Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Mikayla Nogueira identity crisis, Clinton Kane admits to Brook Schofield lies + celebs speak out
Transcript
- 0:00Hi everyone, welcome to Mini scroll, the daily Internet
- 0:04culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
- 0:07media, the creator economy and the digital space.
- 0:09Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
- 0:12I'm your host Lord Meisner, the founder of the Australian youth
- 0:16digital media brand Centennial World.
- 0:19Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone.
- 0:21I hope you guys all had as good of a weekend as you can have
- 0:26given what is currently going on in the world.
- 0:29That is what I will say. So I wanted to give you guys a
- 0:33quick update. If you're a YouTube watcher, we
- 0:36are going to start trialling a new marketing strategy to
- 0:39attract new viewers to the channel specifically.
- 0:42So if you are a podcast listener or you watch us on Spotify, this
- 0:45won't affect you. But on YouTube, what we're going
- 0:47to start doing because of obviously the algorithm is
- 0:48different on YouTube than on Spotify and Apple is we are
- 0:51going to start clipping some of our stories that are more like
- 0:55full on breakdowns into individual standalone videos.
- 0:59So many will not be changed. But sometimes when I tell a
- 1:01story from start to finish, I will clip that into its own
- 1:05standalone video, you know, make it thumbnail, whatever and post
- 1:07that. Because I do believe the type of
- 1:09content that we create, sometimes it performs better
- 1:12when people are searching things up, especially with AI and how
- 1:15it pulls so much from YouTube and stuff.
- 1:17So if it's like a standalone topic, we're going to trial it
- 1:20and see if that brings new viewers to our channel.
- 1:22So if you guys see a lot of like random extra videos and you're
- 1:25like, I just watched this in mini, that's why.
- 1:28Also right now the Grammys are happening while I'm recording.
- 1:31The perils of living in Australia is that it's in the
- 1:33middle of our day, so I couldn't wait until it was over over to
- 1:36record. But Olivia Dean literally just
- 1:39won best new artist, which is really exciting.
- 1:41Annabelle was gunning for Addison, but she said if it's
- 1:44not Addison, I'm happy. That's Olivia.
- 1:46OK, the first story that I have for you guys today is Michaela
- 1:50Naguera has opened up about losing herself to influence her
- 1:54life. So Michaela Naguera is one of
- 1:56the biggest beauty TikTok creators in the world.
- 1:59She launched her account in March 2020 doing tutorials and
- 2:02beauty reviews, and by that year's end, she had over 2
- 2:06million followers. She has since become one of the
- 2:08biggest and most well known beauty creators on the app.
- 2:11Part of Michaela's initial appeal with audiences was how
- 2:14down to earth and unfiltered she was.
- 2:16By the time TikTok blew up and by the time she had launched her
- 2:19account, the online beauty community had really evolved
- 2:22into a space where the biggest creators were really glamorous.
- 2:26They were really wealthy, they were really nipped and tucked,
- 2:29and they were really pushing consumerism on us, right?
- 2:32If we think about the 2016 to 2019 beauty guru era, it was
- 2:38mostly on YouTube and that was the vibe.
- 2:40So Michaela felt kind of like a breath of fresh air.
- 2:43People were excited about this new platform in general, like
- 2:45short form content, and they were excited to see somebody who
- 2:48looked more like them, had a more similar lifestyle to them.
- 2:51Obviously, her signature accent, I think helped her a lot in
- 2:54terms of being memorable. And so while she first gained
- 2:58mainstream fame for this relatability, over the course of
- 3:02her career she has faced a lot of accusations that she's
- 3:05changed. And these allegations happened
- 3:07to a lot of creators that make it really big.
- 3:09That's no surprise. But with Michaela, these
- 3:12accusations, I think, in my opinion, did feel warranted.
- 3:16Her content turned into that classic 2016 beauty guru
- 3:20content. But by that point, we were
- 3:22already in the throes of the pandemic lockdowns.
