Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Trippin' With Tarte backlash, MUA vs. TikTok bride breakdown + Minecraft YouTube drama on Gen Alpha

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MINI SCROLL: Trippin' With Tarte backlash, MUA vs. TikTok bride breakdown + Minecraft YouTube drama on Gen Alpha · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini scroll, everyone.
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  I am so shook by all of the kind words and excitement for our
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  return for 2025. You guys were so sweet.
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  Like honestly just we were bombarded by comments of
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  excitement and well wishes and I'm just so excited for this
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  year. So thank you guys so much.
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  Before I get into the stories for today, I did want to let you
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  guys know that we have decided to close our Geneva group.
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  So we just haven't had capacity to be in the weeds of like
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  interacting with you guys, sharing stories in there.
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  And we haven't for a really long time.
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  So we made the decision instead of trying to like figure out a
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  way to make it work, to just close it for now.
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  That's like the, I guess energy that we're trying to bring in to
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  2025 is like if we can't work smarter, we definitely can't
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  work harder right now. We realized that 2024, our
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  capacity was like at its absolute limit.
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  So we're trying to find ways to kind of alleviate a bit of that
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  stress on like the admin side of things.
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  Into the stories for today. A couple of these stories I
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  realized after I finished recording yesterday that I could
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  have included them in yesterday's stories, but here we
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  are. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys is that Chart Cosmetics is facing backlash
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  again for an influencer trip that they are currently on to
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  Necker Island amid the LA fires. So Tart Cosmetics is currently
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  hosting an influencer trip on Necker Island and a lot of
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  people are not happy about them still going ahead with the trip
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  essentially amid the LA fires happening this week.
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  So I'm interested to hear your take on this.
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  I was reading a huge Reddit thread about all of it to kind
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  of gauge like the general feedback and it seems that there
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  are two major camps. The first camp is that TART is a
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  business. This trip would have been
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  planned well ahead of the fires. Obviously paid for all of that,
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  and disasters happen all the time around the world.
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  So why would TART kind of cancel this trip?
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  It's a work trip, it's not like the trip was to LA.
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  People in this camp seem to feel like the backlash towards Tarte
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  generally boil down to likability politics.
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  Chart is the number one culprit, as we know, for throwing these
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  kind of lavish influencer brand trips in our faces.
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  And some people are even equating these trips to rage
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  bait, which I had never really thought of them like that
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  before. But that is such a good point
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  and something that I'm going to keep a closer eye on because at
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  the end of the day, like any influencer trip that chart did
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  would get backlash. Obviously this one is getting
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  maybe a little bit more because of the timing of it, but again,
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  they couldn't really control that.
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  OK. The second group on the Internet
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  seems to feel like it was the wrong move for Tart to move
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  ahead with this trip because partly some of the influencers
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  on the trip might be from LA and Tart is an American beauty brand
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  and obviously American like beauty, fashion, makeup artistry
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  is so anchored in Lai think at first I felt more in the first
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  camp, but my opinion has changed now because of the content
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  specifically that Tart has been putting out around this trip.
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  So they are doing content where all of these like beautiful
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  people are packing donation packages and things like that on
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  this trip while they're all safe on like this luxury vacation.
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  And obviously it is a bit of like, damned if you do, damned
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  if you don't, right? Like if Tart was not being
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  public about any donations or anything that they were giving
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  back around this time, they would get so much more backlash.
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  But this content specifically, it does feel icky.
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  Like, it feels really performative, right?
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  It feels really tone deaf given it's like these gorgeous
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  millionaire influencers on a free luxury trip on this safe
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  island kind of almost performing activism.
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  That's how it comes across. I don't think people would feel
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  as upset about all of this if it was a different brand that took
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  everyone away. I think because it's tart it
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  feels even worse. And that is why the point of
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  like them putting on these trips as rage bait just resonated with
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  me so much. I'm like, that's actually such
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  an interesting theory. And I feel like it really leans
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  into the like, no PR is bad PR. And I feel like might be a bit
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  of an archaic mindset. But at this point, they know
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  that any trip that they do is going to get backlash.
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  And so the fact that they continued to move forward with
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  this trip despite the fires, I'm sure that they knew that this
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  was going to get them even more backlash.
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  So I don't know, it's really interesting.
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  However, they did, I don't know if it was this trip or if it's
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  their next influencer trip, but they are taking, I think it's
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  one or two like quote UN quote, regular people, like consumers
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  who get to bring plus ones on these trips.
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  And I think that's a bit of a progressive way to do these
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  trips. I think that's showing that
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  they're listening a little bit to the feedback.
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  You know, people are always like, why don't you just give
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  back to like your loyal customers instead of always
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  giving back to these influencers?
