Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: "Boring" NYC influencer crash out, Bran Flakezz exposes TikTok salary + Hailey vs. Selena again

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MINI SCROLL: "Boring" NYC influencer crash out, Bran Flakezz exposes TikTok salary + Hailey vs. Selena again · Mini Scroll

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  This week on Mini Scroll we're celebrating International
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  Women's Day by spotlighting female founded brands and today
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  we're talking about Handstand Studio.
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  Handstand Studio is a design studio based out of Raleigh, NC
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  and founded by Hannah Solari, illustrator and listener of the
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  podcast. Hannah's mission is to help
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  people feel seen through her designs and products, which span
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  stickers, bookmarks, cars, stationary tote bags, T-shirts,
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  and also event invites, which is actually something that we
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  recently hired her for and we were thrilled with her work.
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  Hannah's illustrations are all hands drawn, colorful, bubbly,
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  and just so Gen. Z for all your illustration
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  needs. You can find Hannah at at
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  Handstand Studio on Instagram or Handstand studio.com.
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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. Hi, I'm your host Lauren
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  Meissner, the founder of the youth digital media brand
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  Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. Please just a reminder, if Mini
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  that has already filled out the form.
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  I woke up this morning and checked and I was like, Oh my
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  God, people actually filled it out.
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  So thank you. OK, let's get into the stories
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  for today. The first story that I have for
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  you guys, we need to talk about how New York City lifestyle
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  influencers are facing criticism for how quote UN quote boring
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  they all are. To follow, over the last few
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  days a bunch of New York City creators have been crashing out
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  after a user made a video calling them boring and the
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  video has gone quite viral. The video was from a creator
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  named Martini Feeney and published 3 days ago and in it
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  she basically said the popular New York City influencers are
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  all boring because they are the same carbon copies of each
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  other. All right, guys, I'm.
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  Just going to say I hate all of the New York influencers.
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  I think that they're boring as fuck and they're all carbon
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  copies of one another. They all wear the same exact
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  fucking bracelet. They all have the same exact
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  fucking hand chains that someone else influenced them to get.
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  Yeah, they all look like they shop on Revolve.
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  They're all just like basic ass skinny but but they're skinny
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  and pretty so stuff looks cute on them but.
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  Boring. OK, so for anyone that is not
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  familiar with the New York City influencer like group that I
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  presume she's talking about, it includes acquired style, her
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  twin Danielle, Halle, Kate, Jazz, Kit Keenan, Audrey.
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  If you know, you know. If you don't, I guess you don't.
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  No, if you don't essentially they all do the same like 6:00
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  AM workout classes. They do like Tracy Anderson or
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  solid core, I think it's called. And they'll do like morning in
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  my life working for myself being 27 in New York City.
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  And you know, they're getting Macha, they're getting their
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  nails done, they're doing their workout, they're doing some
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  TikTok vlogs. They're going to a brand event.
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  That's basically what the vlogs are.
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  And they do have very similar jewelry and like similar vibes.
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  So yes that is I assume who she is talking about.
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  I definitely get her point, but understandably this has opened
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  up discussion about the fact that if you are bored by the
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  people on your for you page then maybe that's your fault.
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  Because the Internet is literally endless and there are
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  millions upon millions of creators that you could follow.
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  And then other people are kind of countering that discussion or
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  that argument saying, well, TikTok pushes these people out.
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  Like this is who they push out to us.
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  And I don't know if that's necessarily true anymore in the
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  sense of like the algorithm and what prefers and things like
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  that. But we do know that I think it
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  was in 2020, The Intercept got a hold of documents, like a leaked
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  documents from TikTok that was allegedly or Byte Dance.
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  I think that was allegedly instructing TikTok moderators to
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  press content by people that were filming content in like
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  dimly lit rooms that looked, I forget the exact word they used.
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  I've talked about it so many times on this podcast, But it
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  was it wasn't like disheveled backgrounds, dilapidated.