- 3:26Like we had changed, culture had changed, society had evolved,
- 3:31and it no longer hit the same. She was showcasing blatant
- 3:34overconsumption luxury halls with hundreds of thousands of
- 3:39dollars. She seemingly lied to her
- 3:41audience a lot. I'm sure you guys all remember
- 3:43Mascara Gate, but it was one of the biggest and kind of earliest
- 3:46examples of this where Michaela did a sponsored post for L'Oreal
- 3:50mascara and it appeared that she was wearing false eyelashes in
- 3:54her aftershot. But she was claiming that it was
- 3:57just the mascara and she was doubling down in the comments.
- 4:00And obviously maybe that was contractual.
- 4:02Like L'Oreal told her you cannot admit that you were wearing
- 4:04falsies or whatever it was. But either way, people were
- 4:07like, stop lying to us. So since then it's only become
- 4:11worse and she's constantly scrutinized because of all this.
- 4:14And I do want to say some of it may be unfair, Like Michaela
- 4:18herself may cop more criticism than others in the influencer
- 4:22space for doing similar things. But I think with Michaela, it's
- 4:25similar to Jaclyn Hill. They're not doing anything
- 4:28that's like so different than what a lot of other big
- 4:30influencers do. But the issue that people have
- 4:33with them is that they have an inability to listen seemingly to
- 4:37their audience and they can't take any accountability when
- 4:41they mess up. And so therefore it appears that
- 4:43they are just like shamelessly and blatantly so money hungry
- 4:47and that they will just throw their followers, their
- 4:49subscribers under the bus in the name of money.
- 4:52People feel very exploited by them.
- 4:54They feel like they're very greedy.
- 4:56So over the holiday period, Michaela took a step back from
- 4:59posting on social media, which she hasn't done very much since
- 5:02she started posting online. And then over the weekend, she
- 5:04returned with a video opening up about how she now can't
- 5:08recognize herself. She says she's changed.
- 5:11She's lost herself to being an influencer.
- 5:14Basically at the end of 2025 I had an extremely eye opening
- 5:19epiphany that I am completely fucking lost and I don't know
- 5:23who I am. I feel that I have gone down a
- 5:26path that I never wanted to go down and I'm disappointed in
- 5:31myself. I started this career living in
- 5:34my parents house in a small ass town.
- 5:36I moved into a one bedroom apartment in Johnston, RI where
- 5:40my career completely blew up and changed my life.
- 5:43I gained over 10 million followers in a year.
- 5:46My life changed very very fast in the blink of an eye during
- 5:51some of my most critical years, my 20s.
- 5:54You can laugh, you can say whatever the fuck you want about
- 5:57what I'm about to say, but I know that this is true.
- 6:00I fucking worked my ass off over the last six years.
- 6:05I put my fucking heart and soul into everything that I have done
- 6:10over the last six years to the point where it consumed me.
- 6:14I'm telling you first hand right now that as someone who is a
- 6:16larger influencer, everything you see online is fake.
- 6:21Everything. When you're an influencer, you
- 6:23are not present. You are planning your every
- 6:26move. You're planning what is the next
- 6:28clip, What is the next clip? What is my next video?
- 6:30What am I doing? What is the content?
- 6:32Everything you do is content. This point in my life, I only
- 6:38know who I am as the influencer Michaela because it has been all
- 6:43I have done for six years. And basically what it took for
- 6:48me to have this random epiphany is I reconnected with one of my
- 6:53closest friends from high school and they didn't see me as the
- 7:00influencer Michaela. I hadn't seen them in 10 years.
- 7:03They just saw me as the Michaela.
- 7:05They knew before I was an influencer and that fucked with
- 7:10me so much. But I see the comments saying
- 7:13I've lost touch and I'm obsessed with consumerism and the finer
- 7:17things in life and just the designer and all the bullshit.
- 7:20I see that you are right. You are right.
- 7:24I'm fucking lost. OK, so this video, she said all
- 7:30the right things, right? And I would say it seems like
- 7:33she hears her followers and understands what they mean and
- 7:36has possibly had this wake up call.
- 7:37And the response to her video has been very positive.
- 7:40There's tons of comments from people saying this is the most
- 7:43authentic that we've seen you in years.
- 7:45Like we're so happy to hear you reflecting on this kind of
- 7:47stuff. I personally am slightly
- 7:49hesitant only because I feel it's possible that she knows to
- 7:53maintain the level of success that she has achieved, she needs
- 7:58to start telling her followers what they want to hear,
- 8:01especially in today's climate. Her being based in the United
- 8:03States and everything that's been happening there, like the
- 8:06average consumer and Internet user has dwindling patience.
