when they become mothers, when they fall
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  pregnant, when they become engaged, basically when they
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  announce like big life milestones that are around
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  relationships and babies. So at the beginning of February,
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  a creator named Shan made a video that went super viral in
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  which she said that the second a creator starts posting wedding
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  content or pregnancy content, she unfollows them.
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  Now Shan has deleted her video but I will play a clip of it
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  from a stitch that I found. No shade and no disrespect, but
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  the second I see a chick start posting wedding content, bride
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  content, Bachelorette content, baby content, pregnancy content.
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  I bow out. This video sparked immense
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  backlash and it's still ongoing. And now several influencers have
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  been dragged into the conversation, namely Madeline
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  White and most of all, Whitney Simmons.
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  For context, Madeline White is a fashion and lifestyle influencer
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  who married 1/2 of the DJ group Loud Luxury, and she recently
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  announced that she's pregnant with their first child, a baby
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  girl. And Whitney Simmons is a super
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  popular fitness creator who announced that she's pregnant
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  with her first child about 20 weeks ago.
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  So she's been pregnant publicly on social media for a while now.
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  Both Madeline and Whitney share about their pregnancies in
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  different ways. Madeline is very chatting to the
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  camera in her content and she shares a lot about her life.
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  So naturally pregnancy and like planning for this baby, that
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  comes up a lot in her content. Whitney, on the other hand, she
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  shares more like structured fitness content.
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  But obviously she's pregnant. So she looks different in the
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  content and the workouts that she can do and show us on camera
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  are inevitably different as she progresses in her pregnancy.
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  And she's also creating a lot of content, of course, now around
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  like working out for pregnancy. So let me play you a few clips
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  of the discourse to give you some idea about what's going on.
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  Unfollowing people when they get pregnant.
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  Okay, first there was this girl who made a video saying I
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  unfollow everybody who gets pregnant or gets married or
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  whatever. And people were like, okay.
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  And then now people are unfollowing Whitney Simmons
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  because she's pregnant. Okay, like let's talk about
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  this, right? Because if you are unfollowing a
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  woman simply because she was pregnant, simply because she is
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  engaged, her content is staying the same, right?
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  Her content is staying the same exactly as she was posted.
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  But now she's just, this thing is happening to her, right?
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  Like she is pregnant whatever. I do think that is internalized
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  misogyny talking that is anti women.
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  People are upset at Whitney Simmons for being pregnant.
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  The problem came from the comment section, because in that
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  comment section there were hundreds of people saying that
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  they felt this way about Whitney Simmons.
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  People are upset. They are calling her selfish.
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  They're saying that why would anyone want to bring a baby into
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  this world and that you shouldn't be having babies
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  anymore. We shouldn't be putting down a
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  woman who is in a healthy marriage who is more than
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  capable of providing for this child financially.
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  I would like to talk about unfollowing pregnant women on
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  social media because, as usual, I fear we are missing the point
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  of it. For context, over the past few
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  days I I've seen several videos on my FYP about the phenomenon
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  of women getting unfollowed when they share about their pregnancy
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  and basically that this is a misogynist or woman hating thing
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  to do. I want to say first and foremost
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  that there is a massive difference between someone you
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  follow on social media because you know them and someone you
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  follow for a specific type of content that they create.
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  As I said, I am child free but most of the women in my actual
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  life have children and I love their children.
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  I love children generally and several of them actually have
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  like dedicated newsletters strictly about motherhood and I
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  subscribe to and read those newsletters mostly to support
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  them, but also because like they're in my life and their
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  child is a big part of that life.
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  When someone is following a content creator strictly as an
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  audience member for some type of content they create, be that
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  cooking or fashion or personal finance or whatever.
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  Like not only do they not owe them a fucking thing, they're
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  just literally following them on social media.
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  They don't know them, but also be like they're following them
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  for that content. And often, not always, but
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  often, when a woman becomes a mother, in addition to being a
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  large content creator, her content becomes significantly
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  about motherhood, parenting her kids, et cetera.
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  If you look at the data, women posting about marriage, babies,
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  family life, et cetera, that shit works with audiences.
