Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: James Charles Spirit Airlines update, Jools Lebron call out, SAINT SATINE concerns + Call Alex Mommy
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up today on Mini Scroll, the Spirit Airlines employee
- 0:03speaks out about the James Charles scandal.
- 0:06Jules LeBron calls out Tana Mojo, there's backlash over
- 0:11Hibes new Cat's Eye adjacent girl group and Alex Cooper's
- 0:15rebrand to call her mommy. Hi everyone, welcome to Mini
- 0:20Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the
- 0:23biggest stories from social media, the creator economy and
- 0:26the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
- 0:28and sometimes Fridays. I'm your host Lauren Meisner,
- 0:31the founder of the Australian youth digital media brand
- 0:35Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini school
- 0:38everyone. I hope you had a good weekend
- 0:40and I hope you enjoyed the deep dive.
- 0:42I'm very excited to be back on a regular mini scroll schedule for
- 0:46you guys today and I have 4 stories for saying thank you for
- 0:50bearing with us at the end of last week.
- 0:52Also, I will be recording a Patreon after this about how I
- 0:56feel like I'm in my flop era. So if you guys want to hear more
- 0:59about behind the scenes of Centennial and my mental health,
- 1:02subscribe. OK, let's get into the stories
- 1:06for today. The first story that I have for
- 1:07you guys today is the laid off Spirit Airlines employee at the
- 1:11center of the James Charles scandal has spoken out.
- 1:14So the woman who was allegedly on the receiving end of the
- 1:16James Charles Spirit Airlines DM crash out has come forward to
- 1:21share her side of the story. Her name is Amber Linda Vargas
- 1:25and she messaged James Charles asking if he would contribute to
- 1:28her GoFundMe after she lost her job at Spirit Airlines.
- 1:31So at the end of last week, she posted content about this
- 1:33explaining what happened from her perspective.
- 1:36And she actually has since deleted the video.
- 1:38But of course there are countless news stories and like
- 1:41reposts and stuff on TikTok. So I will post some clips from
- 1:45that. But in her video, she
- 1:46essentially says she does not accept James Charles's apology.
- 1:50I'm the girl that James Charles talked about in that video.
- 1:52Everybody's been asking for a video and I haven't been able to
- 1:55make it because of a few reasons.
- 1:56One be my anxiety. I have really bad anxiety,
- 2:01really bad anxiety. But you know, I tend to talk
- 2:03myself out of a lot of things. I was able to talk myself into
- 2:06this, have my iPad with me. I don't have anything really
- 2:08written down. I'm just gonna scroll and answer
- 2:11questions. Do I accept his apology?
- 2:12So I'm just gonna answer it right together?
- 2:14Hell no. I don't accept his apology.
- 2:17Especially because he was very publicly with what he said.
- 2:20And then you thought it was OK to message me privately.
- 2:24No. So he did message me.
- 2:27Here's a screenshot. Don't accept it.
- 2:29Did you respond to his apology? I sure the hell did not.
- 2:34OK so since Amber came out, Internet sluice found her
- 2:37GoFundMe and they discovered that she was trying to raise
- 2:40$1600 not 16,000, not 160,000, but 1600.
- 2:47So yes, while there still is a very valid conversation around
- 2:51what influencers quote UN quote owe us and what we can expect
- 2:55from them, the fact that James crashed out this hard and ruined
- 2:59his reputation again totally embarrassed this woman over
- 3:04$1600 or less. Like she was just asking if he
- 3:07would contribute to it. Which honestly for James is
- 3:12probably what he makes in less than an hour.