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  I don't know. It was like some really savage
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  fucking word to basically mean like we don't want to see
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  backgrounds that look anything less than like you are wealthy
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  or you have like a well lit beautiful space.
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  I think they also, I think these documents also said they wanted
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  smaller body types. Anyways, it was really horrible
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  and really shocking. So we do know that at one point,
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  at least by Dance TikTok, they were pushing for that or
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  suppressing other content that was not that.
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  I think the thing with this group is that they make being a
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  New York City influencer their brand.
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  Like that is part of their brand.
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  And so if you are searching up like what it's like to live in
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  New York, what it's like to move to New York in your 20s, like a
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  lot of their contents going to come up, partly because
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  obviously they're very famous and very hot and rich and stuff
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  now, but also partly because they've made that a big part of
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  their brand. I think of course, there are
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  like literally millions of people you could follow that
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  live in New York City who are creating content, very cool
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  content, but they might not make New York City as central to
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  their content or to their brand. So they so they might not also
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  be like considered in our minds, like quote UN quote, like New
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  York City influencers, because they're not branding themselves
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  as that Anyways, the girlies, they feel called out.
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  The one thing that's like been going around that really like
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  pissed users off. Like there's a lot of comments
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  like they're all they're commenting and you know, they're
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  kind of like making it about themselves the the influencers.
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  I mean, but the one thing that really like shook people really
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  pissed people off was acquired style.
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  She duetted the video like the original video from the girl and
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  she was like waving at the camera and kind of like body
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  checking. I don't know, she was like
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  standing back and like showing off like this, you know, and
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  like waving at the camera, like, hi, it's me.
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  Like I've seen your video type thing.
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  And like I said, there were others in the comments, like
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  other influencers who felt called out or felt like they
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  were part of that group being called out who were in the
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  comments, like truly like fighting for their lives.
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  And a lot of this content now, including that duet and the
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  comments and stuff has been deleted because these
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  influencers were getting dragged by users all over for crashing
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  out. Everyone's like, this is so
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  embarrassing. Like take the L and move on.
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  This one single video and this one single person, like in a
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  couple days this is going to go away.
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  And following influencers is also about like preference.
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  So at the end of the day, like she's saying she finds your
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  content boring. She's not like into your
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  content, but you all have millions of followers.
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  So like there's obviously lots of people that do find your
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  content entertaining. So just like accept that this
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  one person doesn't like your content.
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  And yes, her video is going viral and it's getting
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  amplified. And there's tons of people in
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  the comments saying like, I agree with you, it's not
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  criticism you need to respond to.
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  It's just someone saying they don't like your style of content
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  and they think it's too similar to all of your friends content
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  and she thinks this boring. OK, the next story that I have
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  for you guys is that Bran Flakes has shared his influencer pay
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  breakdown and some people have some things to say about it.
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  So influencer Bran Edelman, who is known as Bran Flakes on
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  TikTok did a 2024 income breakdown on a podcast last week
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  and it sparked a really good discussion about wage
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  transparency and also who gets to make that kind of money in
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  the influencer space. Bran, who is a Philadelphia
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  based creator and makes primarily like 30 lifestyle
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  vlogs and story times about his feral nights out.
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  He's kind of like in the same category, I would say as like
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  Alex Earl or Hallie. I don't know how to say your
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  last name. Beth Beth Shelter, I think.
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  So he went on the You're Rich BFF podcast, a show that delves
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  into people's finances, and he opened up about what he made in
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  2024. Bran revealed that he made
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  $768,000 last year from influencing.
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  I grossed $768,000 in 2024, but then we have the net, so 768,000
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  is the top #20% of that goes to management.
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  So we're down to like what, 550 from 550?
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  Two 100,000 that goes to taxes. Just the way it goes now.
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  We're down to 330 after the 330 K, you have your expenses.
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  I have a team now. So it's like lawyer, accountant,
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  therapist. It's insane.