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  OK, so there will obviously be creators who will make
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  pregnancy, motherhood, being married, whatever, more central
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  to their content than others. An example, just like off the
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  top of my head, of a creator whose content and vibe
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  essentially didn't change at all was Lauren Simpson.
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  She's a fitness influencer. And when she had her first baby,
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  she didn't really change her content at all to the point
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  where it was really easy to forget that she was pregnant,
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  that she had a baby. Like, it just didn't remain
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  central to her content. She shares her kid, you know,
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  like she shares these things here and there, but it didn't
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  become her entire profile. It didn't seemingly take over
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  her identity online, but who's to say which is right or wrong
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  in terms of how you're approaching your content in real
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  life? We don't expect people to show
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  up exactly the same as they always have through different
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  phases of life, so I don't think we should expect that from
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  influencers or creators online. I do want to say too, in this
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  conversation, the fathers are not a part of this conversation
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  basically at all. And I do believe that's because
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  when you become a mother, it's probably, I mean, I'm not a
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  mother, but I imagine it is so transformative at like a
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  cellular level from the moment you find out you're pregnant.
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  So naturally your content will change because all of a sudden
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  your life has changed. And I also think it's probably
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  because we allow men to have identities outside of being
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  fathers, including outside of being newborn fathers, because I
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  know we talk a lot about how women, you know, they lose
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  themselves in motherhood. And I'm sure there are some who
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  do. From my perspective, I see it
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  more when it's the earlier stages of having kids.
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  And so when a woman has a child and especially has a newborn
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  baby, a newborn child, it feels essentially impossible to
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  separate her from that new experience that she's going
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  through, even as somebody who's on the outside, right?
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  And I'm sure that mothers to newborn babies feel that way
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  tenfold. And I'm not saying that's like
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  right or wrong. I think it's just kind of the
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  reality of how we view motherhood versus how we view
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  fatherhood. Now, where I land on this, I
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  think I do understand why some people are uninterested in this
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  type of content. And it also may be sensitive
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  content for people, right? We have no idea why people may
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  not want to see content related to pregnancy, fertility,
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  motherhood. That could be really sensitive
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  for people. I don't think that influencers
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  should take it personally if people unfollow them and don't
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  want to see this content. I know Madeline White has been
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  pretty vocal and almost like defensive about the fact that
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  people are unfollowing her and saying they don't want to see
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  her motherhood content or her pregnancy content.
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  And she seems to not really understand why.
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  And I don't think that that's the right approach.
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  Like there's a variety of reasons why somebody might not
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  be interested in that content. It could be sensitive to them or
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  they might just not be interested in having kids.
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  So kid related content is not interesting to them, especially
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  if they don't know the kid and they don't know you.
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  Plus influencers who do document things like pregnancy and
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  motherhood, they will find new followers through that content.
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  So I don't think influencers should be upset about this.
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  I don't think they should necessarily take offense to it.
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  But I also think from our perspective we should probably
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  just be on following and moving on.
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  Not everything needs to be a thing piece.
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  Not everything needs to be a hot take.
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  I think some opinions can stay as inside thoughts, especially
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  when it comes to something as nuanced as fertility, pregnancy,
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  motherhood. That opinion can't just be
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  reduced to like a 42nd video of a hot take.
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  I read a comment that said it's weird to judge a creator for
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  getting pregnant as if they have failed you in some way.
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  And I think that's unfortunately what this conversation has
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  become. And I'm not saying that there's
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  not meaningful discourse that could be had around this topic
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  because it's interesting. It's a very interesting topic.
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  That's why it's been going on for the past month.
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  That's why people are still making new content about this
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  and why it went so viral, because it is an interesting
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  topic. And Shan's original video did
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  spark intelligent debate in some ways, but I think it also has
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  sparked debate that has caused some harm.
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  But I'm interested to hear where you guys land on this, if your
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  parents, if you're not not parents, how you feel about that
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  type of content. I feel very neutral.
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  I don't unfollow influencers or creators when they get pregnant.
