Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Alix Earle reality show, TikTok rainbow hair dye drama + viral airplane panic attack "ragebait"
Transcript
- 0:00Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
- 0:03daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
- 0:07from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
- 0:10Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
- 0:14I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
- 0:18media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll
- 0:22everyone. OK, reminder, I'm recording this
- 0:26one day early. So if anything crazy happens
- 0:29that I don't cover in this episode, that's why this was pre
- 0:33recorded. I don't know I I assume we will
- 0:36not be at 11,000 YouTube subscribers tomorrow when this
- 0:40goes up. But if we're not, we might be.
- 0:43But if we're not, please subscribe because we're almost
- 0:46there. Also follow me on Instagram,
- 0:47please. All right, let's get into the
- 0:49stories for today. So the first story that I have
- 0:52for you guys, of course I needed to talk about how Alex Earl now
- 0:57has her own Netflix reality show.
- 1:00So on January 22nd, Netflix and Alex, Netflix and Alex sound so
- 1:05weird. Netflix and Alex announced that
- 1:07they're coming together for an unscripted series that is set to
- 1:11drop later this year. Now, we don't know too much
- 1:14about the show at this stage, but at the time of recording,
- 1:17Alex announced the news with a clip where she's talking on the
- 1:20phone with her dad. Dad, it's going.
- 1:22To be fun, it's going to be fine.
- 1:24I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
- 1:27Just toss me. That'll be fun.
- 1:30According to a blog post published by Netflix, the show
- 1:34will be giving fans a quote unfiltered look at her life,
- 1:37which will include insight into her family life and friends.
- 1:40The post also includes some comments by Alex which give a
- 1:43little bit of insight into why she has decided to pursue this.
- 1:46For instance, when asked why a reality show, she said quote,
- 1:49I've shared my life for years through my own camera.
- 1:52But this felt like the next phase because it's a chance to
- 1:54go deeper. Not just the highlights, but the
- 1:57real moments to the vulnerable ones, the hard ones, and the fun
- 2:01chaotic ones in between. It's the same authenticity
- 2:04people know me for, but now with a different lens.
- 2:06OK, that is PR perfection. She also made a TikTok at ready
- 2:10with me about this. I am doing a reality show on
- 2:13Netflix. I can't believe I'm saying that.
- 2:15It's going to be me, my whole family and then some of my like
- 2:18inner circle friends. You also need everyone to be
- 2:21ready and on board. Like I can't do this alone.
- 2:23My hands are. Shaking right now.
- 2:26Because I'm so like excited and nervous, but the time has never
- 2:29really felt right. And I wanted to make sure like I
- 2:32was also ready because I mean, sometimes I would get in front
- 2:34of cameras and just get really shy and weird.
- 2:36There's also a whole side that you don't get to see.
- 2:39And especially when it comes to my family.
- 2:41And for example, like me and my sister are so drastically
- 2:44different. My mom, my dad, my stepmom, my 3
- 2:48younger siblings, so many different characters roles in
- 2:51life. Like I don't know, maybe someone
- 2:53relates to being a stepmom. Maybe someone relates to have
- 2:56gone through being a single mom. I want to take you behind the
- 2:58scenes of business ventures, tough conversations with my
- 3:02friends, my family. And I think when people hear
- 3:04like docu series, reality show, they just think like drama.
- 3:07And obviously I mean, that's just life.
- 3:10Like there's going to be drama and things that happen.
- 3:12But I really want like it to be comical and funny.
- 3:16Now, there has been speculation for years that Alex and her
- 3:19family would end up creating a reality type show.
- 3:23These rumors intensified in 2023, with social media
- 3:26convinced that a show called Earl Girls would be released.
- 3:30That is a mouthful, full mouth mouthful Earl girls.
- 3:36Some people at the time also thought it would be exclusive
- 3:39like unwell networks first reality show, but we know how
- 3:43that turned out. Alex, her friends and her
- 3:45families are definitely prime candidates for a reality show
- 3:48for a couple reasons. First, she's always kind of
- 3:51shared her friends online as well as her family.