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  But at the end of the day I still pocketed like probably
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  around $300,000 from 28 years old and I went from making 40K
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  and I grew up literally dirt poor so this is insane.
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  OK, so this segment has been stitched and duetted a lot.
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  As you can imagine, there are a lot of mixed responses.
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  And before I kind of get into all of the all of this, I kind
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  of forgot to say that like one thing people can't fault Bran
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  on. Like while I said he's in the
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  same category as like Alex and Hallie, although Alex does do
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  some like philanthropic stuff, but Bran is really into like
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  giving back to his local community and he does share some
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  of that and how he is like giving back last year and like
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  when he started influencing and making a lot of money, he had
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  did share some of that on this podcast as well.
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  Now, one video that has sparked a big conversation is by a
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  creator Aaliyah's interlude. So Bran actually amplified
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  Aaliyah's video. So Aaliyah is a black creator
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  with nearly 3,000,000 followers on TikTok and she is also the
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  artist of it Girl, which was like the most viral song for a
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  period of time around like end of 2023, beginning of 2024.
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  Like, you know that one that's like, yes, you know, I'm sexy,
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  just call and text me. I don't know.
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  I don't know the words, but you know the one I'm talking about,
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  OK. She, like I said, has almost
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  3,000,000 followers. Bran, for context, only just
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  cracked 1,000,000 followers this year.
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  So he had less than 1,000,000 followers when he was making
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  that income last year, in Aaliyah's video, she says.
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  Black creators are not making this.
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  Black creators are not making this at all.
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  Bro you can show me a single black creator that has made
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  $700,000 with less than 1,000,000 followers on here.
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  I literally will be gagged beyond my mind.
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  That does not happen. But if we're talking about if I
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  were to be doing the same exact thing as Brandon right now, if
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  we were going to be making the same amount, it would not be
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  true. When I had less than 1,000,000
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  followers I was not even making a third of what that Brandon
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  made last year. Like black creators are getting
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  paid does. I'm just let y'all know
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  straight. Up OK, so the main argument that
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  I have seen is that some people are kind of saying like like the
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  people that are I guess in support of how much he made and
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  don't see it as a huge problem that other creators are not
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  making even close to what he made as a white creator.
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  So there is this kind of overwhelming argument that brand
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  is like breaking in to the mainstream.
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  So he's almost becoming like an Alex Earl where he's surpassing
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  just TikTok fame. And so he's getting more
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  opportunities because he's becoming more well known.
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  Even if you don't follow him, a lot of people like know who he
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  is, are starting to know who he is as an influencer the same way
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  that like you might not follow Alex Earl.
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  But if I say Alex Earl, most of you guys, not in the world, but
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  like a lot of people will know who I'm talking about.
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  You know, people are saying like that's the path he's on.
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  So he's becoming mainstream. He's becoming like a taffy, he's
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  becoming an Alex Earl, whatever, where people kind of know them.
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  They got their start on TikTok, but they're transcending that.
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  I do think that is the path that he's on.
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  I agree with that. But I think that argument is a
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  shallow argument because the point isn't that Bran is more
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  mainstream and thus he makes more money.
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  The point is like who gets to be mainstream and why?
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  Why is it overwhelmingly white creators who get the opportunity
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  to transcend TikTok and to get those mainstream opportunities?
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  Like not all creators that have transcended TikTok surpassed
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  TikTok fame are white, but I would say the vast, vast
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  majority are all right. The last story that I have for
• 12:45
  you guys is that Hailey Bieber has claimed that a creator
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  made-up a lie about her liking a video shading Selena Gomez.
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  TikTok creator Courtney Presto went viral this week when she
• 12:58
  claims that Hailey Bieber liked one of her videos in which
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  Courtney was being a little shady towards Selena Gomez and
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  her fiance Benny Blanco. Courtney's original video was
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  her reacting to editorial photos of Selena and Benny for
• 13:11
  Interview magazine. In the video she rights I had to
• 13:14
  look at these photos so you do too and I genuinely can't decide
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  which is the worst. Referring to the photos, she
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  then followed this up with a video showing what appears to be
• 13:24
  a screenshot of her likes on TikTok.
