Latest / Mini Scroll / Catherine Ebs "out of touch" grocery scandal | Millie Bobby Brown’s gel set + Sonya Dakar update

Transcript

Catherine Ebs "out of touch" grocery scandal | Millie Bobby Brown’s gel set + Sonya Dakar update · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Coming up today on Mini Scroll, the out of touch influencer
• 0:04
  grocery trip Millie Bobby Brown addresses Enola Holmes, backlash
• 0:09
  and the celebrity facialist who lost her license after a client
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  spoke out on TikTok. Hi everyone.
• 0:16
  Welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast
• 0:20
  bringing you the biggest stories from social media, the creator
• 0:23
  economy and the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
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  and sometimes Fridays. I'm your host Lauren Meissner,
• 0:29
  the founder of the Australian youth digital media brand
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  All right, let's just get into the stories for today.
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  We also have mini scroll podcast on Tiktok now as well.
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  And that is like blowing up. Like she is so successful.
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  It's so random. I mean, I'm happy about it.
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  It's exciting. It's just so funny.
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  We've had like thousands and thousands of new listeners in
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  the past few weeks just from that TikTok alone.
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  It's amazing. All right, let's get into the
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  stories for today. So the first story that I have
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  for you guys today is there is a grocery store scandal going on
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  with influencer Katherine Ebbs. So Katherine Ebbs is a lifestyle
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  Tik toker with over 1.6 million followers based in New York
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  City. She has found herself at the
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  center of controversy over the past few days after sharing a
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  video of herself in a grocery store.
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  The video has since been deleted, but there are clips
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  floating around online. So, to summarize the video,
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  Catherine is walking around a small town grocery store
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  complaining about being there and complaining about the stock
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  and produce that is available. Throughout the video, she
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  repeatedly says that she feels like she's in a simulation.
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  Sam's Club canceled our order three different times so we are
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  in this teeny tiny little town in the mountains and we're gonna
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  try and hopefully get all of our groceries for the next 4 days.
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  This is so small town vibes it's not even funny.
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  This is a simulation. Fruit does not look good.
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  Like all their fruit looks bad. I'm like low key we should just
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  order out because. This is crazy.
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  It's safe to say this video did not land well.
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  It is such a weird video you guys.
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  What do you mean? This feels like a simulation.
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  I don't know how many people in the world can truly go to, like,
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  a regular grocery store and be shook by what they see.
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  Maybe the children of billionaire parents or like, the
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  children have really famous parents.
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  Like maybe the Kardashian kids have never really been to the
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  grocery store very often because, like, they're so
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  famous. But otherwise, like, what do you
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  mean going to a regular grocery store feels like a simulation?
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  Like, how often are you not grocery shopping?
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  And I know she lives in New York City, and I know the grocery
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  shopping culture there is very different, but come on, Still
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  OK, A lot of viewers felt like her behavior was really out of
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  touch and that she was mocking an everyday activity for, like,
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  no real reason. And of course, that's not even
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  factoring in the cost of living crisis where people are
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  genuinely struggling to afford their groceries.
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  But there's also like an element of hypocrisy to her video
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  because like she's complaining the whole time but still adding
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  all of this stuff to her cards. So I do think it's giving
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  exaggerating for engagement. I definitely don't think she
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  meant for this to be rage bait. I don't think.
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  I think she thought that this would be some like larger than
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  life dramatic video and it would land OK.
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  Like people would be like, Oh my God, you're so silly.
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  I don't know, that's just my opinion.
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  I don't think that she was doing this intentionally as like pure
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  rage bait. I think she definitely was
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  exaggerating for traction, but I can't imagine a world in which
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  somebody thinks it is appropriate to basically mock a
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  regular grocery store, the experience of going to a regular
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  grocery store for views. All right, so social media users
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  have done some digging, claiming that the grocery store that she
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  was at is called Tops. And locals have noted that this
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  isn't some small town grocery store.
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  It's actually quite a big chain in the area.
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  Catherine has gone on to address the backlash.
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  Now, She first responded to some comments under the initial
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  video. In one, she clarified that she
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  was stressed out by the situation and claiming that the
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  store was busy rather than stressed out by the experience
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  of being in the grocery store itself.
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  Catherine had said that she didn't plan to go to the store
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  so last minute on a holiday weekend and that is why she did
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  what she did. Some of her response comments
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  included I love any grocery store.
