Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Optimisation culture pushback, Patrick Ta x Jackie Aina blush updates + court date for viral driver
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up today on mini scroll, Internet users are turning on
- 0:04optimization culture. We have some Patrick Taw
- 0:07transition blush updates and the creator who got a fine for
- 0:11holding her phone in her right hand while driving when she
- 0:14doesn't even have a right hand to begin with has gone to court.
- 0:18Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
- 0:22culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
- 0:25media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
- 0:28through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
- 0:30I'm your host, Lauren Meissner, the founder of the youth digital
- 0:34media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
- 0:38everyone. OK, fun little tidbit for you
- 0:41guys. If you guys want to hear more
- 0:42from me, you probably don't hearing me like 5 days a week in
- 0:45your ears. But if you do want to hear more,
- 0:47I did an interview on the Female Startup Club podcast last week
- 0:51and it's gone Live Today, so I will link it in the show notes
- 0:54if you guys want to take a listen.
- 0:55We talked about like the business journey and honestly, I
- 0:58can't really listen to myself, so I don't really know what was
- 1:00left in, but we talked about the business journey and like the
- 1:03behind the scenes of building and that kind of stuff.
- 1:05All right, in classic, actually, I feel like today is not that
- 1:08weird. I was going to say in classic,
- 1:09like Friday mini vibes, we have some random stories.
- 1:13I feel like today's isn't so bad.
- 1:17We'll see. OK, let's get into the stories
- 1:19for today. So the first story that I have
- 1:21for you guys today is there's this growing conversation online
- 1:24right now about personal optimization culture and how in
- 1:27the pursuit of essentially peak well and productivity, we are
- 1:32collectively losing the meaning of life.
- 1:35So this sounds really heavy, but essentially the conversation
- 1:37started after a clip of Stephen Bartlett, who is the host of
- 1:40Diarrhea of ACEO went viral this week in which he talks about a
- 1:43recent time when he had a few glasses of wine and it ruined
- 1:47the next three days of his life. He said he had poor sleep, lower
- 1:51energy, worse workouts and decreased focus.
- 1:54And he tracked this all on his Is it whoop?
- 1:57Is that what it's called the whoop watch or whatever Whoop.
- 2:00I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn't get drunk.
- 2:03It ruined 3 days of my life because of the the domino effect
- 2:06it caused. So it meant that I got worse
- 2:08sleep that night and then because I got worse sleep that
- 2:10night, I ate more poorly the the next day because my my dopamine
- 2:13system or whatever the cortisol system was all messed.
- 2:16Up. And then I, I podcasted worse.
- 2:19I didn't go to the gym the, the day after that, that day or the
- 2:22day after because of that, because I felt really bad.
- 2:24I then slept worse and I could track all of this on my week.
- 2:26Hashtag add #sponsor #investor. Whatever.
- 2:28So this clip has spawned infinite responses, many from
- 2:32other really influential business people and creators who
- 2:35are using it as like a jumping off point to talk about how far
- 2:38we've gone with optimization culture.
- 2:40And for what? Like what is the point in all of
- 2:43this? Optimization culture has gone
- 2:45too far and it is spiritually killing us.
- 2:48Stephen Bartlett posted a video that he had a few glasses of
- 2:51wine and it ruined the next three days of his life.
- 2:53His sleep score was off, he ate poorly and couldn't go to the
- 2:56gym. Now take it from me, a reformed
- 2:58optimizer. I logged my activity for three
- 3:00years straight when I woke, what I drank, whether I exercised.
- 3:04I tally this up at the end of the year.
- 3:05But for what? A moral superiority that I drank
- 3:08less or that I exercised 5 1/2 days a week?
- 3:11We need a 90 sleep score, 10,000 steps a day, a bed cooled to 68
- 3:15degrees, 6 miles on Strava, all for us to be better at sending
- 3:18emails or talking on a podcast. We have gummies for sleep,
- 3:22supplements for stress, nicotine for focus.
- 3:24All done for the promise of a better, happier self.