- 8:10I would say for out of touch influencers, for influencers
- 8:14flaunting this level of wealth. It's not that I don't think
- 8:17there's no truth in this revelation that she's had.
- 8:21It's more that I think after such an insane ride that she's
- 8:24been on for the past five years, it probably takes a lot more
- 8:28than just like 1 hangout with her previous high school friend
- 8:31to open her eyes to the work that she needs to do.
- 8:34I think it's hard for us as normal people to grasp how much
- 8:38it probably changes your brain chemistry to all of a sudden be
- 8:42world famous, have all this attention, so much money.
- 8:47Like her career really took off in this massively explosive way.
- 8:51And I see it similar to like the Demilios.
- 8:53However, the Demilios, I think we give them a bit more grace
- 8:56because they were much younger, but also I think because they
- 9:00didn't seem to feed into it as much as we believe Michaela
- 9:03feeds into it and they haven't changed as much as we believe
- 9:05Michaela has changed. I don't know if that's true or
- 9:07not, but I feel like that's our perception.
- 9:09And I think with Michaela getting all that attention, all
- 9:12that fame, all that money, like that's a level of positive
- 9:16reinforcement. Despite all the hate comments
- 9:18and the criticism, which is obviously negative
- 9:20reinforcement. The amount of positive
- 9:22reinforcement that she has had over the course of her career,
- 9:26it's been much stronger in terms of what she's gotten out of
- 9:28this. And so I do think it feels a bit
- 9:30premature for her to come online and say she's had all these
- 9:33realizations before kind of starting the work to untangle
- 9:36this because I do believe what she has gone through is is much
- 9:40deeper than she is probably giving it credit for, at least
- 9:44in this video. But I'm happy to hear this.
- 9:46And I think it's interesting insight into an incredibly
- 9:49visible but unique career experience that most of us will
- 9:52never have. And I do hope for the sake of
- 9:55herself and her audience that she finds her way back to who
- 9:58she was before all of this and can kind of like make peace with
- 10:01everything. Because no matter how you feel
- 10:03about Michaela, and even though she's obviously benefited so
- 10:06much from this career and you know, there's a lot of things
- 10:10she's done wrong or a lot of mistakes she's made, I also
- 10:13imagine it has been a bit of a torturous 5 years for her as
- 10:16well. All right, the next story that I
- 10:17have for you guys today, it's just the weekend of these public
- 10:22figures coming out and saying, OK, you guys were right.
- 10:25I'm listening now because Clinton Kane has made a new
- 10:29YouTube video admitting to his lies.
- 10:33So singer Clinton Kane, better known as the lying ex-boyfriend
- 10:37of Brooke Schofield, has come out to admit that he actually
- 10:40did lie about a lot of stuff in his early career.
- 10:43As we know Brooke and Clinton, they dated in 2021.
- 10:47And in July 2024, Clinton instigated some drama with
- 10:50Brooke after he posted a TikTok promoting his new song with the
- 10:53caption When you've been over the relationship for two years.
- 10:57But she won't stop yapping. So he captioned it.
- 10:59This because Brooke had been going on podcasts around this
- 11:03time and sharing about how she dated this guy who was in the
- 11:06public eye and he was a liar. And you know, she never
- 11:09mentioned Clinton's name as far as I know, but it was pretty
- 11:12obvious who she was referring to.
- 11:14In response to this video that he made, Brooke posted this
- 11:17expose. She posted like a bunch of tik
- 11:19toks about how Clinton was this huge liar throughout their
- 11:22relationship and she said he lied about so many mundane
- 11:25things. She gave tons of examples, but
- 11:27the main things that she claimed he lied about were his age, that
- 11:30his mother and brother were dead.
- 11:32He said his whole family was dead, both his parents and his
- 11:35brother. But she said his mother and
- 11:36brother were not dead and that he was also faking an Australian
- 11:40accent. Now, these were not just lies
- 11:42that Clinton told Brooke, like in their relationship.
- 11:45These were parts of his kind of artist story, quote, UN quote,
- 11:49that he told publicly on podcasts and in interviews.