- 3:15If you think about the fact that he makes millions of dollars a
- 3:17year, $1600 is probably what he is making on average an hour,
- 3:22maybe even more. Like I really did not need to be
- 3:25like this. Again, I'm not saying he's under
- 3:27any obligation to contribute. Like whether he can or cannot
- 3:29afford that is not the point. It's the fact that he blew up
- 3:32like this so publicly. Also I forgot to mention last
- 3:36week he actually did make a video addressing the situation
- 3:38before his quote UN quote apology where he was doubling
- 3:42down. He obviously has since deleted
- 3:44that video and then he issued his like proper quote, UN quote
- 3:47apology. But he initially made a video
- 3:49doubling down. I stand behind what I said 10
- 3:51toes down and now a lot of content creators are using like
- 3:54the five second clip in the very beginning where I'm like, you're
- 3:57a lazy piece of shit. Get a new job to upload their
- 4:00cute little thing pieces. Be like influencers are all so
- 4:03out of touch. This is so disgusting.
- 4:05You don't know how hard it is in the job market these days.
- 4:08Oh my God, give me a fucking break.
- 4:10I am out of touch first and foremost.
- 4:11OK? I am never going to be one of
- 4:12those influencers that gets online and pretends to be poor
- 4:15so I can come across as relatable to my audience.
- 4:17I think it's hockey, I think it's annoying and I also think
- 4:19it's quite insulting to the audience watching, as if you
- 4:22guys are going to be fooled into thinking that you've been
- 4:24watching me for 10 years now. It's no secret that I have been
- 4:27able to find success doing what I've done.
- 4:29It didn't start that way though. I started from literally nothing
- 4:32and had a dream for myself and was determined to literally do
- 4:34anything to make it happen and luckily I've been blessed to be
- 4:38able to do that. And now call this by full time
- 4:40job. The reason I made that video
- 4:41yesterday though was a lot of people these days do not have to
- 4:44make it work mentality. They have no desire to actually
- 4:46put in the effort to try to fix a problem and get themselves out
- 4:49of a situation. They immediately result in
- 4:51asking for help. And don't get me wrong, I don't
- 4:54think there's anything wrong with asking for help.
- 4:56In my personal opinion though, it should be a last resort.
- 4:58OK so James allegedly sent this message to Amber.
- 5:02She shared this in her video. Hi Amber, I wanted to reach out
- 5:05privately with an apology for the video I made.
- 5:07It was disgraceful and completely unnecessary and there
- 5:09is no excuse for me yelling and berating someone for asking for
- 5:13help in a shitty situation that was completely out of your
- 5:15control. I'm so sorry for adding to what
- 5:17was already a distressing time. I'm so ashamed for most only the
- 5:20video, but also for being so disgustingly out of touch.
- 5:24I was sent to your video today and I was so glad to see your
- 5:27GoFundMe has exploded. And I also know that getting
- 5:29attention online can be scary and overwhelming, especially
- 5:32when you never asked for it in the first place.
- 5:34I've spent the last few days reading stories from real people
- 5:36about what it's actually like losing a job without notice and
- 5:40also learning about the journey to find a new one when so many
- 5:43people are going through the same situation.
- 5:45I've just donated to your GoFundMe but also please know
- 5:48I'm here if there's anything else I can help with or do.
- 5:50Also fully understand if you never want to hear from me
- 5:52again. I genuinely wish you all the
- 5:54best and hope you're doing OK. All right, so after all of this,
- 5:58his follower count has really come into question.
- 6:01People have been tracking his follower count and a lot of
- 6:04people believe that he seems to be buying followers amid this
- 6:07mess because essentially his follower count will go up and
- 6:10down by like 100,000 followers and like be fluctuating around
- 6:15that. OK, he started at like 40.8
- 6:17million and then he was down to like 40.2 million and then he
- 6:20was back up to 40.3 million. So they're like, OK, is he
- 6:23buying 100,000 followers? According to Social Blade, he
- 6:26actually lost 600,000 followers last week, but the data is days
- 6:30and days behind. So I can't really see if he's
- 6:32been buying followers this weekend.
- 6:34However, I would suggest what's probably happening here is he's
- 6:37not buying like 100,000 followers at a time.
