Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Freida McFadden identity reveal, Alix Earle shady repost, Manon Coachella update + LaBrants reportedly moving amid Tennessee child influencer laws

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Freida McFadden identity reveal, Alix Earle shady repost, Manon Coachella update + LaBrants reportedly moving amid Tennessee child influencer laws · 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.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like
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  today. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the Australian youth digital media brand
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  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll
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  everyone. OK for our YouTube audience,
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  that high stakes and mini scroll is a bit redundant and we got
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  one of those comments today on the new high stakes episode.
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  our podcast network channel where we publish everything but
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  high stakes and mini scroll. If sometimes we do cover the
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  same stories, it's because we're different podcasts.
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  So high stakes has its very own RSS feeds, you know, its own
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  social channels, its own audience.
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  But we just publish everything under the network umbrella on
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  the YouTube channel, which is why sometimes it seems a bit
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  redundant. So I did want to just address
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  that. We always reply to the comments
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  about it, but I thought, let me just address it here for anyone
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  that has ever felt that way or is confused.
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  All right, before I get into it, please, Please remember to rate,
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  We have a Patreon if you guys want more like behind the scenes
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  episode last night for you guys. Annabelle and I are doing one on
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  Tuesday and all that good stuff. Let's just get into it.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys today is book talk.
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  Favorite author Freda McFadden has finally revealed her true
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  identity. I did not know this, you guys.
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  I cannot believe that I didn't know this.
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  Because if there is one thing about me, it's that I am going
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  to devour a Freda McFadden book, OK?
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  I am obsessed with thrillers. I do not have like highbrow
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  literary taste. I fucking love her books.
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  I loved the handmade series. Handmade, handmade, handmade.
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  Yes, handmade housemaid. I was like the handmaid.
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  That does not sound right. That was made series I have
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  read, I think like all of her books.
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  OK. And I had no idea that she was
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  using a pen name this entire time and that she has been going
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  out in disguise, red carpets in disguise this entire time.
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  I was so shocked. OK, so if you don't know who
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  Freda McFadden is, she is the author of The Housemaid, which
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  was just made into a huge blockbuster film with Sydney
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  Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Her books are amongst the most
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  popular on book talk. And I think she's become kind of
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  like a Colleen Hoover, like one of those entry level authors
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  that if you are trying to get back into reading, maybe like
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  post high school, post uni or just as an adult in general.
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  I think there's a lot of women in their 20s and early 30s,
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  maybe not so many in their early 30s, but like me, but young
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  women who are reading her books and falling in love with reading
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  again through that. So now she has finally revealed
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  her true identity. In an interview with USA TODAY
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  published on April 8th, she revealed that her real name is
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  Sarah Cohen and that by day she is a brain doctor.
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  So we did know that she was a doctor.
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  That was always part of it, that she was using a pen name that
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  was public and that she is a doctor.
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  But we did not know her real name.
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  We knew, I don't know if we knew she was going out in disguise,
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  but regardless, she was going out in disguise.
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  Who's wearing a wig and wearing different glasses and she is a
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  brain doctor. Girl.
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  What? That's amazing.
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  She has been writing under the pseudonym since her very first
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  book, The Devil Wears Scrubs, back in 2013.
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  So that is 13 years of disguise. To be fair, I don't think she's
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  like going out very often as Frida McFadden.
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  But obviously with the handmaid. Oh my God, handmaid, housemaid.
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  Obviously with the housemaid, she was doing like red carpets
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  and stuff. So to maintain this double life
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  in public, like I said, she was wearing wigs and glasses.
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  The glasses are apparently real. And she explained that she loved
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  wearing the wigs because she had no idea how to style her own
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  hair. That's relatable.
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  And yes, her hospital colleagues apparently did find out.
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  So they saw her as Freda McFadden on an Instagram post,
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  like in disguise. And that is how they found out.
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  As for now, why did she decide to reveal this?
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  She told USA TODAY that she's tired of people debating whether
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  she's even a real person or as she put it, whether there's,
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  quote, three men that are writing her stories.
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  She had left her full time medical practice in 2023.
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  And with the house maid becoming this like massive film last
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  year, she said that the secret was getting harder to hold on
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  to. However, she will be keeping
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  this pen name. She wants to be known as Frida
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  McFadden professionally. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys today, this is T Alex Earl has reposted a shady
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  TikTok that was specifically about Alex Cooper.
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  So I saw this literally 5 minutes after it happened after
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  Alex had reposted it and I was like I need to screenshot my
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  proof. I need to download this video in
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  case she on reposts it in case this video gets taken down like
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  I need these receipts so I can tell you I have seen it with my
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  own eyes and I screenshotted it on my phone right after it
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  happened. So TikTok creator, the bravo
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  mom, she seems to be watching the unwell Winter Games on
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  YouTube right now and she made this video today calling out
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  Alex Cooper. She called her an ambulance
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  chaser, A grim Reaper and said she was quote so awful.