- 11:52He would talk about his whole family being dead.
- 11:55He would talk about his upbringing in Australia.
- 11:57So this is very much part of his brand as an artist.
- 11:59And your mom passed. Yeah, your brother passed.
- 12:03And your dad? Passed.
- 12:04One year, yeah. Yeah, it was.
- 12:07A lot. So this went so viral, you guys,
- 12:10I'm sure you remember, but literally every mainstream media
- 12:13outlet was covering this. It's skyrocketed Brooke to
- 12:16mainstream fame. And arguably, I would say it
- 12:20also kind of sparked her, quote, UN quote cancellation as during
- 12:24this huge moment of fame and adoration for Brooke, obviously,
- 12:27she had more eyes on her. And as we know, when somebody
- 12:29has that experience, sometimes the Internet slew us.
- 12:32Go digging. And they found her racist
- 12:34tweets. OK, So now 18 months later,
- 12:36Clinton sat down on his YouTube channel to admit to his lies.
- 12:40He said he did lie about his mother and brother dying.
- 12:43He claims he didn't really know why he lied about it and that
- 12:46the lie was mostly for his inner circle.
- 12:49He says he didn't lie to get attention for his career, but it
- 12:52was more about his personal life and his own quote of quote
- 12:55trauma. And on his accent, he also says
- 12:58he did not lie about his accent. This video is what should have
- 13:02been sent back then. Let's start with my dad.
- 13:07My dad actually did die. He died in July 2020 when COVID
- 13:14first hit and it was fucking horrible.
- 13:16That relationship wasn't even really there to begin with at
- 13:20all. Prior to him passing, like I
- 13:21don't, I hadn't spoken to him in over 567 plus years.
- 13:27I went back to the Philippines to try to start dealing with it.
- 13:32Pretty much. I took part of my dad's ashes
- 13:36and I had my own sort of ritual. And that trip wasn't just about
- 13:42my dad, it was also about my mom and my brother.
- 13:45I lied about them dying, and I don't fully know why still to
- 13:50this day. You know, let me just kind of
- 13:52give you context. In around like March 2021, about
- 13:57when Chicken Tendies was coming out, I had put out a note on
- 14:00Instagram that a special person had died.
- 14:06And that person was a motherly figure who I had met in my
- 14:11travels and I lived with, and she was the one who passed away.
- 14:15She was my actual mother. But in my circle, I had told
- 14:19everyone then and there that my actual biological mom had died
- 14:25for reasons I don't truly know. Maybe I wanted those
- 14:31relationships to actually, like, be dead because they already
- 14:36felt dead. Or maybe it was a cry for help.
- 14:41Maybe I wanted her attention. OK, so I will say this is not
- 14:44totally different than the initial like TikTok series that
- 14:48Clinton released because in that series he said the same thing
- 14:52about this like motherly figure that it wasn't his mother.
- 14:55I don't think outwardly say, yes, I lied about my mom and my
- 14:58brother dying in this TikTok series like the initial
- 15:00response. But obviously in this video he
- 15:03has admitted to that and his story about his accent hasn't
- 15:06really changed. But I think the fact that he has
- 15:08sat down and made this, like, very formal video is what feels
- 15:11vindicating to Brooke and also to all the people that supported
- 15:14him and then felt like they were kind of blindsided by all of
- 15:17this. Now, Brooke has responded.
- 15:19She posted a selfie on TikTok with the caption.
- 15:21I'm a lot of things, but I ain't a liar.
- 15:24I do think that this is the move that he needed to make in order
- 15:27to move past this. Like, that was probably a dark
- 15:30cloud that was hanging over his career.
- 15:32It probably remains this big question mark while he continued
- 15:36to pursue music and build his career.
- 15:39So I mean, this is the right move.
- 15:41Also, can I say the video starts with him like petting a dog, his
- 15:44dog or someone's dog is, you know, all like wagging its tail
- 15:48and he's like petting this dog and he's kissing it.
- 15:50Whatever, being like I love you, whatever.
- 15:52And people in the comments are like, not you trying to start
- 15:54the video by like humanizing yourself with this dog.
- 15:57People are not really having it, not the same way that they're
- 15:59having Michaela. OK.