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  If you see my page, I frequent groceries often because I love
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  him so much. What I don't love his groceries
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  on holiday weekend when they're packed in a small amount of
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  options at the very last and unexpected second and then to
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  someone else. She wrote the situation we
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  planned ahead to avoid crowded grocery on a holiday weekend.
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  Love the store and the employees we met just wasn't expecting to
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  have to be there. So last minute.
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  I can understand 100% if she made a vlog being like, OK, come
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  with me on like a holiday long weekend.
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  The grocery store is probably going to be so packed.
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  And then she shared that experience.
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  But a lot of people have like dissected this video and to be
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  fair, like none of these people were of course, like physically
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  at the grocery store with her. OK, so like we can't say for
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  sure, but people have dissected the video and been like, there's
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  like 6 people in her video. Like it really didn't look that
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  busy. But of course we will never
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  actually know. But that was not how the video
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  came across. If that was the intention of the
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  video, that is like not how she positioned the video, which is
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  what pissed people off so much. If she was walking around and be
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  like, Oh my God, you guys just feels so crazy.
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  I'm in this crazy busy grocery store on a holiday long weekend.
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  Like I can't believe that we didn't get our shit together in
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  time or like whatever. Like I actually think people
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  would have been like, yeah, that's relatable.
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  Like who hasn't had to run to the store on like Christmas Eve?
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  You know, like we've all been there and it actually is a
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  legitimate nightmare. So I can understand if she was
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  trying to position that that way, but like, that is
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  absolutely not how it came across.
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  And now there's speculation on the R/NYC influencer snark
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  subreddit that Catherine made fun of the grocery store as a
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  strategic move because she's an ALDI partner.
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  I do not think that is the case. I do not think that any brand
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  would want one of their partners to be shitting on a competitor.
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  I actually think that would be like a worse look for ALDI.
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  So I don't think that's the case.
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  Anyways, amid the backlash, Catherine has now since turned
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  off comments on all of her TikTok videos.
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  The most recent one with comments still enabled is from
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  June 24th. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys today is Millie Bobby Brown has responded
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  to her full gel set in Enola Holmes 3.
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  So Millie Bobby Brown has been going viral lately on the press
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  tour for Enola Holmes. Three.
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  Enola Holmes is a film franchise on Netflix.
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  They are mystery adventure films who follow Enola, who is
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  Sherlock Holmes's younger sister.
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  And the target audience is definitely younger, kind of
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  catering to like tweens and teens.
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  OK, so a couple things have been going viral from this press
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  tour. The 1st is that Louis Patridge
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  is it Louis Louis Louis? I don't know.
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  I'm so confused about the name Louis versus Louis now thanks to
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  specifically Real Housewives of New Jersey where Teresa's
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  husband Louis but it's spelled Louis.
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  It's so confusing to me and it has messed up how I see all of
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  those similar names and I know he's really famous.
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  I literally have no idea why this is confusing to me.
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  But anyways, Millie has been like rage baiting Olivia
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  Rodriguez ex on the press tour. She frequently like almost
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  mentions Olivia all the time in their press tours.
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  And she's also like calling out his red flag behavior here and
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  there. So like that part of it's going
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  really viral. But the second part that's going
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  viral is Millie and her nails in the film.
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  So Enola Holmes is set in the 1880s.
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  However, Millie has like a full set of gel nails and there's so
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  many stills that are going viral of her like peeking around a
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  corner and you can see her like almond shaped gel set.
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  And I love it. As a nail girly myself, I
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  totally understand. Like I don't want to have my
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  bare nails, especially if I'm going to be seen by like
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  millions of people on TV. However, this movie is literally
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  set in the 1800s. OK so after these pictures first
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  dropped, Reddit users put it down to bad costuming from those
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  involved in the production. And I will say that this ended
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  up being a very like slippery slope before people started
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  commenting on Millie's appearance more broadly, which
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  is obviously horrific. Cannot imagine growing up as
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  Millie. What was she like 11 was not
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  just her character's name? Am I OK today?
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  Like no, not she was young OK and shaving her head and having
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  to go through like puberty and teenage hood while filming
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  Stranger Things and the pressure would already be like
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  insurmountable. But then she also, she has
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  spoken very publicly about the fact that she also to like shave
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  her head. And, you know, I, I think that
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  that would add another layer of not being able to like express
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  yourself and figure out your own identity as you're going through
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  these like really pivotal years. And I know that she absolutely
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  was the subject of so much bullying and scrutiny.
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  So that's not what we're trying to do here, obviously, but that
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  is unfortunately kind of how the subreddit discussions devolved.