- 6:39He's probably right on the line of being like under 40.3 million
- 6:43and then he like loses A follower and then he gains A
- 6:47follower so he goes back up. Like I don't think he'd be
- 6:49buying followers because he knows everybody would be like
- 6:51tracking that right now. But either way, his follower
- 6:54count in general is in question because what do you mean 40
- 6:58million people are following James Charles on TikTok?
- 7:02Like Taylor Swift has 33 million followers on TikTok.
- 7:06And I know that James obviously posts like way more than Taylor,
- 7:10but regardless, like James Charles is so much less relevant
- 7:15than Taylor Swift. He actually hasn't really been
- 7:17relevant in like years and years in a meaningful way.
- 7:21So the fact that he has 40 million followers in general is
- 7:23like crazy. Now, the other development in
- 7:25this is people have been reposting the TikTok he made in
- 7:28January 2025, right when TikTok was about to get banned in the
- 7:32US. So in this video, he's crying
- 7:34and he's talking about how sad he is, and he's talking about
- 7:36how it's been like a really positive platform for him and
- 7:38his career. It's really the first platform
- 7:40that I've I feel like I've been able to be myself.
- 7:44So people are like, bro, when you're about to lose your job,
- 7:49it's fine to make like public call outs, trying to garner
- 7:52sympathy and trying to get people to follow you to
- 7:54different platforms like expressing distress over losing
- 7:58an element of your career. But when somebody loses what I
- 8:01presume would be her entire source of income, her entire
- 8:05career, her whole full time job, then you go off and crash out
- 8:08when she reaches out and asks for a donation to her go fund
- 8:12me. Now after some reflection, I
- 8:15think the reason why James made this initial video is because he
- 8:19thought that it would be seen as like iconic and hilarious and I
- 8:24think he thought it would get him positive attention.
- 8:27I know that sounds kind of crazy, but he has been posting
- 8:30these insane crash outs on TikTok for like a year or two
- 8:34now and for the most part, they've been met with like kind
- 8:38of positive reception. I feel like it has somewhat
- 8:41changed the public's perception of James because people are
- 8:45seeing him as kind of like snarky and savage and unhinged
- 8:50and like that's a better reputation than the reputation
- 8:53that he has had online for the last like, what, 7 years?
- 8:57People are always using his crash at the sounds.
- 8:59He's turned into this like, larger than life caricature
- 9:03where people are laughing with him for the first time in a long
- 9:06time time instead of like at him.
- 9:08And I think the first video that really popped off like this was
- 9:11when he was crashing out over Trump.
- 9:13And he was like, we are so fucked.
- 9:16And nobody seems to care. Like that video, everybody used
- 9:19it. Everybody was like, Oh my God,
- 9:21yes. James.
- 9:22Like you tell him like James is iconic for this.
- 9:25Like maybe he's not so bad, like, you know, whatever.
- 9:28And that really started to change the public perception of
- 9:30him. And so then he started posting
- 9:33more and more unhinged, like, angry, snarky, crazy content
- 9:37like this. And I feel like he thought that
- 9:39this video was doing that. I really think he thought like,
- 9:42OK, so many people have lost their jobs now, which he
- 9:45obviously states in the first video, like he is aware of that.
- 9:48So I think he thought that people would be on his side
- 9:50where he's like, stop asking for handouts.
- 9:53Like, everybody's in the same position.
- 9:54Like, I think he thought that people would rally around that
- 9:58opinion. I don't know.
- 9:58That's my opinion on this. I really think that this was for
- 10:01views. I think he holds that belief.
- 10:05Like I do believe, you know, when there's a switch up that
- 10:08quickly. I don't really think behind the
- 10:10scenes that the influencer is genuinely always reflecting and
- 10:14learning that quickly. Maybe sometimes.
- 10:17But I think because he doubled down initially and then when it
- 10:20became like mainstream news, he apologized.