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  I don't necessarily like care about their content, but I don't
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  not care if that makes sense. I'm just following them for the
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  ride. I'm like, I'm following you for
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  your life because I'm parasocial with you or whatever, and this
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  is like another stage of your life.
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  All right, the next story that I have for you guys today we are
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  back talking about Rosanna Pansino and Mr. Beast.
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  Please forgive me. I have said this before, but
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  sometimes the problem with doing a daily podcast is stories or
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  topics can feel repetitive because there is something
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  that's specifically like in the news all the time or going viral
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  at this moment, like somebody or some topic, right?
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  So Mr. Beast and Rosanna Pansino specifically were those people
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  for like months and months and months, maybe like a year ago.
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  I feel like every single week, multiple times a week.
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  I was talking about them and it got so tired.
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  But it's been a while, so we're back.
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  OK, So Rosanna Pansino is calling out Mr. Beast for
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  allegedly buying his views or at least some of his views.
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  So it all began on March 1st when Jeff Holzenbold, who's the
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  CEO of Beast Industries, shared figures claiming Mr. Beast's
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  content reached 1.45 billion unique viewers over a recent 90
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  day period. So Rosanna responded to this on
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  X. She questioned whether those
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  figures were transparent, pointing out that Mister Beast
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  ran his long form and his short form videos as ads 428 times
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  last year alone, and that his long form views are actually
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  down by 50% compared to the year prior despite the paid
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  promotion. She continued.
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  I'm not accusing him. It is a fact based on data.
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  He is using YouTube's promote feature where you put in money
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  and you get views slash Subs. This is how you buy views on
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  YouTube following their rules. OK so neither Mr. Beast nor Jeff
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  have responded as we know this is part of like a long running
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  feud I would say between them. But it's really more like
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  Rosanna going after Mr. Beast and like, power to her.
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  OK, but it dates back to 2023 when she was like a contestant
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  on one of his shows and she started calling him out very
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  publicly for basically the production behind the scenes
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  being rigged. And then that just kind of
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  snowballed. I have a million episodes that
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  cover all of the back and forth, so go back and listen to some of
• 11:24
  those if you're confused. But I find this whole thing
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  really interesting from the perspective of a media brand
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  owner because in media, for example, at least in Australia,
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  there's actually very little distinction made between views
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  or reach that are boosted and views and reach that is organic.
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  And that was a surprise to me when I started Centennial and
• 11:42
  when we started working with like media budgets and media
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  agencies instead of working with smaller like content in house
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  budget. So initially we started more so
• 11:52
  on that like content side of things where brands would give
• 11:54
  us a little bit of money here and there from their content
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  budgets or even sometimes their influencer budgets.
• 11:59
  And then, you know, we kind of graduated as our brand grew and
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  we got more recognition into being eligible for media
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  budgets, which are bigger budgets budgets and part of
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  usually like bigger ad buying and media buying campaigns.
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  And something that surprised me when we entered that world was
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  that these larger scale campaigns, the brands will
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  actually allocate specific budget for boosting for your
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  content too. So in the case of Mr. Beast, I
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  don't think this is necessarily true.
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  But in the case of Mr. Beast, for example, what it could have
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  been is some of those videos could have been sponsored and
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  the brands that sponsored those videos, let's say, gave him an
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  extra like $10,000 to specifically put behind the
• 12:37
  promotion of those videos. And that is like a very
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  transparent exchange between the media company or the influencer
• 12:44
  and the brand. So the distinction between
• 12:47
  organic traffic versus traffic that you've paid for, it's not
• 12:50
  as important in this industry as you might think, at least like I
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  said here in Australia and even media brands in general, Like
• 12:57
  when we were moreofa.com, I found it shocking when people
• 13:00
  would ask us about our site traffic and they would be like,
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  did you buy this? Like is this mostly bought or is
• 13:06
  this organic? And we would be like, I didn't
• 13:07
  even know you could buy site traffic.
• 13:09
  Like we were just so naive and like so green.
• 13:12
  But you know, like our traffic was organic and say now like we
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  don't have the money to be like boosting everything, obviously.
