Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Drew & Enya controversy, Piper Rockelle series on kid-fluencers + James Charles' parasocial panic at Coachella

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Drew & Enya controversy, Piper Rockelle series on kid-fluencers + James Charles' parasocial panic at Coachella · 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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  Let's just get straight into the stories for today.
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  But before I do, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  We are trying to get to 1000 Spotify star ratings and we are
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  trying to get to 10,000 YouTube subscribers and we are close to
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  that. So please subscribe.
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  All right, the first Ray that I have for you guys, this was
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  requested by you guys. I've done my best to put
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  together all the information, but please let us know in the
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  comments if there's anything that I've missed or any contacts
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  that I've left out. So I'm going to recap for you
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  guys the whole Drew and Enya situation.
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  So host of the Emergency Intercom podcast, Drew and Enya
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  have been facing several weeks of criticism from their
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  listeners. I am not a listener of their
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  podcast, but we did cover them last year when they left TMG
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  Studios, which was Cody KO's podcast network, amid the
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  allegations that Cody slept with Tan Emoja while she was a minor
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  and he was not. So as far as I can tell,
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  criticism from their audience first started after an episode
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  of the podcast on March 28th where they said that Greta
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  Thornburg, quote, fell off because she hasn't been popping
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  up online as much anymore. Oh yeah, Greta Thornburg fell
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  off. Bitches in the gutter.
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  Gretta, stop calling her bitch. OK, so later in the episode Drew
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  kept going saying Malala never fell off like Gretta did.
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  Listeners were understandably very upset.
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  Gretta has been active online. She's continually posting about
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  Palestine and climate change. And I think regardless if it was
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  a joke or not, going after these young female activists who are
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  genuinely trying to make change, even if this was supposed to be
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  a joke, like it just didn't land for people.
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  Like we are not in the mood for jokes about this.
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  So the emergency intercom podcast Instagram page addressed
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  the comments and feedback on April 4th.
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  They said, quote, we've seen all the feedback from last week's
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  episode. And we want to say sincerely,
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  we're sorry. We're incredibly lucky to have
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  this job, this community and this platform.
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  The fact that we get to do what we love because of your support
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  is never lost on us. This past week has made it
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  clearer than ever how much responsibility comes with that
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  privilege. We wrote countless most versions
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  of this trying to get it right, but the honest truth is simple.
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  What we said about Greta and Malala last week was reckless
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  and it goes directly against why we started this podcast in the
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  1st place. If we had been more informed
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  about the reality of the work done by Greta for Palestine and
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  human rights across the globe, we wouldn't have made these
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  jokes. They were out of touch and
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  careless. Especially in a moment that
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  calls for sensitivity and awareness.
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  And then they continue saying they will educate themselves and
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  you know, say we love you and are so grateful for making the
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  show possible. So just by addressing it, this
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  situation has kicked off a larger discussion within their
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  fandom, specifically about Drew and Enya's content since finding
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  more fame and money and success. One of their fans tweeted,
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  quote, they're going to call me too woke, but Emergency Intercom
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  is a documentary about people losing their common sense and
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  empathy as they acquire more wealth.
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  So people are saying they're losing relatability, but they
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  also seem to not understand how to connect with their audience
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  anymore because they really built their careers off of
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  themselves as people, like sharing their personal stories
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  and, you know, things like that. And fans are basically saying
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  that the duo have become lazy with their content because their
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  lives have become increasingly unrelatable and they don't want
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  to share such personal stuff anymore.
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  As they become more famous. And probably as the people in
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  their lives become more famous, you know, like their circle has
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  probably changed and they're hanging out with like famous
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  influencers and celebrities and stuff.
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  So they're not going to share as much about their personal lives
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  anymore. But instead of finding a way to
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  pivot their content to suit this kind of new era of their career
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  and their lives, their fans are saying they kind of just tell so
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  many stories with so much redacted information that it
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  loses all meaning and it's boring.
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  Well the main issues are their lack of effort in their job that
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  they get paid heavily for pretty much by us.
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  They need to either stop speaking on anything that could
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  be deemed political as a whole and acknowledge their ignorance
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  or if it's something they truly care about, educate themselves
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  about topics before speaking on them.