- 10:24I do think behind the scenes he's probably talking to his
- 10:26team and just being like, what the actual fuck, But I think the
- 10:30initial intention was he was thinking like, oh, this is going
- 10:34to be relatable. Like people are going to die for
- 10:36this anyways. In related news, Jules LeBron
- 10:40has called out an unnamed influencer in relation to the
- 10:43James Charles scandal. So Jules LeBron, a very demure,
- 10:46very mindful fame, has made a video in response to an unnamed
- 10:50influencer who was dragging James Charles for this situation
- 10:54despite allegedly offering to pay for Jules's top surgery at
- 10:57one point and then ghosting her. I think I don't I don't think
- 11:01you get to slam dunk James Charles.
- 11:04You don't make a video be like, you should give back to people
- 11:06who follow. You should get back to your
- 11:08fans. And then when you offered to pay
- 11:10for my top surgery, you ghosted me on it.
- 11:14I don't think that that's how that works.
- 11:16Like you don't like, even though I have a following like when we
- 11:19became mutuals and you do that. I I followed you for years and
- 11:23you were the reason that I started YouTube videos and you
- 11:25were like the person that saved my life and all this shit.
- 11:28And I told you this and you're like, if you need anything,
- 11:30babe, I will get. I want to pay for your top
- 11:32surgery. I want to pay for your
- 11:33transition and then you ghost me on it.
- 11:36You don't get to slam dunk James Charles.
- 11:39I'm sorry. I don't think that's how that
- 11:40works, I just work here, but I could be wrong.
- 11:43Now everyone is convinced that she is talking about Tana Mojo
- 11:46in this. Apparently Tana talked about
- 11:48this on not Loveline. Apparently she also commented
- 11:51publicly on Jules's social media at one point.
- 11:55And this was like before Tana was sober.
- 11:57So on Reddit people are like, I think she probably like doesn't
- 12:00remember that she offered this. So somebody wrote she commented
- 12:03on one of Jules's TikTok saying she'd be happy to pay for it
- 12:06about two years ago. I remember seeing the comment
- 12:08and thinking oh that's not going to happen.
- 12:10It was during her not sober era. Someone else wrote it's because
- 12:13she offered to pay and got praise slash clout for it and
- 12:15never followed through. If Tana never offered this would
- 12:18be a non issue. The expectation comes from Tana
- 12:20making the offer. Also this person has a bit of a
- 12:23following and made vulnerable videos talking about dysphoria
- 12:27and other issues. So if Tana publicly offered to
- 12:29pay for the surgery it's just slimy to ghost the person.
- 12:32So Jules has actually deleted this video and I assume will not
- 12:37confirm or deny if it's Tana Mojo, but everyone online is
- 12:40absolutely convinced it is. All right.
- 12:43The next story that I have for you guys today is Hybe and
- 12:46Geffen. The joint venture behind Cat's
- 12:48Eye has unveiled its latest global girl group, St.
- 12:52Satine. St.
- 12:54Satine, is that how you say it, St.
- 12:57Satine? Annabelle confirms.
- 12:59Also, she did tell me it's Hybe, not Hybee.
- 13:02And I keep saying Hybee and apparently you guys are
- 13:04commenting. Annabelle's the one that's like
- 13:08deep in the comments. I will skim the comments, but
- 13:11like, as somebody who posts a daily podcast, if I am like 2 in
- 13:14the weeds of the comments, like it completely destroys my mental
- 13:17health. So yeah, she was like, yeah, you
- 13:19keep saying I be. People are commenting.
- 13:24OK. So the group has four members,
- 13:26three of which came from Dream Academy, which was the survival
- 13:29show to be part of Cat's Eye. The girls who made it in are
- 13:32Emily, Samara and Lexie. The three have been consistently
- 13:35promoting the girl group across social media and at events like
- 13:38Billboard Women in Music, all before their 4th member was even
- 13:41confirmed. The rollout hasn't been without
- 13:43criticism. Many are questioning why
- 13:46management would push the girls to start building public
- 13:48recognition before the lineup was finalized.