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  It was a very savage video. Let me play you it.
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  I would honestly compare Alex Cooper to an ambulance chaser.
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  Like, you just had the most horrific accident of your life.
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  You're, you know, hanging on by a thread, don't know if you're
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  going to make it. And she's the first one there.
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  She's the first one there. And she's a grim Reaper.
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  She wants to get the exclusive interview.
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  She wants to be there when you're vulnerable and you're
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  broken down and you're ready to sign over your rights to your
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  life. Like, she's so awful.
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  And I wish that more women, celebrities, female athletes,
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  reality stars, anyone, anyone who's a woman on planet Earth, I
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  wish they would stop making that their first stop after something
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  happens in their lives. Because she is profiting off of
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  womens''s like heartaches and failures and you know, all these
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  awful things that happen to women, she's profiting off of
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  it. So this is not like a casual
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  video about Alex Cooper obviously.
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  And I know Alex Earl has been shady here and there about Alex
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  on TikTok, but I think that this is like the most blatant that
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  it's ever been because this video was so savage.
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  And yeah, I saw it with my own eyes.
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  She reposted it. The comments are filled with
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  people being like, Oh my God, Alex Earl reposted this.
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  This is crazy. I need to know what happened
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  between them more than ever now. And I have seen since Alex's
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  skin care line came out and we know how long she's like worked
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  on it for allegedly she has said I think it was like 2 years or
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  whatever. Everybody always says that.
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  I have seen speculation that maybe they're falling out had
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  less to do with the fact that Alex Cooper was trying to make
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  Alex Earl maybe like the next raunchy party girl.
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  You know, Alex Earl has always been really open about her
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  partying and having fun, but she is still relatively like brand
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  safe. Whereas if you think about Alex
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  Cooper, she's a lot more brand safe now.
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  But initially she was not. And the way that they were
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  positioning Alex Earl helping launch the Unwell Network as
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  like one of the first talent was that Alex Cooper would kind of
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  be like passing the baton on to Alex Earl.
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  And in their first few episodes together, it really seems like
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  Alex Cooper was trying to get Alex Earl.
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  Oh my God, this is like going to confuse me so much to open up a
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  lot more about like not brand safe topics like sex life and
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  stuff like that, which obviously for call her daddy.
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  And Alex Cooper's brand was normal.
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  And she was trying to, I assume, move away from that as much as
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  she can as she gets older and she's married now and stuff and
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  trying to kind of like pass that buck on to Alex Earl.
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  But Alex Earl was really not having it.
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  And so there was a lot of speculation around the fact that
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  maybe Alex felt a bit pressured to like, be something different
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  by Alex Cooper and like the Unwell brand in general.
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  They wanted her to like, play this role that she wasn't
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  willing to play. However, now with the skin care
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  line, I've seen other speculation that could be true
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  as well, which is that maybe Alex Cooper or Unwell in general
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  wanted a cut of Alex Cooper's skin care line.
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  Like maybe there was some type of clause in the contract.
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  We know that Bravo does that allegedly that if somebody who's
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  on their network launches a company, they apparently get a
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  cut of it because they're getting like all this promo and
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  all this kind of stuff. So it's possible maybe that when
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  Alex Earl started working on the skin care line, Alex Cooper
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  slash like unwell in general was trying to get a cut of it.
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  I don't know, that's just speculation, but something very
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  serious went down here. I think it's very obvious now
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  that Alex Earl harbors a lot of resentment for Alex Cooper and
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  so do some of the other people that have left the network.
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  We've covered it before, but it wasn't the Daily Dish.
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  Is that what they were called? It like a pop culture podcast
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  And one of the host Hannah, she made like kind of a shady post
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  about Alex Unwell in general, saying this will make like a
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  great chapter in my memoir. So people don't have great
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  things to say. It seems about Unwell, but I
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  don't know if you guys feel like this, but I feel like lately
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  with the Alex Earl falling out, the Sofia memoir, the Hannah
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  Montana anniversary, I would say like flop like it did not get it
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  was not well received. And now on well Games, the
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  sentiment towards her has become more and more negative.
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  I was watching a YouTube video about Alex Cooper for some
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  research into this story and it was by Kayla says and she said
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  that she feels like maybe Alex is overexposed right now, which
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  obviously would be a bit detrimental to her image.
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  I do agree with that and I'm sure I have sat up here many
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  times and called a woman overexposed.
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  I understand that the idea of someone being overexposed and
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  feeling like, OK, they need to take a step back.
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  It's like it's an internal biasing.
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  It's like the audience is starting to feel a bit fatigued
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  with you. But I was thinking like, do we
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  ever say that like a man is overexposed?
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  I don't love the comparisons here because it is absolutely
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  not like apples to apples, but I was thinking like the whole
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  overexposed thing. Is that just something that we
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  say about like, women in the public eye who are like really
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  slaying their careers? Because regardless of the
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  sentiment around Alex Cooper, like she is slaying right now,
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  she's getting like every fucking opportunity.