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  I will say I don't think people are saying they're bad just
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  because they're rich. We're saying the money has
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  changed their attitudes towards their jobs and made them a lot
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  more out of touch than who we thought they were.
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  So I'm going to say that's like the Cliff notes version of the
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  Drew and Enya situation. But if you search it on TikTok,
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  you'll see a lot of fans like talking about this and sharing
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  their opinions. And it kind of reminds me it's,
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  it's different, but it reminds me of what happened with Emma
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  Chamberlain a couple years ago where that one video popped off
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  where a girl was like, Emma needs to go to college.
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  And then it started this massive discussion within the fandom
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  about kind of how Emma's content has changed and how people do
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  relate to her or they don't relate to her anymore.
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  And it's just like a broader discussion.
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  So it is interesting how this controversy has started almost a
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  bit of like a movement within the fandom itself.
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  OK, the next story that I have for you guys.
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  A couple days ago, Netflix released a new documentary
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  called Bad Influence, The Dark Side of Kid Fluence saying,
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  which explores the world of kid creators, centering on the Piper
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  Squad, the group of young creators led by Piper Raquel.
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  So Piper has been famous online for years despite being only 17
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  years old right now, So she has literally just been a kid
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  influencer her entire career. Piper is managed by her mother,
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  Tiffany Smith. In 2022, Tiffany was sued for
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  $22 million by 11 of Piper's collaborators in the Piper
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  Squad, collaborators being the other kids that would make
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  content with her. Tiffany was accused of violating
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  child labor laws, failing to compensate the members, and
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  sexual misconduct. So this is directly from an LA
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  Times article quote. A Times investigation published
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  later that year compiled dozens of court filings, emails,
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  casting calls, talent releases and filming schedules, as well
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  as interviews with plaintiffs and parents, revealing a pattern
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  of controlling and abusive behavior by Smith.
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  In the aftermath of the lawsuit filing, Raquel defended her
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  mother. But this whole case is based on
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  lies that are driven by financial jealousy, Smith told
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  the Times. This suit was eventually settled
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  for $1.85 million last October. However, the plaintiffs and
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  their parents say they still bear the scars from the time in
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  the squad. OK, so we have covered the
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  dangers of child influencers several times on this podcast.
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  There is a lot of content on our feed that you can go into if
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  you're interested in doing a bit more of like a deep dive into
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  that, but there is this one main take away from the docu series
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  that everyone is talking about online.
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  It's from this one part where they talk about how Piper had
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  this fan named Megan who would send her gifts and post fan
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  edits of her. Despite posing as a woman
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  online, people around Piper, including her mother, found out
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  that Megan was actually an older man.
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  Megan poses as a girl online who's a Piper Rock Health fan
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  has all the pictures of Piper. Tiffany said he likes pictures
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  of Piper. He's her stalker.
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  You can get stuff too if you send him pictures.
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  It's nothing bad. It's just extra pictures from
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  photo shoots. But he's a pervert.
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  Like she knew he was a perfect. Regularly, Tiffany, you'd like
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  Piper, like Megan's on the phone and then Piper would go over and
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  be like. Hi, Megan.
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  Just by flirting and sending him photos, Tiffany got herself a
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  Gucci bag from Megan. Piper got a Gucci bag.
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  And I think this segment really just confirms what a lot of
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  experts have been saying, that the parents of these child
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  influencers often do know who is following their kids and they do
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  know who is behind these fan accounts.
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  But they get a lot out of it. So they pander to them
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  regardless of their child's safety.
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  OK, the last word that I have for you guys is that James
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  Charles has talked about the impact of parasocial
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  relationships on his experience at Coachella.
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  We haven't talked about James in a hot minute, and please put
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  your feelings for him aside, OK? Because I do think that this is
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  an interesting story. I'm using this as like a jumping
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  off point. So James Charles has opened up
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  about the parasocial relationships his fans have with
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  him and how this has impacted his experience at Coachella this
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  year amid several changes to the festival.
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  So I guess this year Coachella decided to combine the VIP and
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  artist passes entrances and this has caused some mayhem for the
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  high profile attendees. So in his video, James was
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  talking about how like he loves meeting his fans.