- 3:27We've been optimizing for years, yet somehow we are more
- 3:30isolated, more anxious and less happy.
- 3:32Optimization culture teaches us how to live longer while
- 3:35completely missing the point of why we're even alive.
- 3:38We used to think that drinking a little bit of alcohol was better
- 3:41for you than drinking no alcohol at all, and we have since
- 3:43learned that that is not true. There is no amount of alcohol
- 3:46that's better for you than no alcohol.
- 3:48But what is good for you is hanging out with your loved ones
- 3:51in catching a vibe or like relaxing and enjoying a good
- 3:54meal. All things that often happen
- 3:56while you're consuming alcohol. So for a long time, we took the
- 3:59correlation between drinking alcohol and enjoying yourself
- 4:03and accredited the positive effects to the alcohol itself
- 4:06when it's really just about the catching a vibe part.
- 4:08But there's something to be learned in this, which is that
- 4:11it is often not in doing the thing that is most good for us
- 4:14at any given moment that can be better for us in the long term.
- 4:18I think it's really critical that we analyze what these
- 4:22thought leaders are saying even in passing.
- 4:25And my belief is that the optimization culture has gotten
- 4:29out of control. It is robbed an entire
- 4:31generation of joy because of the demonization of fun.
- 4:36If you don't have a perfect sleep score, if you don't get up
- 4:38and have a green juice and go to yoga, Oh well, you're you're the
- 4:41worst. Oh, my God.
- 4:42You know, that's the, that's the worst thing that you could
- 4:44possibly do for yourself. Yeah.
- 4:47Have you noticed happiness levels have been plummeting?
- 4:49Maybe that's because we're monitoring every single thing
- 4:52about ourselves. OK, so I wanted to talk about
- 4:54this discussion because I think social media is a huge culprit
- 4:58in the takeover of optimization culture and I also think
- 5:02technology as a whole. So we are constantly exposed to
- 5:06everyone's highlight reel, which we have been for a really long
- 5:08time. But with TikTok specifically, we
- 5:12are constantly exposed to everyone's like productive day
- 5:15in the life. They're hyper structured
- 5:17routines, their Wellness hacks, their endless self improvement.
- 5:20And that's not to say that this didn't exist online before, but
- 5:24you know, you kind of had to seek out that content before.
- 5:26If you think about it in terms of like YouTube or something
- 5:28where you find a video and then you actively choose to watch it.
- 5:32TikTok, on the other hand, it just exposes us to content,
- 5:36whether we want to see it or not.
- 5:37It's like passive consumption that we're exposed to when we're
- 5:40endlessly scrolling. And we did see this type of
- 5:42messaging within the hustle bro millennial girl boss era where
- 5:47it was like prioritize productivity over rest.
- 5:50However, there are some differences that I see between
- 5:53that era and now. One of the main differences as
- 5:56someone who came of age in that peak time.
- 5:57And as a result, I am very girl boss coded.
- 6:00I say that all the time. It is so hard for me to
- 6:02deprogram, especially because I am like a quote UN quote
- 6:06founder. Well, I am a founder, but you
- 6:07know what I mean? Like I, I have to kind of like
- 6:09walk that walk sometimes. It's so hard for me to deprogram
- 6:13that despite me knowing better. But you know, we worked hard,
- 6:16but we also played hard. Like that was the mentality back
- 6:21then. Now we just have like, work hard
- 6:24and rest hard so that you can be optimized for working hard.
- 6:29Like truly, even in the most toxic height of this, like
- 6:33millennial hustle culture era, the mindset of working hard and
- 6:38girl bossing to the top was so that you could make money and
- 6:41have freedom to have fun. This is from Tom Ward for Inside
- 6:45Hook. He writes quote why we're so
- 6:47obsessed with being more and being better right now.
- 6:49Psychotherapist Eloise Skinner thinks is partly to do with the
- 6:52effects of capitalism. In this system, output,
- 6:55productivity levels and performance are highly regarded,
- 6:58and with wearable trackers and helpful apps everywhere, it's
- 7:01easier than ever to keep score. Quote.