• 13:18
  But yeah, it's it's similar, I suppose if you're in a different
• 13:20
  industry, like if you're in a consumer goods industry and you
• 13:23
  think about your customer acquisition cost, you're
• 13:25
  spending on Meta, YouTube, TikTok, other avenues to
• 13:29
  generate leads, how much it cost for you to generate that lead
• 13:32
  and thus convert them to a customer.
• 13:34
  It's kind of the same thing in media.
• 13:36
  That's like our version boosting and stuff is like our version of
• 13:39
  lead generation where it's like the viewer may convert to an
• 13:43
  audience member. So I don't know if Rosanna's
• 13:46
  questions on X are necessarily the right ones, but I think she
• 13:50
  should be asking is OK, let's look at where those views are
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  specifically coming from. How long?
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  Like what's the retention rate? Like how long are people
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  watching these videos, these like viewers that you have quote
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  UN quote bought? Like how long are they watching
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  the video for? Because, you know, are they real
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  views? Are these real people that have
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  been promoted to or I don't know.
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  There's always speculation that's possible.
• 14:12
  These platforms just put the numbers up and it's not actually
• 14:16
  a real view. Like what's the watch time like?
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  There's other metrics I feel like that she could have.
• 14:20
  I know that this was not like an actual like Inquisition, but I
• 14:22
  feel like there's other questions and metrics that she
• 14:25
  could have put out there that would have maybe made a little
• 14:28
  bit more sense. OK.
• 14:29
  And the last story that I have for you guys today is there is
• 14:32
  some TikTok fashion girly beef in the comments section.
• 14:36
  This is a short one, but a creator named Alina AI AI.
• 14:41
  Oh my God, I am brain rotted. I read her last name was capital
• 14:45
  A lowercase I and I read it as AI instead of AI think is
• 14:49
  probably how you pronounce it. But like my brain literally just
• 14:51
  said AI. OK, Elena posted a video last
• 14:55
  week on TikTok in this frilly white Coachella inspired outfit
• 14:59
  with the caption when she tries to copy my style but doesn't
• 15:03
  know this will cause bankruptcy. OK, so like a sassy little video
• 15:07
  and the video has now gone so viral because of this mild beef
• 15:11
  in the comments section. So a user who calls herself the
• 15:14
  thrift store girl who has like 700,000 followers by the way,
• 15:17
  like she is a really big creator.
• 15:19
  She commented. Unfortunately, I'm the thrift
• 15:22
  God. I can replicate your outfit
• 15:24
  after two weeks at the bins. I fear this comment specifically
• 15:27
  has over 657,000 likes right now.
• 15:32
  Elena responded Isabel Morant isn't at the bins, I fear.
• 15:36
  And then a day later, Thrift Store Girl commented a photo of
• 15:39
  an Isabel Morant tag on a thrifted shirt and wrote, it is,
• 15:43
  I fear so clapping back. And then Alina responded a twal
• 15:49
  because I guess Isabel Morant has a more affordable casual
• 15:52
  brand called Isabel Morant A twal, which is what the tag
• 15:55
  said. It said Isabel Morant A twal.
• 15:57
  And then the thrift store girl responded.
• 15:59
  The point is, your style is inspired by vintage bohemian
• 16:02
  fashion. Regardless, it's easily
• 16:04
  accessible if you have thrifting skills.
• 16:06
  Just because you spend racks on a name brand shirt doesn't
• 16:09
  differentiate you from the rest of the fashion girlies Savage.
• 16:13
  And then she posted her own video showing that the blouse
• 16:17
  Elena had posted in her original video is actually isel morant a
• 16:22
  dwell collection. So now this is of course turned
• 16:26
  into like a whole meme. So people are memeing the
• 16:28
  comment first the at the bins. I fear part of it.
• 16:32
  And then people are also making their own versions when they're
• 16:35
  thrifting, posting videos being like wonder if I'll find Isel
• 16:39
  Morant at the bins. All right, guys.
• 16:41
  Well, that's it for mini today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 16:44
  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
• 16:50
  It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
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  And I will talk to you guys tomorrow for a Friday mini
• 16:55
  scroll bye. Centennial World Podcast network
• 16:58
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• 17:01
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 17:04
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