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  And I can tell you if I was Alex Cooper, I'd be saying yes to all
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  those opportunities too. So I don't know.
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  It's an interesting one. But I would say in general, like
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  the sentiment online is that people are getting really over
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  Alex Cooper. They want somebody fresh to come
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  in. They want somebody new to be
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  like the first stop on every celebrity press tour.
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  Like, can we have somebody else? There's like a lot of hunger for
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  something different right now. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys today, this is a quick one, but it seems like
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  Mana will not be joining Cats Eye for their Coachella
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  performance. So back when we reported that
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  Mana from Cats Eye was taking a hiatus from the group, the
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  running rumor in the fandom was that she would make her come
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  back to the group during Coachella during their Coachella
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  performance. However, yesterday, her record
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  label Hyvee, issued a statement to the Korea Herald confirming
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  that she will not be performing at Coachella with Katzai on
• 11:38
  either weekend. They said Mana remains on
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  hiatus. Oh, yeah.
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  Annabelle also wanted me to let you guys know that she's really
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  championing to get to Coachella weekend too.
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  Now, since weekend one has basically started.
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  OK. And the last story that I have
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  for you guys today is the Lebrandt family reportedly is
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  listing their home in Tennessee as a new state legislation comes
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  into effect around family vlogging.
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  So as we know, over the past few years it seemed that family
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  vloggers fleeing LA for Nashville intro.
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  This included the Lebrand's, Brittany Xavier, Cicely Bachman,
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  Shannon Rose, just to name a few.
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  At the time, the rumor was that they were leaving the state of
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  California after labor laws were introduced to protect child
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  influencers. California recently passed laws
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  meant to expand protections to minors who work online by
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  requiring a portion of certain earnings to be set aside for
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  them, which is similar to child actors and the Coogan law.
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  So the speculation over why there seems to be this mass
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  exodus, I think it made sense to a lot of people, including me.
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  But early last year, the Rolling Stone did do an investigation
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  into this rumor specifically and found that actually many of the
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  family vloggers who left California for Tennessee did so
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  before the laws were passed. Obviously, that doesn't mean
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  that they didn't see it coming or that that wouldn't have
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  played a role in this. But I guess the Rolling Stone
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  was trying to figure out like, is this actually the reaction to
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  the laws? And it seems like it was more
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  complicated than that. However, it's possible now that
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  these critics may be vindicated because it seems like the
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  Lebrandt's are teasing putting their house up for sale in
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  Tennessee just as this new bill has been passed around child
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  influencing in Tennessee. So on March 19th, a bill was
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  passed in Tennessee that will enforce child labor laws for
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  social media influencers. And it is set to be signed this
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  month. So basically, the bill does not
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  allow children under 14 to appear in online videos that
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  make money. However, while that does sound
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  great, obviously most videos make money on social media.
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  If you think about like Adsense on YouTube sponsorships, the
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  TikTok creator fund is really rare in the US to have social
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  media content by an influencer that doesn't like rack up some
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  amount of dollars, right for views.
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  But there are a few caveats here.
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  So this law does not apply to the production and filming time
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  of monetized content, just like the footage itself.
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  So like all of the prep time, all of the actual time that
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  they're sitting there, like filming, like all of that
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  apparently does not apply to that.
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  Just like the actual footage itself.
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  This law only applies if a child appears in at least 30% of a
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  creator's monetized content over a 30 day period and the account
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  hits certain earnings thresholds as well.
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  So it has to hit $15,000 a year, or $0.10 per view.
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  If those requirements are met, the parent slash creator must
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  set up a trust fund for the child.
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  Now, some people are pointing out that because the law uses
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  the word and parents could easily avoid it by making sure
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  no single child appears in more than 30% of the content,
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  especially if they have multiple children like the Lebrands.
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  And they could also easily spread the kids across different
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  platforms or accounts. So no single account triggers
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  this threshold. So it's definitely not a perfect
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  bill, but it is a start, right? It's a start to some legislation
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  around this. Now TikTok is lit up with people
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  speculating that This is why the Labrands are putting their house
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  up for sale. I think that's a possibility for
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  sure. However, this house has actually
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  been up for sale before. So they put it up for sale in
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  2024 and then they took it down and now the real estate company
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  that's going to sell it again, I guess is like teasing it, saying
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  it's coming soon. But regardless, if the Labrands
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  themselves actually end up moving, it will be interesting
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  to see if these family vloggers who just like happened to move
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  from California to Tennessee right before these laws came
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  into place if they stay or if they leave.
• 15:24
  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 15:27
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
• 15:29
  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe Spotify star rate
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  US and I will talk to you on Monday.
• 15:35
  Bye. Centennial World Podcast network
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  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
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  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
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  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.