- 3:54People are already invested in these relationships and this
- 3:57feels kind of like the next step, like she was saying in her
- 4:00PR statement. And I've seen a lot of people
- 4:02talk about how this feels a lot more native to through her
- 4:04content and how we know her than her podcast ever did, which I do
- 4:07agree with. Her career obviously is also
- 4:10skyrocketing right now, especially after Dancing with
- 4:13the Stars. And she does have an interesting
- 4:16blended family dynamic. I hope that they touch on that a
- 4:21lot. I hope that they share a bit
- 4:23about that. I'm interested to see how well
- 4:25it does because I know I recently spoke about how there's
- 4:28this misconception that seeing like these huge displays of
- 4:33wealth, it doesn't hit with audiences when we have shows
- 4:35like the Kardashians and Housewives and all of these
- 4:38franchises that do so well. However, I do think the
- 4:41difference here is releasing a show like this now we're like
- 4:44Alex's family. I know it's not about their
- 4:46wealth. I know it'll be about their
- 4:47dynamics, their relationships, and I understand it will be more
- 4:50like family friendly. But I still think they are so
- 4:53wealthy and Alex herself now individually is so wealthy.
- 4:56It's going to be so hard to avoid that, right?
- 4:59And I think it's more palatable for us to watch the like
- 5:03established franchises. Just I do wonder if watching an
- 5:07influencer family like this now who are so wealthy from our
- 5:12views, if that's going to land. I think we'll see.
- 5:16OK, the next story that I have for you guys today, has anybody
- 5:19else seen the rainbow hair TikTok drama?
- 5:24I need to talk about it. It's so niche I don't even know
- 5:28how this became drama but here we are.
- 5:31So there is this like TikTok drama happening between 2 users
- 5:35over an at home hair dye situation.
- 5:38So this at home hair dye situation didn't involve both of
- 5:42these women to start with. OK, It was one girl named Ari.
- 5:45She is 17 years old and another woman named Cheryl.
- 5:50Cheryl is not involved in the hair dyeing.
- 5:52She was just somebody who watched Ari's video.
- 5:55Ari dyed her hair. So Ari's mother dyed her hair.
- 5:59This like very amazing rainbow look.
- 6:02She made this very cute video saying my mom dyed my hair.
- 6:05It took us 8 hours. I love it so much.
- 6:07OK, Cheryl coming printed on the original video writing 8 hours.
- 6:11What did you guys do that took 8 hours?
- 6:13I'm legitimately befuddled how anybody's hair can take more
- 6:17than two to three hours and most of that's waiting, Ari
- 6:20responded. My mom is disabled so doing this
- 6:23kind of stuff is hard for her, but I'm so grateful that she did
- 6:25it for me. OK, I just need to start off by
- 6:27saying this is just not true. I literally told you guys
- 6:31yesterday that my hair, which is not rainbow, it is nowhere near
- 6:35as long as Ari's takes like 6 hours.
- 6:37And that is by a professional hair stylist.
- 6:41And I go to his professional salon.
- 6:43He's actually the owner of the salon.
- 6:45It takes six hours. Yes, he is doing more than just
- 6:48my foils, but I get a half ahead of highlights.
- 6:51The fact that this only took them 8 hours at home when
- 6:54neither of them are professional hairdressers.
- 6:56There are like a million colors in her hair.
- 6:59It looks so good. I can't believe it only took the
- 7:01maid hours. OK so then Cheryl responded
- 7:03again. I mean that would make sense if
- 7:05that's the case, but your hands are literally purple in the
- 7:08videos of you pulling your hair out of foils.
- 7:12Almost like you did it. Questioning if this girl is
- 7:16lying about her mother doing her hair.
- 7:18Why? Why does it matter?
- 7:20OK. And then it escalated because
- 7:22then Cheryl made a video about this.
- 7:24So there's this girl on here with rainbow hair, right?
- 7:27She just did her hair and she's talking about how it took her 8
- 7:31hours to do. Now her hair is probably like
- 7:34here, maybe here. So it's not a shit ton more hair
- 7:39than me. Not a shit ton.
- 7:41And so I left a comment. I never said anything about how
- 7:44the hair looks because the hair looks adorable.