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  A lot of his fans will have the VIP tickets.
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  So he'll like spend a lot of time in VIP with his friends and
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  like he'll meet his fans and stuff.
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  But he doesn't drink and you know, it can get overwhelming.
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  So with the point of having an artist passes, then you can go
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  into an area that is like way more secure.
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  It's like way more chill. And now that they've combined, I
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  don't think they've combined like the full areas.
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  Please confirm for me if you guys know.
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  I think it was just the entrances.
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  But either way, like there is some type of combination that
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  has happened where, yeah, if you bought a VIP ticket as like a
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  regular person, you are also alongside people that have
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  artist passes. And he was saying that has been
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  difficult because, for example, at one point, like one of his
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  fans came up to him and squeezed his face and was like, Oh my
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  God, you're James Charles. And then started picking the
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  pearls off of his makeup, like off of his face that he had on
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  1st makeup. So he was like, why did I spend
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  the extra money and get the artist passes when I'm not
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  getting the extra security that is supposed to go along with
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  that? And that did go along with that
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  in years past. It seems like logistically there
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  have been a few issues with Coachella this year.
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  Like I was seeing a lot of issues with like the camping as
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  well, people waiting in line in their cars in 100° heat for like
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  actually 14 hours to find a camping spot and stuff like
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  that. So I don't know if like, things
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  have changed behind the scenes or what, but it sounds like,
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  yeah, it sounds like everyone across the board is having kind
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  of an interesting time. I coach all of this year.
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  This whole situation is really fascinating because first of
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  all, James, he didn't say parasocial relationship, but he
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  said, I know a lot of you guys have grown up with me.
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  And like, as in, I know a lot of you guys feel like you know me
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  and stuff, but like, you don't, which is what Chapel Run was
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  saying last year when she was like, don't ask me for pictures.
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  Obviously, these are very different situations.
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  I'm not trying to compare them, but it just reminded me of that.
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  I can't figure out if this is just like another indication
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  that people don't understand like the people that are like
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  have the purse strengths, right? The people that are like in
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  charge of things, that have the money that are putting things
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  like this on. If it's just like another
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  indication that they just don't understand this new era of
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  culture when it comes to creators and influencers and
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  parasocial relationships, like I typically would say that must
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  not be the case. Like if you are in charge of
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  these decisions for Coachella, like surely you understand these
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  dynamics. However, we have had several
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  instances in the last just few months really with people who
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  are like on the influencer side of things, like in charge on the
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  influencer side of things, in charge on even like the musical
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  artist side of things. And some of the conversations
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  we're having, I'm like, holy shit, how are you the one in
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  charge of budgets? Like you don't understand
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  anything. So I don't know.
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  I, I, I think maybe that's a case of this because I know
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  like, for example, with like Vidcon, OK, the reason why a lot
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  of big Youtubers stopped going to Vidcon years and years ago is
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  because the people in charge of putting on Vidcon didn't
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  actually understand the parasocial relationship that
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  people had for these Youtubers. And the Youtubers would go and
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  if they were not like the top tier, they wouldn't get like
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  these kind of more tight security measures or whatever in
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  place for them put on by Vidcon. And they would just be swarmed.
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  Their safety would be in danger. Like it was just like a disaster
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  for them. So they stopped going because
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  they were like, this is just not worth it for us.
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  And Tana talked about going to Coachella too, right?
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  She talked about that a couple months ago saying like, it's not
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  worth it because the security that I have to pay for because I
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  just get like fucking swarmed. And she was similar to James
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  being like, I love you guys, like I love it, but it's not
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  appropriate to come up to these influencers and like touch them
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  and like grab their face, try to kiss them, start ripping their
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  makeup off. Like shit like that is crazy.
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  It's so inappropriate. It's so scary for these
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  creators. And no matter how you feel about
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  them, nobody should be subjected to anything like that.
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  ANYWAYS, guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
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  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
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  Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  We're trying to get to 1000 Spotify star ratings and please
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  subscribe to us on YouTube. We're trying to get to 10,000
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  stops. OK, I love you guys.
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  Annabelle will talk to you tomorrow and then I'll talk to
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  you on Thursday. Bye.