Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Reddit paywalls + JoJo Siwa vs. Trisha Paytas

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MINI SCROLL: Reddit paywalls + JoJo Siwa vs. Trisha Paytas · 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.
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  Every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meissner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  It is finally a nice day up at the cottage.
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  I have been here for just over a week and almost every single day
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  it's been like cloudy and rainy and cold.
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  And I'm like, I thought I came out of that out of Sydney winter
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  to come to Canadian summer. And normally like the Toronto
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  area gets quite warm in summer, but it's just been like a shit
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  week. Anyways, I'm so excited and I'm
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  sure you guys can tell because if you watch on YouTube then you
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  will have seen the lighting in my videos change so much every
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  single day. I've never realized the value of
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  like artificial studio lights before because I haven't had to
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  like properly film with only natural light since I started
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  this podcast. But here we are.
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  And I think it's like a beautiful day.
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  It's a vibe. All right, so let's just get
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  into the first story for you guys today.
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  I have two stories. So the first is that there is
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  speculation, very seriously valid speculation, that
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  subreddits are about to be paywalled.
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  So last week during an earnings call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman
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  suggested they might pay wall certain subreddits, he said.
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  Quote, I think the existing altruistic free version of
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  Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way
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  it has. But now we will unlock the door
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  for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built
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  that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that
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  nature. So this development comes as
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  part of Reddit's revenue boosting strategy after the
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  company went public at the start of this year.
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  Some of the most controversial decisions of this nature
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  relating to this revenue boosting strategy so far were
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  when Huffman decided to hike up the API fees last year, which
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  essentially led to a bunch of third party apps that relied on
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  that API to basically close go bankrupt because they couldn't
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  afford those fees. For anyone that doesn't
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  remember, actually did a full deep dive into the history of
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  Reddit and I talked about that. I think it was a couple months
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  back. So definitely go listen to that.
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  But basically there was a bunch of third party apps that would
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  use Reddit's. I think it was free API to
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  deliver the app or like the service, but like Reddit
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  basically interface in a more user friendly way than the
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  Reddit app currently exists. And there was one major one,
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  Apollo, that people were obsessed with and like everyone
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  used that one for years. And then Apollo unfortunately
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  had to close after they change the API from free to I think it
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  was going to be like $20 million a year for Apollo to pay for
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  that fee. And more recently, Reddit signed
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  a deal with Google, which allows Google to train its AI model off
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  of Reddit's massive database of posts.
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  And then Reddit has also blocked other AI companies like Open AI
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  and stuff like that from crawling.
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  Its I don't know if it's servers or whatever its posts unless
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  they pay a fee. So I think open AI has actually
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  like also strike to deal with Reddit as well, but it actually
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  seems to be working. I know that Reddit's revenue is
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  up massively from the previous year.
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  So you know this CEO, he's come in and he is like, I'm ACEO,
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  like I am here to make the company profitable to make like
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  the hard business decisions, whether that impacts users or
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  not. That is just kind of the role of
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  an executive at that level. And I mean, I guess it's
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  working. I don't know how anyone is going
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  to feel about paywalled subreddits that's a bit
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  unhinged, but we will see, OK. And the second story that I have
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  for you guys today is that JoJo Siwa has opened up about feeling
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  like Trisha Paytas used her for clout when she was young.
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  So on an episode of Jojo's podcast, JoJo Siwa Now, the
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  controversial star spoke about her relationship with Trisha
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  Paytas and how she feels Trisha used her back in the day.
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  So we all know back when JoJo was a minor, she would
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  collaborate a lot with different Youtubers who were much older
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  than her. You know, Colleen Ballinger was
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  obviously one major one. And she also had filmed some
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  videos with Tricia as well. And a lot of them, I think we're
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  like related to Tricia's relationship with Jason Nash
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  because JoJo would film with David in the vlog squad.
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  But either way, like she filmed videos with Tricia in discussing
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  people that she would want as a guest on her podcast.
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  And I just, I can't even say that without thinking of that
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  clip. Dream guest on my podcast.
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  She said she would not want Tricia as a guest because she
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  feels used by her. She said quote, yes, we would
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  and we did videos together when I was a kid.