- 7:46It's fucking cute. But that's not what I was going
- 7:48for. I said 8 hours.
- 7:51My my comment literally said 8 hours.
- 7:53How? What took you guys 8 hours?
- 7:55I'm legitimately befuddled and confused as to what take it took
- 7:598 hours. Apparently that makes me the
- 8:01biggest Dick on the fucking planet because I'm sorry.
- 8:05I bleach my hair about 40 minutes, done.
- 8:08Wash it out, put the color in another 40 minutes, done, Wash
- 8:12it out, done. I just wanted to know what took
- 8:15you so long because it takes me under 5 to do 6 colors in my
- 8:20hair. I understand I'm good at
- 8:23everything I try because I'm fucking autistic, which is why I
- 8:28was befuddled as to how it still takes 8 to 9 hours and $400.00
- 8:35for someone else do your fucking.
- 8:36Hair again, girl, why do you care?
- 8:41So then? Ari responded in her own video.
- 8:44My mother is disabled. She took her time out of her day
- 8:46to do my hair for me and on top of being already disabled she
- 8:49just injured her leg. And then on top of that she
- 8:51worked all night long, came home, picked me up, brought me
- 8:54to Sally's, brought me back home, and then immediately dyed
- 8:56my hair. When I said it took 8 hours, I
- 8:59misspoke. It took around like 6 or 7 hours
- 9:02to dye my hair again because my mother is disabled.
- 9:05I'm bringing this up because A, my mother deserves recognition,
- 9:08and B, because what is this whole direction on top of my
- 9:12mother being disabled? My hair is really, really
- 9:15intricate. She took her time, parted it.
- 9:18She did all these different colors, she mixed color.
- 9:21She did all this different stuff while being disabled.
- 9:24And my hands were dyed purple because I hold up the hair
- 9:27pieces for my mom as she dyes my hair.
- 9:29I help her a little bit. I help her a little bit because
- 9:32she's doing me a favor while being disabled.
- 9:35However, then Cheryl kept going. She has made so many videos
- 9:39about this and a lot of them are talking about how she's being
- 9:43misunderstood. One of her main points is how
- 9:45neurotypical people are coming into her comments section and
- 9:48you're talking about this whole situation and they're just like
- 9:51not understanding what her point was.
- 9:52I too am disabled by the definition.
- 9:56Is she physically disabled? Is she mentally disabled?
- 9:59Is she? Does she have some kind of heart
- 10:03disability? I apologize that I think that
- 10:06disabled people are capable of doing things.
- 10:09My error. So you've made two videos now
- 10:13about the fact that everybody and their mother that has seen
- 10:16this comment and video is misunderstanding the fucking
- 10:20point. Like I literally made a video
- 10:22about what the point is. The point is not the comment.
- 10:26The point is the response to the comment.
- 10:29Because the comment was a curiosity question.
- 10:31It was a fucking question. It wasn't a judgement, it wasn't
- 10:34an assumption. It was a fucking question and I
- 10:38got the answer. She's my mom's disabled.
- 10:42OK, but what disability does she have that would make take 8
- 10:46hours to do your fucking hair? I just woke up from a nap to a
- 10:51bunch of neurotypicals saying the fucking same thing over and
- 10:54over again. You guys are beautiful like you.
- 10:59You are literally no divergent people.
- 11:02Can you speak here? Because I can't believe that
- 11:04there's this many people here who are going to take the words
- 11:09that I've said on multiple occasions and still think it's
- 11:13about something else. I really want to reiterate that
- 11:15Ari is 17 and that's a huge thing that people are bringing
- 11:19up too. Ari is 17 years old and
- 11:22apparently Cheryl is 41. I don't know how TikTok users
- 11:25have verified that, but apparently, allegedly she is 41.
- 11:29Regardless, she is not 17. No adult should be feuding with
- 11:33a minor online. Like, we just need to let that
- 11:36go. So Cheryl's comments are filled
- 11:39with people saying like, it's weird to question Ari's mother's
- 11:43disability when she obviously mentioned her disability to
- 11:47imply that it affected how long it took her to do her hair, to
- 11:51do Ari's hair, right? Like, so you don't need to know
- 11:54more details than that. She is just saying my mom has a
- 11:57disability. So, you know, these things are
- 11:59not super easy for her. I'm grateful she did it.
