Hi everyone,
Happy to be back to newsletter-ing after my family got COVID last week, it’s really as bad as they say! Thanks for all the well wishes.
This week I wrote…
Free Jinger!
Last month, I got to chat with Jinger Duggar about the internet campaign to “free her” from her family, her "Truman Show" like childhood, and disavowing her childhood beliefs in her new book. It was a really interesting conversation.
From my piece:
“Around 2005, a group of TV obsessives on the internet started a forum to discuss a TLC documentary special called 14 Children and Pregnant Again and the family it featured, the Duggars…The forum’s founders named their site Free Jinger after the couple’s sixth oldest child. They felt that the then-10-year-old Jinger Duggar’s frequent eye rolls and declared love of big cities made her the most likely of the Duggar children to ‘break out’ from her strict upbringing.
Nearly 20 years later, Jinger, now Jinger Vuolo, has proven them right: In her new book Becoming Free Indeed, which comes out today, the 29-year-old disavows her parents’ beliefs and those of Gothard and the IBLP. The book’s title is a reference to the forum, but also a denunciation of the theology she said she felt trapped in for so many years.”
It was certainly interesting to talk to Jinger about Free Jinger, because I def perused the site back in the day. You can read more about our conversation here.
Vanilla Girls and Beige Babies
I dove into the “Vanilla Girl Aesthetic” for our culture newsletter last week, including some of its more problematic undertones.
As I wrote:
“There’s a new It Girl on TikTok.
Her name is the Vanilla Girl, and she’s marked by two characteristics: She’s cozy and ‘clean.’ Dressed only in neutral tones like white, beige, or a very light brown, she might favor a loose comfy knit sweater over leggings with short Uggs. Her hair is slicked back, and her skin is free of heavy makeup — maybe just some lip gloss, eyebrow pencil, and cream blush. When she welcomes you into her home, she offers you a home-brewed latte, a white boucle chair to sit on, and a blanket to drape over your legs as the scent of sugar cookies wafts in the background. She’s chic, polished, and, above all else, effortless.
She’s also almost very likely white. Of the seemingly endless TikTok videos tagged ‘vanilla girl’ and ‘vanilla girl aesthetic,’ nearly all of the most popular feature blonde women.”
As I wrote on Instagram, I am planning a longer piece on this trend and the “beige babies” trend, and am taking name suggestions for the phenomenon. The beige-ification, maybe?
This week on the internet…
Everyone needs to read this piece on kid influencers
This piece in The Atavist magazine about the allegations against the mother of a child influencer is one of the best pieces of reporting I’ve read in a while about internet culture.
Here’s a snippet:
“Piper Rockelle’s popularity has exploded. She has more than 25 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fan pages dedicated to her. Piper has staged live meet-and-greets and musical performances around the world, and she sells her own line of merchandise. She lives in a pink and purple house worth $2.3 million in Sherman Oaks, previously owned by the actress Bella Thorne.
But all is not well in Piper’s world. Her own momager, Tiffany Smith, is being sued by 11 former members of the Squad, the name given to the circle of child actors who appear in Piper’s videos and ostensibly are her friends. Two of the plaintiffs are cousins of Piper’s. The kids allege that, when they were in the Squad, Smith verbally, physically, and in some cases sexually abused them. They also claim that Smith knowingly produced exploitative content featuring her daughter and other minors. ‘Smith would often boast to Plaintiffs and others about being the ‘Madam of YouTube’ and a ‘Pimp of YouTube,’ and that she ‘makes kiddie porn,’ ‘ states the lawsuit, which was filed in January 2022. Smith’s boyfriend, Hunter Hill, and Piper Rockelle Inc. are also defendants in the suit. Hill, who works behind the scenes to produce Piper’s YouTube videos, is accused of conspiring with Smith to ‘sabotage’ the plaintiffs’ careers after they left the Squad.”
Horrifying stuff!
Old school beauty influencer drama, now on TikTok!
If you missed the old infighting on YouTube between MUAs, you’re in luck with this drama surrounding TikToker Mikayla Nogueira and a video she posted about mascara.
My coworker Kelsey breaks it down:
“In the golden age of beauty influencer drama, creators with millions of subscribers were at each other’s throats on a daily basis. We don’t really see that kind of chaos these days — that is, until Mikayla Nogueira posted a video about mascara.
Nogueira shared a review of the L’Oreal Telescopic Lift mascara on TikTok with the hashtag #LorealParisPartner, suggesting the content might be an ad. ‘THESE ARE THE LASHES OF MY DREAMS!!’ she wrote in the caption.
Viewers quickly pointed out that after Nogueira applied the mascara, there appeared to be additional lashes on her eyelid. They asked if she used “wispies,” which are individual lash extensions. Nogueira denied doing so in now-deleted comments, according to Rolling Stone.”
My favorite comment was one person, that accused Nogueira of “lashlighting.”
One more thing…
I recently became obsessed with this girl on TikTok, Madison, and her incredibly spot on videos about niche everyday people. Like this one about apartment leasing office workers.
The keys! Or bartenders.
So good!
Have a great weekend,
Stephanie