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  And it looks like the verified Hailey Bieber TikTok account
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  liked that video Hailey Bieber herself liked.
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  My TikTok don't didn't necessarily come for me in the
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  comments but I was being. A little.
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  Shady to Selena Gomez, however, that means that the Selena Gomez
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  Justin Bieber beef it is alive and well, people.
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  Now a Rep for Haley has made a statement to page 6 saying this
• 14:00
  never happened. This entire story has been
• 14:02
  fabricated by a content creator looking to capitalize off of an
• 14:05
  old tired narrative. If Haley did like this, I think
• 14:09
  plausibly. I think the most like plausible
• 14:11
  situation is that she accidentally liked it.
• 14:15
  I don't think she would intentionally like that because
• 14:17
  that would just be the worst PR move of all time.
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  I think it is possible it came up on her for you page.
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  It's like anti Selena Gomez content.
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  Honestly she probably gets a lot of that because of how her name
• 14:29
  is associated with Selena in the algorithm and everything and I
• 14:32
  think it's possible she accidentally liked it.
• 14:35
  I accidentally like and also dislike things all the time.
• 14:39
  Ever since they introduced the dislike button, you guys, I am
• 14:42
  constantly accidentally disliking things just like based
• 14:44
  on where it is. And I'm always thinking, I
• 14:47
  really hope that you don't get a notification if someone dislikes
• 14:50
  your video. And if you have ever got a
• 14:52
  notification that I just liked your video, I actually didn't it
• 14:55
  was an accident. I always UN dislike it, but I'm
• 14:57
  always like worried about that. It's possible she liked it.
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  It's possible this content creator is just completely
• 15:03
  lying. I saw that somebody said she
• 15:04
  photoshopped the like or whatever.
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  I couldn't find proof of that, but I think it's possible for
• 15:10
  sure. You know, it's like a good clout
• 15:12
  moment. It it will actually get you a
• 15:14
  lot of views. And I also think it could be
• 15:16
  possible that Haley's rap is lying.
• 15:19
  Like it is possible that Haley liked this picture or this video
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  and that they are their story that they're going to go with is
• 15:26
  that this was a lie. And this content creator is
• 15:29
  capitalizing on, you know, this drama for their own personal
• 15:33
  gain. Whether she liked it on purpose
• 15:35
  or not, we will never know. Whether she actually liked it,
• 15:38
  we'll never know. But you know what I mean.
• 15:39
  Like if she, if there was a like involved, we won't know if it
• 15:43
  was on purpose or not. But regardless, it is also
• 15:45
  possible that her Rep is lying and saying this because how
• 15:49
  would we be able to disprove that anyways?
• 15:52
  Like everyone's already going to be questioning the content
• 15:54
  creator and especially with a statement like this.
• 15:57
  But you're so blatantly saying like this person lied.
• 16:00
  There's obviously going to be a huge portion of the Internet now
• 16:03
  that believes that this creator is a liar.
• 16:05
  So you might as well just go with that narrative.
• 16:07
  I don't know what do you guys think?
• 16:09
  But if it is a lie, if this creator fully made this up, like
• 16:13
  let's fucking leave Oh my God. Like leave Hailey Bieber alone.
• 16:18
  No matter how you feel about Hailey Bieber, Holly Bieber,
• 16:21
  Hailey Bieber, she has been married to Justin now for like
• 16:24
  years. They have a child together.
• 16:26
  Like leave them alone. Like leave her alone.
• 16:29
  If this is a lie for clout, like just fucking leave her alone.
• 16:33
  OK, that's it guys. Thank you so much for listening.
• 16:36
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  then I'll talk to you on Thursday.
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  OK, bye.