- 12:02That just tells you what you need to know, that her mother
- 12:05has some type of disability that would have impacted the amount
- 12:08of time that this took. Nobody needs to disclose their
- 12:11disability over like a hair dye video.
- 12:14Her video wasn't controversial at all.
- 12:16She just said she loved the hair that her mom gave her.
- 12:19I just, I don't know how this turned into what it is.
- 12:22OK. So the final update is Cheryl
- 12:25has now apologized kind of. OK, guys.
- 12:28Are you happy? Because clearly I'm able to
- 12:30comment on her page so I don't have her blocked.
- 12:33I did not block her. None of that happened.
- 12:36But I did decide ultimately then I was going to apologize for how
- 12:42I made her feel. I'm not going to apologize for
- 12:44what I said because I legitimately didn't say
- 12:46anything. Mean, I did not bully anybody.
- 12:50I did not say it was a competition.
- 12:52None of that happened. And all of that was a
- 12:54misunderstanding that you guys put on me.
- 12:56So I am legitimately sorry for how I made her feel, but I'm not
- 13:01going to apologize for the misunderstanding.
- 13:04And then Ari responded basically saying this isn't a real
- 13:07apology. Can I just say Ari is so mature
- 13:10for 17? When I was 17, I would have
- 13:13never been even half as articulate, confident, poised as
- 13:20she is, as she's being in this situation.
- 13:22It is one of the weirdest, you guys.
- 13:26And I stand with Ari, that hair taking actually only 8 hours by
- 13:30somebody who's not a professional hairdresser.
- 13:32What a slave. All right.
- 13:33And the last story that I have for you guys today is there is a
- 13:37video that is going super viral by a Singapore based TikTok
- 13:42creator where she documented herself having a panic attack on
- 13:46an airplane. So this video is by Under Score
- 13:49You Mia, where Mia shared a compilation of her on a flight
- 13:53with the caption What I Ate on the Flight Anxious Flyer
- 13:56Edition. The video starts off with Mia
- 13:58talking the audience through her meals, but then it took a turn.
- 14:02Around halfway through the video, Mia explains the plane
- 14:04started experiencing turbulence, to which it cuts to a video of
- 14:08her literally screaming from anxiety.
- 14:11And I was. Really shitting myself.
- 14:13OK, I'm so sorry for the scream. Basically, it fell at the plane,
- 14:32dipped, and I screamed alongside.
- 14:33I'm so sorry for everyone who were on that plane because more
- 14:36than the turbulence itself, I think I scared everyone.
- 14:38OK, now I'm feeling much better. I'm moving on to a snack, orange
- 14:41juice. The video currently has 37
- 14:44million views. Now many people have been
- 14:47debating if this was a quote UN quote like real panic attack or
- 14:50if it was just for the camera. In the video though, Mia does
- 14:54acknowledge that this was quote so dramatic to scream that much.
- 14:57But she also says that there was a food flying in the aisle so
- 15:01that's why she was so freaked out.
- 15:02To be fair, if I was experiencing plane turbulence to
- 15:06the point where there was food flying down the aisle, I would
- 15:09be freaked the fuck out too. Mia has since posted a follow up
- 15:12video saying that the scream was real and that she also felt
- 15:16sorry for the other passengers near her.
- 15:18In the video, she also gave some context as to why she is scared
- 15:21of flying, where she said she was on a flight that had extreme
- 15:23turbulence and ended up fracturing her spine.
- 15:26I'm sorry to disappoint you guys, but it was, I am really
- 15:29sorry for all the other passengers from the same like if
- 15:32there was another anxious flyer on board, my scream rib made her
- 15:36journey so uncomfortable. I fully understand their pain.
- 15:38So that's the last thing I ought to do on the plane.
- 15:40Just because it doesn't look like anxiety that you know,
- 15:43maybe because you were never in a situation where you were
- 15:45afraid of. I mean, you get to decide
- 15:47whether my anxiety was real or not.