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  OK, so back to the nails. Millie has addressed the
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  discourse around it now. So she jokingly commented on the
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  nails in her 10 minute makeup routine with Allure.
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  Millie was asked a question about the role of beauty in the
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  film, to which she said, to be honest with you, I don't think
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  Enola is like a huge makeup girly and she's not taking like
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  risks primarily because it's the 1800s.
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  God, God forbid a girl gets a manicure.
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  But I love that she is very natural.
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  And then more recently, she spoke about it all in ABBC
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  interview. So.
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  Boring. I'm like, guys, come on, like
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  just enjoy the artistry of the work.
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  I I don't do that to other. I'm not the kind of girls.
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  Oh my God. Did you see the way that wig was
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  laid? You know, I mean, I just don't.
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  I just try to immerse myself and yeah, I don't know.
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  It's kind of like, I don't know. I wasn't disappointed, but I was
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  like, oh OK, this is what the article.
• 10:59
  Reads OK so the comments under this TikTok have now really run
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  with this like artistry comment. Some are poking fun at her for
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  saying that while others contend that the artistry is in the
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  details. And to that, I actually do
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  agree. I think hair and makeup and
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  beauty and costuming, like all of that is part of the artistry
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  of putting a production together.
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  However, this has actually sparked an interesting discourse
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  around the production in general.
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  So there's kind of this sentiment that like if a detail
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  such as Millie's nails can take you out of the story so easily,
• 11:38
  then that's a problem possibly with like the writing or the
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  production itself. OK, but now here's a little
• 11:43
  tinfoil hat moment for you guys. Do we think that Netflix ever
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  does these types of things to like rage bait the audience or
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  like spark discussion online? Because obviously, discussion
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  around this equals more eyes on the content.
• 11:59
  And Bloomberg published a piece just yesterday talking about how
• 12:03
  Netflix has really bad retention when it comes to TV shows where
• 12:07
  they're struggling with audiences returning to its shows
• 12:10
  for more than a season. Quote One Piece 1 of Netflix
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  most watched shows of 2023 lost more than 30% of its audience
• 12:17
  for the second season. Season 2 of Beef suffered a drop
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  more than 70%. The Night Agent shed 50% of its
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  audience for the second season and another 35% for its third
• 12:27
  season. Obviously Enola Holmes is a
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  film, but it is also a franchise.
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  So I do wonder if this is a strategy that Netflix could be
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  taking to like improve awareness or retention across the board.
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  Although I really don't know if they need to do that when it is
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  starring Millie Bobby Brown. I think the retention drop is
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  because we have to wait like 100 years for the next seasons and
• 12:50
  by then people have moved on. And of course, like the amount
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  of content that we have available to us now, even if
• 12:56
  things were coming out in quick succession, I still think there
• 13:00
  would be a retention problem like we have too much choice,
• 13:02
  there's too much option. All right, and the last word
• 13:04
  that I have for you guys today I have an update on the Sonia
• 13:08
  Dakar situation. This is like a week old, but I
• 13:12
  wanted to share this update. I thought about talking about it
• 13:14
  last week and then yesterday, but I just felt like there were
• 13:16
  just other things I wanted to cover and today it felt right.
• 13:20
  So I want to share this update because I did cover the story
• 13:23
  around six months ago, like when it first started.
• 13:25
  So in case you missed it, a woman named Victoria Nelson sued
• 13:29
  the Beverly Hills based celebrity facialist Sonya Dakar
• 13:33
  after she went viral for sharing her story about how Sonya
• 13:35
  allegedly burned her face. Victoria posted TikTok videos
• 13:39
  with the title My Story about How Sonia Descartes Permanently
• 13:42
  Damaged My Face, in which she claims that a chemical peel
• 13:45
  Sonia did in 2021 left her disfigured.
• 13:48
  Victoria had been a client of Sonia since 2019 and she
• 13:51
  initially went to her for acne treatment.
• 13:53
  The two had become very close over the years, so at this
• 13:57
  appointment where she says her face was burned, she was getting
• 14:00
  a chemical peel. When Sonia applied a substance
• 14:03
  which immediately felt different than her usual treatments.
• 14:06
  Victoria then had to seek out a dermatologist to help her, which
• 14:08
  cost her around another $8000. When she told Sonia that she was
• 14:13
  seeing a dermatologist, she apparently convinced Victoria to
• 14:16
  keep seeing her as well. And she claimed over the years
• 14:18
  she spent around $60,000 with Sonia.