- 16:00And the last story that I have for you guys today, I thought it
- 16:02was important to cover the Creators Against Ice initiative
- 16:05that's happening. So American creators are taking
- 16:08a stand against ICE in a fundraising campaign for the
- 16:11National Immigration Law Center. The center was established in
- 16:151979 and, quote, fights for a society where everyone has the
- 16:18freedom to thrive, no matter how much money we have, what we look
- 16:22like or where we were born. The Creators Against Ice
- 16:25campaign is part of the Creator for Peace Collective, which is
- 16:28seeking to raise $100,000 for the center to quote provide the
- 16:32legal shield families need to survive now.
- 16:35Many creators have already donated, including Trisha Paytas
- 16:38who donated $10,000 and an additional $5000 from the Just
- 16:42Trish podcast. Jacksepticeye donated $10,000
- 16:46and Nicole Raffi donated $5000. Those are just some examples.
- 16:49In total, the campaign has reached over half of their
- 16:52original goal, currently sitting at $59,200.
- 16:56We are also starting to see more and more creators speaking out
- 16:59against ice who are not usually political.
- 17:02I kind of hate that we're labeling this as politics, but
- 17:05you guys know what I mean. For the purposes of this,
- 17:08Terrence O'Brien for The Verge noted this in a recent piece
- 17:11quote. That creators like Hank Green
- 17:13are speaking out is no surprise. But when fitness influencers,
- 17:16duck painting Tik tokers, football subreddits, and even
- 17:19Second Amendment rights activists have finally broken
- 17:22their silence, it seems like the government has lost control of
- 17:25the narrative. And the anti ice sentiment has
- 17:28continued at the Grammys, which is airing as I record.
- 17:30Like I said, Olivia Dean in her acceptance speech for best new
- 17:34artist shared that she is the granddaughter of immigrants.
- 17:37Bad Bunny also opened up his acceptance speech with ice out.
- 17:41And the red carpet was filled with artists wearing ice out
- 17:43pins including Justin Hailey Bieber, Billie Eilish and more.
- 17:47I guess I'm not surprised to see the, you know, musical side of
- 17:52the industry be more vocal about this because we saw what was the
- 17:56Golden Globes. And I think it was like, Mark
- 17:58Ruffalo was literally like the only person on the red carpet.
- 18:01Sorry, I don't actually want to say that because there were
- 18:03probably others and I'm not giving them credit.
- 18:05But he was one of the most vocal on the red carpet amongst like
- 18:09the actors and actresses who were talking about what was
- 18:12happening in America at the time.
- 18:14And I remember everybody was like, Oh, my God, yes, like
- 18:16Stan, Mark Ruffalo. And people were disappointed
- 18:19that so many others there weren't saying anything.
- 18:22So it is really good to see that the next kind of major award
- 18:26show, the Grammys, there are a lot more celebrities using their
- 18:28voice, using this platform and speaking out.
- 18:30OK. And the last thing I wanted to
- 18:32touch on, this is not a full story.
- 18:33I don't even have notes on this Sidney Sweeney launching her
- 18:37lingerie brand. I just find the strategy so
- 18:40interesting. Her audience, it's not women who
- 18:43are going to be buying this lingerie.
- 18:45Her audience are men. Like she should be launching a
- 18:48product for men, capitalizing on that demographic.
- 18:52And you know, that's not me being like, oh, I'm such a pick
- 18:55me. Like, I don't like when a woman
- 18:57so hot. We don't like Sidney Sweeney,
- 18:59not because she's too hot for us.
- 19:02It's because she stands for nothing and or stands in direct
- 19:06opposition of our rights. And she made that pretty clear
- 19:08in a recent interview she just did where she said she's not
- 19:11political and she's just trying to, you know, be an actress.
- 19:14And it's like, do you not realize that arts and politics
- 19:18are so deeply intertwined? Being a performer is deeply
- 19:23political. Anyways, that's all I'll say on
- 19:24that. All right, you guys, thank you
- 19:26so much for listening to mini scroll.
- 19:27I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
- 19:30and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 19:32I love you and I will talk to you guys tomorrow.
- 19:35Bye. Centennial World Podcast Network
- 19:37operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
- 19:40Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
- 19:43land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.