- 7:03When we see optimization aligned so closely with the prevailing
- 7:06cultural values, we can end up feeling like our pursuit of
- 7:09better is linked to our self worth, identity, and personal
- 7:12values, she says. The narrative suggests that if
- 7:15we're not diligently tracking our health metrics or
- 7:17meticulously refining our routines, we're somehow falling
- 7:20behind, adds clinical psychologist Dr. Sarah Bishop.
- 7:23Ironically, the more we struggle to meet these unrealistic
- 7:26standards, the worse we feel about ourselves, leading to a
- 7:29sense of worthlessness. And yes, I believe the other
- 7:32element of this is all the tech that Skinner mentioned in that
- 7:35quote plays a huge role in it, right?
- 7:37Like millennials and other generations.
- 7:39Like we could play hard without the guilt.
- 7:42There was no like tangible proof in the moment that what we were
- 7:45doing was like destroying our bodies.
- 7:47Like if you guys have ever partied with your Apple Watch on
- 7:49or anything like that, you know how horrifying it is to see that
- 7:53data. Or even with just stress, Like
- 7:54even if you haven't been drinking or anything and you see
- 7:57your stress levels, like all of that is adding to your stress.
- 8:00Like all of that is just not good for you to know, in my
- 8:03opinion. So I really believe the lack of
- 8:05information that we had on how all of that was affecting our
- 8:08bodies, that led to more flexibility and like what we
- 8:12expected from ourselves. And I also think that led to
- 8:15significantly less guilt. And therefore there was like no
- 8:18moral judgement or moral value placed on having fun.
- 8:22There's so much judgement that people put on themselves now,
- 8:26but also on others when we watch them have fun, including online.
- 8:31There's this, like, sense of moral superiority for those who
- 8:34seem to prioritize, like their quote UN quote Wellness by being
- 8:38like, I don't know what's the trend?
- 8:39Like, being like, I'm such a grandma at 20 years old.
- 8:41I go to bed at 9:00 PM every night.
- 8:44And like, obviously I'm not saying drinking and partying is
- 8:47good for you or that you should be going out and doing this.
- 8:49And like, God knows, I was a party girl in my 20s.
- 8:52But like, if I had several glasses of wine, that would also
- 8:55ruin my next three days. Like, I understand what Stephen
- 8:57Bartlett is saying there because I cannot hang like I used to.
- 9:01But the point is like there is this middle between like going
- 9:05so hard and then like doing nothing.
- 9:09You know where life happens? It life happens in that middle
- 9:12life, especially when you're young.
- 9:14Like it can't just all be about making sure you get 8 hours of
- 9:17sleep every single night. Like exactly like for what?
- 9:20For what? Yes, of course, most of the time
- 9:23that is great, that's healthy for you and you're going to feel
- 9:26your best. But like for what?
- 9:28And anyone who knows me in real life, if you're listening to
- 9:30this, you're probably like, that is so ironic because literally I
- 9:35prioritize being optimized so that I can work on any given day
- 9:39for as long as I need to. Like, that is the priority in my
- 9:41life. But that's because I'm like in
- 9:43this phase of life of like trying to build a business.
- 9:46Like I had 10 plus years before this of like truly living like
- 9:51going so hard, having so much fun, prioritizing having fun
- 9:54over everything. And that was also when I was the
- 9:57happiest 100%. So on this Friday mini scroll, I
- 10:01implore you to go out and enjoy the weekend.
- 10:04I won't because I will be writing a grant for Centennial,
- 10:07but I implore you to go have fun.
- 10:11Take off your Apple Watch, take off your whoop or whatever your
- 10:14aura ring and just like, have fun, OK?
- 10:16Who cares if you don't sleep? Who cares if you don't make it
- 10:18to the gym? Just have fun.
- 10:20Know your limits, but have fun. Have fun responsibly.
- 10:23OK, the next story that I have for you guys today is we have a
- 10:26Patrick Todd transition blush update.