- 15:49I'll tell you how I got my fear. I was on this flight, which was
- 15:52extreme turbulent. I think it was more than 100
- 15:54injuries and one death. And let me tell you, when this
- 15:57happened, I was in the bathroom and I fractured my spine in my
- 16:01head. I couldn't even register it as a
- 16:03turbulence. I thought the plane was really
- 16:05going down. So this adds up to my fear of
- 16:08flying. In another video, she concluded
- 16:09that maybe she didn't experience a panic attack exactly, but
- 16:12rather PTSD from her previous experiences.
- 16:16OK, I'm not here to debate if she had a real panic attack or
- 16:19not. People experience panic attacks
- 16:21differently. I've actually had a panic attack
- 16:24on a plane. I've only had two my whole life,
- 16:25like 2 panic attacks in my whole life and one of them was
- 16:28actually on a plane and I was flying totally by myself.
- 16:31It was so horrible. But the man beside me, he was so
- 16:35sweet and he was like, I always get scared on planes and he was
- 16:39like giving me the barf bag and I was literally vomiting in the
- 16:42back. This is like TMI but I was
- 16:43literally vomiting in the bag and he was holding it for me.
- 16:47He was so sweet. And the flight attendants, they
- 16:49were all so sweet as well and giving me water.
- 16:51And I was saying and it just literally I have never
- 16:54experienced anything like that. It just came out of nowhere like
- 16:56nowhere like nothing happened. There was no turbulence.
- 17:00Like all of a sudden I just had a panic attack.
- 17:02It was so horrible and I feel so much empathy for people that
- 17:05experience random panic attacks like that because it was so
- 17:08horrible and I just couldn't believe like nothing actually
- 17:10triggered it. You know, that I knew of
- 17:12ANYWAYS. So I totally understand how this
- 17:14can happen. But I wanted to talk about it
- 17:16because it's actually sparked a lot of discourse about
- 17:18performative or like manufactured outrage and how we
- 17:22got there as a culture. And I feel like I have been, I
- 17:27don't want to say like caught in this trap, but I can understand
- 17:30why people post or like overshare.
- 17:32I can understand why people overshare online.
- 17:35There are things that I will post occasionally, like not very
- 17:38often, but on TikTok of me like crying or like just like sharing
- 17:41a story and then a couple weeks later I'm like, why the fuck did
- 17:44I share that? Like that's so embarrassing.
- 17:48That is not a good look girl. Like you need to delete that
- 17:50video. And it's like you just think
- 17:52that being Uber vulnerable is what you are supposed to do when
- 17:57you're trying to connect with people, when you're trying to
- 17:59share a story, you're trying to share a message that you really
- 18:02want people to understand. It's like, Oh, I can pull in
- 18:04this like very the TMI experience, you know, so that
- 18:09people can understand and, and we can connect on that.
- 18:12And especially for me trying to build a business, you hear a lot
- 18:15about how like the founder personal brand and like you need
- 18:18to have, you know, these moments where people really connect with
- 18:21you as the founder and therefore they'll connect with your brand
- 18:23and like all this shit, right? So like, it can really like seep
- 18:26into your brain. You can really start to believe
- 18:28it. So I, I understand why people
- 18:32over share online, but I think in this specific instance,
- 18:35people feel like regardless if it was a real panic attack or
- 18:39not, you know, she filmed it and then she edited it.
- 18:44And you know, in that time she could have chosen not to post it
- 18:48and she chose to keep it in there because she knew it would
- 18:51get engagement. And that is a form of rage bait
- 18:53at the end of the day. So it's kind of sparked this
- 18:55discussion around, you know, even if something's documented,
- 18:59we don't need to post everything.
- 19:01You know, like, I think we're kind of in the era of like a lot
- 19:03of stuff is documented. We over document ourselves.
- 19:05We don't need to actually over post it though.
- 19:07And avoiding or like not engaging in this type of content
- 19:13is actually the only way that will make it go away.
- 19:16The only way for us to be able to like move away from rage bait
- 19:20as being so central to our feeds is if we stop engaging in it.
- 19:24But it's hard and I'm part of the problem right now.
- 19:27Anyways guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
- 19:29Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
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- 19:38week. Bye.