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  So I do think they're starting to listen to a little bit of the
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  feedback and the backlash, but it doesn't seem like they're
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  going to be slowing down these trips anytime soon.
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  OK, so there is a little offshoot drama from this.
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  So Ken Urich, who is a Tik toker, posted a teaser today of
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  a new podcast episode where she discusses the tart trip
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  invitation and how Brianna Chicken Fry was also invited.
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  So she said in this teaser that she was invited.
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  And then Tart was basically like, can we jump on a call like
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  with her management? So the brand let them know that
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  Brianna would also be going on this trip.
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  And in the teaser, Ken was like, well, maybe I'll get an apology,
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  but Brianna doesn't seem like the type.
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  I think she said the type of bitch to apologize.
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  So in case you missed it, Ken called Brianna out last year
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  after she did a Plan Bri Live podcast show.
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  Before the show, Ken, I guess sent a few topics to Brianna and
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  the team saying that these are kind of like her non
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  negotiables, like the topics that she will not address or
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  doesn't feel comfortable addressing on the podcast live
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  show. And I guess Brianna asked Ken a
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  bunch of those questions anyways.
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  So she made or she I think she did a take a podcast episode
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  about it that like went a bit viral on TikTok calling Brianna
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  out. I don't even know if she said
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  her name, but it was very obvious who it was.
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  So the craziest part of this is that Ken released this trailer,
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  like I said today, while they're all on this trip.
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  So she's on this trip, this like intimate vacation with Brianna
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  and drops this clip. That is the shady like petty
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  Internet like influencer shit that we just love here.
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  I just love how shameless that is.
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  Speaking of shameless shit going down on TikTok, the next story
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  that I have for you guys is that a bride has gone viral for
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  washing off her makeup 20 minutes before her wedding and
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  then posting it all on TikTok. OK so this is also something I
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  forgot to cover yesterday, but over the break a bride named
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  Lauren Avery posted a TikTok vlog of her washing off her
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  professional bridal makeup 20 minutes before her wedding.
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  In the clip she is like freaking out a bit before she washed,
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  pushes off all of her makeup saying she basically just hated
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  it, and then proceeds to do her own makeup.
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  The makeup she did herself. Like it looks good.
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  Sure a lot of people are like it looks the same.
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  Like I don't know honestly the picture she showed of herself
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  after was so far away I really could not tell what her makeup
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  looked like compared to the before.
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  But this clip went so viral for kind of the wrong reasons.
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  So normally I do think the Internet would rally around her
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  simply because, I don't know, doing that is super stressful.
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  It's kind of relatable. Like I'm sure there's so many
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  brides that get their makeup done professionally and you're
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  not used to seeing yourself in so much like heavy makeup and
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  you feel like you kind of hate it.
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  Like I think that's probably a relatable experience if you
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  don't get your makeup done professionally very often.
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  So yes, I think normally this clip would have probably gone
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  over well. However, there were two towels
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  in this clip that made the Internet kind of side eye her
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  and then turn on her first when she's washing off her makeup.
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  One her bridesmaids says something like, oh, she's still
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  here. Do you want me to tell her to
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  leave? Referring to the makeup artist.
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  So the makeup artist was still there.
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  So like rather than communicating with the makeup
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  artist, she basically hid from her.
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  They all kind of came together and decided what they were going
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  to do about like telling her to leave and then she redid it
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  herself. Second, when she's redoing her
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  makeup, Lauren says I can't wait to post this on TikTok.
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  The makeup artist was at Twirly Shears, so she herself didn't
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  even have TikTok, but she got TikTok to respond because this
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  went so viral and I guess people in her life were sending it to
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  her. Lauren didn't mention her.
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  She didn't say who it was, but I guess the people on her team
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  knew that Lauren was one of her brides and was sending it to
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  her. So the makeup artist confirmed
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  that Lauren did do a trial. She said that in the comments,
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  and she said she thought that Lauren was happy with her
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  makeup. She had no indication that she
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  wasn't. She thought she was so nice and
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  that everything went well. And then she also let us know
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  that Lauren's wedding was in August.
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  So she posted this video four months after that.
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  To me, this whole scenario is so indicative of like our obsession
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  now with these viral gotcha moments.
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  I do think if TikTok virality wasn't a thing and we weren't
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  also like fucking brain rotted. I, I don't think that Lauren's
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  first thought would have been like, let me feel myself taking
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  this off and redoing it because I know that this is going to do
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  so well on TikTok. I I do think she may have
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  thought like, let me just communicate this to my makeup
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  artist. But I'm also surprised that the
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  people who were around her getting ready, it seemed like
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  there was a lot of people. There were definitely
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  bridesmaids. I'm sure her like family, her
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  mom, if she has a mom, like, you know, I'm sure there was a lot
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  of people there in the room getting ready with her.