- 13:51Social media users are also convinced that the girls have no
- 13:54chemistry after watching them interact in live streams.
- 13:56But that I feel like is subjective.
- 13:59OK, so while all of this was going down, a survival show was
- 14:02airing to find the 4th member called Prelude the final piece.
- 14:06The show featured Japanese contestants, which presumably
- 14:09was an attempt to crack the Japanese Asian market given the
- 14:11group's other three members are from the US, Brazil, and Sweden.
- 14:14It aired entirely in Japanese, so we Slash Annabelle have not
- 14:19watched it, but clipped episodes with English subtitles have been
- 14:24making the rounds online. Last week, the finale episode
- 14:27for the survival show aired, and TikTok has been up in arms ever
- 14:31since. It came down to two finalists.
- 14:33Sakura and Ayana each performed a different song with the group.
- 14:36Sakura had a party before the party while Ayana performed We
- 14:40Ride. The songs had completely
- 14:42different vibes, which many believed was a form of
- 14:44favoritism on behalf of the judges and executives putting
- 14:48the group together. OK, so there seems to be general
- 14:50consensus that Ayana outperformed Sakura, but it was
- 14:55Sakura who ultimately won the show.
- 14:58TikTok users aren't just upset about Ayana being like quote UN
- 15:01quote robbed though. They are also uncomfortable with
- 15:03the fact that Sakura is a minor and significantly younger than
- 15:07the rest of the girls in the group.
- 15:09So for contact, she is 16 while Lexi is 21 and Samara and Emily
- 15:14are 20. Ayana was 19, so that would have
- 15:17been, you know, a much closer fit in age.
- 15:20And this is not unprecedented for AK Pop girl group to debut
- 15:24with a minor. New Jeans made headlines when
- 15:26they debuted in 2022 with members ranging from 14 to 18.
- 15:30Closer to home, cat size youngest member Yun Che also
- 15:33debuted at 16, but the age gap felt less stark there.
- 15:38The other 3 members were also in their teens and since St.
- 15:41Satine that is such a mouthful. It's more of like a goat global
- 15:47girl group outside of like the K pop system.
- 15:50People are like this is just really icky and we need to stop
- 15:54accepting that they just debut with minors.
- 15:57Like we need to stop allowing this to happen and being
- 16:00accepting of this as a phantom. The more that Korean survival
- 16:03shows become mainstream in the Western audience, the more
- 16:06people are going to notice you guys preferences for minors,
- 16:10especially when you're creating these groups knowing that you're
- 16:13going to give them sexually suggestive songs and
- 16:16choreography. We were robbed.
- 16:19That was a Yana spot. She is the perfect height, she's
- 16:22the perfect age, and she blends in well visually with the girls.
- 16:27Somehow we ended up with Sakura who is 1515 15 going on 16 was
- 16:35161516 and she will be working 14 hour workdays doing
- 16:41choreography like that on stage. Sakura is Hype's latest
- 16:44sacrificial member. Sakura is officially crowned as
- 16:46the last member of Prelude and seeing the reaction, I'm seeing
- 16:50a pattern. 4 out of five group groups that HYPE managers, they
- 16:54always have one member whose image are being sacrificed to
- 16:57start an online discussion so that people start fighting about
- 17:00her. And if you're an influencer, you
- 17:02would know that one of the easiest way to get your video to
- 17:04go viral is to say something that polarizes or to be
- 17:07controversial. Because when people support your
- 17:09risk or especially when people are fighting in your comments,
- 17:12then the algorithm will see all of this engagement and pushes
- 17:15your video more. And so Hype understands this and
- 17:18they always make one member of their girl group to be
- 17:20controversial. On the other hand, Hive is very
- 17:24obsessed with minor, very obsessed with debut minors.