- 10:29I have a few updates here so I covered this earlier this week,
- 10:32but Patrick Todd, he released transition blushes.
- 10:35His brand released transition blushes inspired by a technique
- 10:38that has been popularized by a smaller black makeup artist
- 10:41painted by Esther. So first Kevin Aquan, the brand
- 10:44has come out backing Esther in a TikTok caption.
- 10:47So Kevin is credited as popularizing the technique in
- 10:50Western beauty like back in the day, and Esther frequently
- 10:53credits him as her source of inspiration now as she's
- 10:56bringing it into the mainstream again.
- 10:58So this is what they wrote. We heard Transition Blush is
- 11:00having quite the moment right now.
- 11:01Long before the term started circulating online.
- 11:04This technique was first published by legendary makeup
- 11:06artist Kevin Aquan and later refined by incredible artists
- 11:09like Painted by Esther in 2018. Our Neil Blush was created with
- 11:13the purpose of honoring Kevin's legacy and teachings.
- 11:16We've been delivering customizable color, dimension,
- 11:18and glow for almost a decade. Just a little beauty history
- 11:22lesson then Internet news have discovered a post from 2025
- 11:26where Patrick is doing the blush technique in a makeup tutorial
- 11:29and he specifically calls it quote my version of painted by
- 11:34Esther. And then just one day ago,
- 11:36Patrick's team did an interview with Glossy and which they claim
- 11:40that Esther was given the opportunity to collaborate with
- 11:43Patrick Taw on the blushes. Let me read you this excerpt so
- 11:46it reads quote In her TikTok, Painted by Esther recalled an
- 11:49experience in which Rima Minnesean Co founder of Patrick
- 11:52Taw Beauty and reached out to hire her for a personal
- 11:55professional makeup application in Los Angeles.
- 11:58So remember Painted by Esther, she said that Patrick's team
- 12:02reached out and tried to book her and then when they asked if
- 12:05they could film the booking, she got weirded out and cancelled
- 12:09the booking. OK, so this says an appointment
- 12:12Esther alleged that she cancelled when she found out
- 12:14they wanted to film the session. The representative for TA's
- 12:17Brand, however, said the appointment was cancelled due to
- 12:19a same day rate change and not the tone of the correspondence
- 12:22never changed, remaining positive throughout.
- 12:25In emails reviewed by Glossy, this account was corroborated.
- 12:28An employee of Miniseans canceled the appointment after
- 12:31learning the rate differed from what had originally been quoted,
- 12:34adding that she hoped the two could work together in the
- 12:36future. The emails did not mention
- 12:38social content as an issue or as a reason for the pricing change,
- 12:42and Esther's agent had referenced the inclusion of
- 12:45social content in the initial e-mail outlining her rate.
- 12:48To quote this launch was never about claiming ownership over a
- 12:50makeup technique that artists have interpreted over time.
- 12:53I have a great deal of respect for Esther and the creativity
- 12:56she brings to the beauty space. Toss said the representative for
- 12:59Todd and Todd himself both stated that the brand had hoped
- 13:03to work with Esther in a paid capacity to launch the
- 13:05transition collection. Quote.
- 13:07Prior to launch, I personally reached out because I genuinely
- 13:10admired her work and hoped to do a paid collaboration artist to
- 13:13artist. My team also followed up
- 13:15regarding a paid partnership opportunity for this launch,
- 13:17however her team declined. I've always respected Esther's
- 13:20artistry and would absolutely remain open to collaborating
- 13:23with her in the future. Talk continued.
- 13:25The current narrative makes it appear as though the brand is
- 13:27trying to be deceitful or steal something, but that was never
- 13:30the case, the representative said.
- 13:32They added that the Patrick Todd Beauty team had discussed how it
- 13:35may collaborate with Esther to launch the collection.