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  And what's so interesting is she Tricia has a lot to say about me
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  nowadays and that's fine. A lot of people have a lot to
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  say about me nowadays. But what hurts my heart is a lot
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  of people who were friends with me when I was a kid are friends
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  with me now. And that tells me that they
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  weren't friends with me because they were using me because I was
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  a kid. I did bring a lot of views.
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  I brought a lot of views to a lot of people's videos and my
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  own videos. What breaks my heart, not as a
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  21 year old, but it breaks my heart for that 14 year old that
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  did videos with Tricia. She thought Tricia actually
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  liked her. You guys know how I feel about
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  JoJo. I think she is publicly in the
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  throes of deconstructing what happened to her as a child star.
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  And I think this is actually quite a good example of this.
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  She's still very much in denial. Like the fact that she, you
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  know, I know she's still quite young.
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  She's 21. The fact that she still believes
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  she's still not ready to accept that just because Colleen
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  Ballinger and these other Youtubers kept speaking with her
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  after she kind of transitioned her channel from JoJo Siwa to
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  like, it's more of like a brand channel now.
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  Just because they stayed in touch with her doesn't mean that
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  they were like best friends. Like what does a 30 year old
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  have in common with a 14 year old?
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  Like, why would they be friends with JoJo other than for a
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  business benefit, right? Doesn't mean that they're not
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  like friendly with her still. But the fact that she's using
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  Tricia not wanting to be her like actual friend as a reason
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  for the fact that she used her. And she can't see the fact that,
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  like someone like Colleen, who has had so many allegations
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  against her about acting inappropriately with really
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  young fans and minors over the course of her career, Like she
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  can't see that how Colleen treated JoJo when she was a
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  teenager is more inappropriate is so indicative, I believe of
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  like the mental space that she's in.
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  Like, she's still very much a child star in her, like, you
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  know, inside. And she can't unravel that yet.
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  Like she can't kind of like come to terms, I think with like how
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  the industry treated her and how the adults around her treated
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  her and how exploited she actually was.
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  So Tricia responded on her podcast and she basically said
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  she was not about to become friends with a 13 year old.
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  She said they were friend Lee and JoJo was very nice, but
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  there was no hanging out outside of filming because it would be
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  weird. And she was like, yeah, I filmed
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  with JoJo. It was like a business decision.
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  We were working together, but that doesn't mean that I'm going
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  to go become friends with her. She mentioned a New Year's Eve
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  party that she was invited to at Jojos, and she didn't go.
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  She was like, that would be so weird.
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  She's like, it's not because I don't like JoJo, like she's
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  super nice, but like that would just be inappropriate and weird.
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  So I know JoJo gets a lot of Flack for being a bit
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  problematic and defending, you know, abusers and people that
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  have exploited others, but also people, the same people that
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  have exploited her. She came out in defensive
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  Colleen Ballinger last year. And I don't know, I think
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  sometimes, and this happens with child stars, we don't especially
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  JoJo because she hasn't actually transitioned.
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  I know she I know like Karma and like her new album and stuff is
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  supposed to be her like step into adulthood.
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  I think it's very clear that it's not, you know, she's just
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  kind of turned her like rainbow sparkly vibes into like sparkly
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  black vibes and is like hoping that that shows that she's
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  matured and growing and kind of like in her adult phase.
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  But I don't think she's quite there yet.
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  And I think sometimes with child stars, including JoJo, what
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  happens is we we place more, I think adultness.
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  I like, I'm not sure what the right word is.
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  Like, we adult ify them the adultification, I suppose, of
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  child stars. Like we treat them like they are
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  adults, obviously so much younger than they are.
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  And I think JoJo is only 21 and she still has a lot of
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  unlearning to do. But I don't think a lot of us
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  are giving her enough grace to do that.
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  So she's going to make mistakes. Like she's going to defend
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  Colleen, you know, and she's going to defend the wrong people
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  and she's going to say the wrong things because she's dealing
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  with like what happened to her. But she's like not taking a step
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  back like a lot of child stars do and like deal with it and
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  like reconcile with it privately.
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  Like she's doing all of this in front of us because she's trying
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  to maintain her career. So I don't know.
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  So I think that's partly what we're seeing here.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for Mini scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. Please remember to rate review
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  It helps me grow. Please subscribe to our YouTube
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  channel. I love you guys and I will talk
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  to you tomorrow. Bye.