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  It sounded very busy. It seemed very lively.
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  I'm surprised that none of them said to her.
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  I mean, maybe they did and she just said no.
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  But you know, I think in that scenario, like no one in my
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  life, like the women in my life, my mom, my aunts, my friends
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  would let me take off all my makeup and redo it myself 20
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  minutes before while the makeup artist is still there.
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  Like they would pull me back down to reality and be like, she
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  is still here. So either you can communicate
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  that to her, what you want, what you don't like, or if you don't
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  feel comfortable because it's obviously your wedding day and
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  this is important in your stress, whatever.
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  Like they would do that for me. People were already kind of like
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  when the video went up and then when the makeup artist
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  responded, that's when everyone, like, really turned on her when
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  they heard more of the full story, like the time between the
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  wedding and when she posted this, the fact that she did have
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  a trial, the fact that, you know, it seemed like everything
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  went well, all of that. OK, The last story that I have
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  for you guys, I'm gonna recount a current drama that is going on
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  on Minecraft YouTube. Now I know that this is obscure,
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  but you guys also know that every once in a while I like to
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  do a bit of like a boy Internet story when I feel like it has
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  bigger implications and this one I feel like does.
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  So there's this three-way drama right now between Dream XQC and
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  Tommy in it. These are some of the biggest
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  Minecraft streamers on the Internet.
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  Dream also came into kind of like mainstream consciousness in
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  2022 when he did a face reveal. If you guys remember that after
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  years of streaming anonymously. So XQC he's this is the
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  background XQC. He streamed with Donald Trump
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  back in August and this week Tommy in it publicly called XQC
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  out for that stream. This kicked off a feud between
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  the two of them and then Dream was brought into it when XQC hit
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  back at Tommy Innitt saying his career was all about quote Dick
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  riding Dream. And now all of this has exploded
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  because Dream posted a meme about this feud in which he
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  called fans of Tommy Innitt the R word.
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  So he made his own meme and he called them the R word but he
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  did not say the R word. He like typed out the word Dream
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  got tons of backlash for this obviously and he has now tweeted
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  a response he said. Super annoying having certain
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  creators shit on me and my friends constantly when we never
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  say anything back. You shouldn't say the R word but
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  I'm literally autistic and the whole Internet loved everyone
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  calling me slurs so obviously people are being disingenuous.
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  I mean this wasn't an apology, just an explanation.
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  I posted a meme that I knew would make a lot of people mad.
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  I'm not surprised people are mad.
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  I don't take what the majority of people say on Twitter
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  seriously. OK so that's quite a non
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  apology. He's actually telling us that
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  he's not apologizing and saying that because he's autistic.
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  I guess he can use that word. I think is maybe his implication
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  there. So I wanted to cover this.
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  It's obviously a very quick story, but I think it's a big
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  deal because these are the boys who are like, so are like men
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  actually don't know really how old any of these people are, but
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  they give boy energy. They are some of the most
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  influential people to Gen. Alpha right now.
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  And this is so far from like the worst thing that's happening on
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  boy Internet. I think we all know that, but I
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  think it's important to cover these kind of controversies the
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  same way that we cover girl Internet controversies.
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  The media loves to cover like girl Internet feuds and whatever
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  is happening on girl Internet. But I think I think we can all
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  probably agree that what happens on boy Internet is arguably more
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  harmful and we need to give a bit more attention to it.
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  On girl Internet, we are basically being fed from a young
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  age how to improve ourselves to like an inch of our lives at any
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  expense necessary, right? I would say the main overarching
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  theme on girl Internet, the main overarching message is how girls
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  can improve themselves. Boys on the other hand, get
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  messaging like this, like they get this overarching message of
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  entitlement and ignorance. And at the end of the day, they
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  are learning from a very young age on the Internet from these
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  role models how to be hateful towards others, whereas girls
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  are learning how to be hateful towards themselves.
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  And that to me is the biggest difference between a girl
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  Internet and boy Internet. So I'm going to be coming for
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  you boy Internet in 2025. OK, guys, that's it for mini
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  scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please rate review and
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  subscribe. Please follow me on Instagram.
• 15:08
  I'm trying to get my followers up.
• 15:11
  I feel like every time I post because I'm starting to change
• 15:14
  my content a bit and like post more like vlogs day in the life
• 15:16
  stuff about like behind the scenes of the business and
• 15:19
  whatever's going on. And I don't know, like my OG
• 15:23
  followers are like not having it.
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  So please follow me anyways guys, I love you.
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  I'm so excited to be back and we will talk to you tomorrow.
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  Bye.