- 13:37OK, so it seems like myself and others were misguided or wrong
- 13:42in assuming that they hadn't offered to do anything paid with
- 13:46Esther for this. I understand why Esther didn't
- 13:48want to. She said in her original video
- 13:50that she's had several kind of like weird instances with
- 13:53Patrick Taw or his brand. So I understand why she may have
- 13:57chosen to decline. OK, and now Jackie Ina is
- 13:59involved in some of this controversy because she posted a
- 14:02review of the blushes a few days ago.
- 14:04And then she got a ton of backlash because, you know, this
- 14:07whole situation, people were hoping that she would have been
- 14:09supporting Esther and I suppose like not promote the blushes in
- 14:13some way or review them in some way because of the situation.
- 14:16So while she was getting this backlash, people were in her
- 14:18comments saying she should be using Juvia's Place blushes
- 14:21instead of Patrick's because I guess Juvia's Place has similar
- 14:25blushes and has for a while. And then Jackie made this
- 14:29response video. Let me play some clips.
- 14:31So here's the thing. I'm never going to support
- 14:34Juvia's place. There's never going to be a
- 14:37scenario where I will turn on my camera or my phone, recommend
- 14:40the products, endorse the brand ever.
- 14:43I don't even really like mentioning the brand because
- 14:46they've proven before they can not take constructive criticism
- 14:50from me, from me specifically. I'm also never going to tell you
- 14:55guys collectively as consumers and as viewers to use or to not
- 15:01use a brand. If you feel a way about Patrick,
- 15:04TA, Patrick's cool, but that's your business.
- 15:08It is not my job to fight his battles and it never will be.
- 15:12If you guys collectively don't want to support Patrick as a
- 15:15brand, you absolutely have that right.
- 15:18But what I think is extremely ironic and problematic, and you
- 15:22know there's an issue when I get to point in that finger, you
- 15:26will absolutely not call me a sellout.
- 15:30You will absolutely not call me a hypocrite.
- 15:33You will absolutely not say that I pick and choose while also
- 15:37name dropping Juvia's place in my comments section.
- 15:39You. Absolutely.
- 15:40OK, so the reason why she's saying she will never support
- 15:43Juvia's Place is this goes back to 2019.
- 15:47In 2019, online beauty people, people that were following the
- 15:51beauty space, started questioning why a few popular
- 15:54Black influencers, including Jackie and Alyssa and Alyssa
- 15:57Ashley, hadn't posted reviews of Juvia's Place first foundation
- 16:01launch. And at first, Alyssa tried to
- 16:03chalk it up to poor communication and then both
- 16:06ended up speaking out against the brand, saying that Juvia's
- 16:10Place does not build relationships with Black
- 16:13creators and instead prioritizes building relationships with
- 16:16creators like Nikki Tutorials and Jeffrey Star.
- 16:19And then Jeffrey Star bought the foundation and endorsed the
- 16:23foundation, like gave it a positive review.
- 16:25And Juvia's Place publicly thanked him for this, which
- 16:29really set people off, including Jackie, given Jeffrey's history
- 16:33of racist behavior towards black women and Jackie specifically.
- 16:37So then the founder of Dubious Place, she responded directly.
- 16:40She targeted Jackie Ina specifically with accusations of
- 16:44shady business practices in a tweet that she later deleted.
- 16:47And then she questioned whether Jackie was actually pro black,
- 16:51suggesting Jackie should focus her energy on issues like
- 16:53poverty in Africa rather than criticizing businesses online.
- 16:58She got so much heat for this that she actually ended up
- 17:02leaving Twitter completely after this, apparently.
- 17:05So, yeah, like, I don't know if it was necessary for Jackie to,
- 17:07like, bring Juvia's place up like this in this response, but
- 17:12I understand why she was frustrated seeing people be
- 17:15like, come on, why aren't you supporting this brand?
- 17:18Why are you supporting Patrick Tall when he's like, quote, UN
- 17:20quote stolen? Like, I know he hasn't stolen,
- 17:22but, you know, quote, UN quote stolen or whatever from this
- 17:25black makeup artist. And she's trying to say, like,
- 17:28you don't realize what you're recommending to me.