- 17:26I don't know what's their obsession with having to include
- 17:28a minor in the group, but we got to stop.
- 17:30I feel like I think, you know, a lot of these groups will benefit
- 17:33off of having a grown like like a grown like concept, like
- 17:37Destiny's Child type Pussycat Dolls type concept.
- 17:41A lot of a lot of these groups could benefit off of a concept
- 17:43like that. But no, they always want to
- 17:45include children. I don't know what they're.
- 17:47I don't know what these companies obsession is with
- 17:49children like it got it has to come to an.
- 17:51End At the end of the day, it's obviously really sad to watch
- 17:53these three women experience such an intense pylon.
- 17:56And it's even more concerning that the controversy itself may
- 17:59have been planned for vibrality by the executives behind the
- 18:03project. Anything for views and clicks
- 18:06and money and engagement. That is the economy right now.
- 18:11All right, And the last story that I have for you guys today,
- 18:13Alex Cooper has officially revealed that she is pregnant
- 18:17with her first child. So she shared the news on
- 18:19Instagram yesterday, posting photos of her baby bump with her
- 18:22husband, Matt Kaplan, and captioned it.
- 18:24Our family, we don't know anything else yet.
- 18:26Like we don't know what she's having.
- 18:27We don't know her due date, but there's already so much
- 18:31speculation online about how this ties into the Alex Earl
- 18:33drama and also all of the lore that's been coming out about
- 18:36Matt and Unwell. There's a big narrative online
- 18:39that maybe she dropped this news to like deflect from the Alex
- 18:43Earl of it all. I don't believe that.
- 18:46I think she obviously posted that video while she was
- 18:49pregnant. Like Alex Cooper obviously
- 18:51posted that like call out video while she was pregnant.
- 18:54I feel like if she didn't want the drama, she wouldn't have
- 18:57posted that because she was staying out of the drama.
- 18:59Like it was Alex Earl that was like constantly like poking at
- 19:02her and poking at her and she was staying like silent and very
- 19:07reserved on the whole situation. And then she just like made this
- 19:10video and it all blew up. So I feel like if she was trying
- 19:13to deflect from that, like she started that kind of like, you
- 19:15know what I mean? Like she was one that like
- 19:17really instigated like the major blow up.
- 19:19I feel like that is not why she has posted her baby bump
- 19:23announcement because of Alex Earl.
- 19:25I feel like it's more possible that is to deflect from all the
- 19:29Matt Kaplan stuff and all the unwell stuff.
- 19:31I know people were saying like they did the YouTube up fronts
- 19:34last week. I think I think it was upfront
- 19:36where there were like a bunch of projects announced with Unwell
- 19:39and YouTube and stuff like that. And there was so much
- 19:41speculation online that Alex and Matt were like showing up as
- 19:45like a united front, putting on a brave face, even though it
- 19:48looks like they're going to get a divorce.
- 19:49Like everybody was like, Oh my God, this is so staged.
- 19:51Like these pap walks and all this kind of stuff.
- 19:53So I feel like because of all the negative press around Matt
- 19:57Kaplan and Unwell which spun off from the Alex Earl stuff, maybe
- 20:01that's why she decided to post her baby bump?
- 20:03Like specifically this. Weekend regardless she was going
- 20:06to announce this at some point like you don't just like get
- 20:08pregnant to deflect from drama and be that pregnant that
- 20:12quickly. So obviously she was already
- 20:14pregnant when all of this was happening, which would be really
- 20:17difficult to deal with if you're like in your first trimester.
- 20:19So I can definitely sympathize with that it's possible she
- 20:23chose this moment to announce because of everything it's also
- 20:25possible that this weekend was just like the planned time that
- 20:29she was going to drop this news anyways guys that's it for mini
- 20:32scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
- 20:34I I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
- 20:37and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US and
- 20:39I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye.
- 20:41Centennial World Podcast network operates on Gadigal land.
- 20:45We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
- 20:48traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
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