• 14:21
  This all went down in August last year and it went super
• 14:24
  viral. And social media users were
• 14:26
  encouraging her to take action. And I remember when I talked
• 14:29
  about this, you guys, I said something about like how when I
• 14:35
  get facials, it burns. Like sometimes when I get a
• 14:40
  chemical peel or I get like a microdermabrasion, then they'll
• 14:42
  like put a chemical peel on top after and it will burn.
• 14:47
  And so many people were in the comments like that is really
• 14:50
  bad. Like that should not be
• 14:51
  happening. To be fair, I have not had a
• 14:53
  facial since I told you guys that story.
• 14:55
  I feel like I learned so many things when I just come up here
• 14:58
  and I just like talk about what I'm doing or what's happening
• 15:01
  and like my opinions on things and then you guys are like,
• 15:04
  girl, what are you talking about?
• 15:06
  Fair enough. So that's something to keep in
• 15:08
  mind. So in December last year, she
• 15:10
  followed TikTok users advice. She shared how she had filed an
• 15:14
  official complaint against Sonia with the California Board of
• 15:17
  Barbering and Cosmetology and that she had filed a civil suit
• 15:21
  against her. On June 25th, Victoria showed an
• 15:23
  update on the case. In a video, she announced that
• 15:25
  Sonia Dekar can no longer legally practice or operate in
• 15:29
  the state of California, where both her esthetician and
• 15:32
  establishment licenses have been surrendered.
• 15:35
  As Victoria's caption reads, quote, this has been years in
• 15:38
  the making and it certainly hasn't been easy.
• 15:40
  There were moments I genuinely didn't think anyone would
• 15:42
  listen, but the board investigated, the Attorney
• 15:44
  general prosecuted, and the settlement speaks for itself.
• 15:48
  In the video, she reveals that Sonia surrendered her
• 15:50
  esthetician license on June 22nd and the decision will become
• 15:53
  effective on July 22nd. From here, Sonia has to wait
• 15:57
  three years before potentially reapplying for a license.
• 16:01
  The settlement also allegedly states that Sonia must pay the
• 16:03
  board around $17,000 to cover the cost of the investigation,
• 16:07
  in addition to paying almost $71,000 in restitution to
• 16:11
  Victoria if and when she tries to apply for a new license.
• 16:14
  In the TikTok comments, she did note that this is unfortunate
• 16:17
  but that she is glad quote she won't be able to harm anyone
• 16:20
  else anymore. Honestly, I think you could all
• 16:22
  tell I was a little nervous when they said they settled.
• 16:27
  I was also pretty frustrated that I wasn't going to be able
• 16:31
  to speak and tell my story or hear her side of the story
• 16:36
  because since this has all kind of evolved, she's never said a
• 16:40
  word. It's been really difficult to
• 16:43
  like fully feel like I have the story, but I was given all of
• 16:48
  the evidence from their investigation, so I have a lot
• 16:53
  of paperwork to go through and more updates to probably come.
• 16:57
  It's nice to close the chapter on the administrative side of
• 17:00
  this. I'm actually so grateful.
• 17:02
  In the comments, Victoria also did clarify that she is still in
• 17:05
  the process of suing Sonia. So the settlement is on the
• 17:08
  administrative side and just one part of the journey.
• 17:11
  Responding to a viewer asking what the next steps are,
• 17:14
  Victoria writes quote. Continuing the work on my civil
• 17:17
  case. I'm also interested in exploring
• 17:18
  how to advocate for other people in this space, since I've seen
• 17:21
  first hand how antiquated the system is and how difficult it
• 17:24
  can be to get through it. You know, it's pretty wild.
• 17:27
  Sonny Dakar like, is a legendary facialist like she really is.
• 17:32
  And it's it's a pretty crazy story that this happened to
• 17:36
  Victoria. It's so horrible.
• 17:38
  I'm sure you guys have all seen the photos.
• 17:39
  But like, her skin looks so, so damaged.
• 17:42
  And for it to have been, you know, years in the making, for
• 17:46
  her to keep going back and then to bring the story to TikTok and
• 17:49
  for essentially like TikTok users to rally behind her so
• 17:51
  much to give her the confidence to file this lawsuit or to take
• 17:56
  legal action in general is pretty powerful.
• 17:59
  So yes, that's an update on that situation.
• 18:01
  And I'm happy that Victoria gets a little bit of solace down
• 18:05
  hopefully. Anyways, guys, that's it for
• 18:08
  Mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
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  It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
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  Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow for Mini tech scroll
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  and then I will talk to you on Thursday.
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  Bye. Centennial World podcast network
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  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
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  Yeah.