- 17:30Like, you don't know the history here, right?
- 17:32And the last story that I have for you guys today, I have an
- 17:35update on the creator who went viral back in February when she
- 17:40claimed that she got a fine for holding her phone in her right
- 17:42hand while driving when she actually doesn't even have a
- 17:45right hand. So back in February, a woman
- 17:48posted claiming that she'd been pulled over by a police officer
- 17:51and given a ticket for using her phone while driving.
- 17:54She said the ticket claimed that she was holding her phone in her
- 17:56right hand, but as she showed on camera, she actually doesn't
- 17:59have a right hand turns. Out you can still get a ticket.
- 18:02Take it for. Driving with a device in your
- 18:03right hand, even if you don't have a right.
- 18:05Hand all. Right, man.
- 18:07So you're going to receive a citation for wireless
- 18:09communication device handheld while driving?
- 18:11You can't. We got to put the phone down as
- 18:12we operate a motor vehicle. Oh, and you put on there that
- 18:14you saw me with my right hand holding it.
- 18:16Yeah, not put. That no if you want to take it.
- 18:17Away. But that's what you said when
- 18:18you pulled me over. Yes?
- 18:20That you saw me holding my device with my right hand.
- 18:22Disagree. With you, Yes, that's what I'm
- 18:23saying. OK, yes, if you want to take.
- 18:24It to court and that's what you saw.
- 18:27That's what I said. I said that's what you said you
- 18:28saw, OK. OK.
- 18:29Take it to court. Option 5 on the back of the
- 18:31ticket. That's how you take that ticket
- 18:32to court. Any questions for me?
- 18:34No, thank you have. A good.
- 18:36Day this went so viral understandably and Internet
- 18:38users, they did start calling it nub gate, which she never called
- 18:42it that. So I said this in the first
- 18:44episode when I covered this back in Feb.
- 18:46But like if you see anyone using that, I don't think that she
- 18:49necessarily wants it to be called that.
- 18:50So just keep that in mind. But basically everyone in the
- 18:53comments section was saying like you've got to take legal action
- 18:55like please take this to court. She ended up deleting the
- 18:58videos. I think they just like went too
- 19:00viral and it freaked her out and there were people that thought
- 19:02maybe her deleting the videos meant that this was like a quote
- 19:05UN quote live. She did show footage of the
- 19:07situation, like you could hear the conversation between her and
- 19:11the police officer in her original video, but people
- 19:13thought maybe it was staged because she deleted the videos.
- 19:16I think she just deleted the videos because she knew she was
- 19:19actually going to take this further possibly and also
- 19:22because it was just like blowing up and becoming really
- 19:24overwhelming. Anyway, she did make one final
- 19:26video saying that she's requested a court date and that
- 19:29she also had requested body Cam footage for this court date.
- 19:33And yesterday she returned with an update.
- 19:35Her court date was May 27th and the case has been dismissed.
- 19:39OK, so we had court this morning and dismissed.
- 19:44So apparently it was dismissed over the weekend.
- 19:46Yesterday night when I went and checked the time to make sure
- 19:49that I was going to be there on time, all that jazz, it showed
- 19:53dismissed. But I am not one for taking a
- 19:56chance. So I went ahead and went to
- 19:59court this morning and got a handy dandy paper that says
- 20:02dismissed. And you guys I cannot make up
- 20:05the reason behind why it was dismissed.
- 20:09It says lack of evidence Bro, we knew that already.
- 20:15We love an update and I'm so glad that she has closed the
- 20:18loop for us on this. Anyways, guys, that's it for
- 20:21Friday mini scroll. Thank you so much for listening.
- 20:24I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
- 20:26and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 20:29I hope you have a good weekend. Go have some fun.
- 20:31Don't optimize this weekend, just have fun, OK?
- 20:34And I will talk to you on Monday.
- 20:36Bye. Centennial World podcast network
- 20:38operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
- 20:41Gadigal of the Aura Nation, the traditional custodians of this
- 20:44land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.