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20-Something Springsteen Lovers, Yearning, and Chat GPDeities.

The Latest “It Girl” Canon? Bruce Springsteen.

Oh, my dad’s going to love this. A tale as timely as the latest TikTok trend, the perennial interest in what the hot, thot, and cool daughters are into. Right now, it’s the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. Specifically I’m On Fire. Video upon video of young women musing about the circumstances it was written under (was he ovulating?)

When this happens with classic music or anything “older” than the textbook Gen Z range of 13-28 years old I giggle. I’m sure some could get crotchety about this, “I think I know Bruce Springsteen better than you (a “a 26 year old teenage girl”) do genius!” But when most talk around music, content, entertainment, and art in general is all about churn and burn with little time to pay attention, it makes me glad to see some things still just resonate. I’d be curious just how related the upcoming Jeremey Allen White biopic had to do with this, if anything— but the love grows regardless.

And I get it, there’s a certain level of ownership Gen Z brings to the table when they’ve decided they like something. A level of enthusiasm that borders ‘I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic but either way… great’ that while perhaps a little off-putting for those not chronically online, I love. Because after all, if you like something like it with your whole chest …or whatever. And if that thing is New Jersey’s greatest 75 year old export, I’d say hell yeah.

Eating to Grow a Penis

I’m coining this right now. Well, me and my Fitness Friend C are coining this together, meaning I gave it a silly name and she’s actually living it. What do we mean by eating to grow a penis you ask? Great question.

It’s taking that gym-bro-blended-chicken approach toward our food. Now, don’t get it twisted, we as women would never blend chicken or eat unseasoned white rice or grunt really loud during a yoga class to assert some weird level of subconscious dominance because we’re feeling insecure. However, if you’re doing the whole macro thing or just trying to hit some nutrient goals, putting them in the context of ‘I just hit my fiber goals. My dick is so huge, it’s crazy” is funny. Next!

Yearning is Back?

30 must be hitting me harder than I thought because I had not realized yearning left. According to Betches as of last Wednesday, yearning has made it’s triumphant return to the zeitgeist. My hunch on yearning is it’s earnestness 2.0.Being loud and honest about how you feel, what you want, things you like etc.

Treatonomics and Avocado Toast

So there’s this thing called… an impending economic recession.

News to you? That’s crazy TW, I guess. Anyway, when times are tough you see things like “the lipstick effect” or “the hemline index” shopped around describing consumer behavior. TLDR; ‘treatonomics” as this article describes them fall into that space. Purchasing little treats (think Sonny Angels, Labubus, a new lip gloss, Matcha) as a quick hit morale boost. The comparison I’d like to draw here is to that of Millennials and their recession— lattes, avocado toast, etc. “Treatonomics” all the same.

However, that led to a period in history where you could not escape at least one article a day that touched on how Millennials could no longer buy homes and were ruining industries because their little treat habit… ignoring the whole recession part entirely. All to say, I don’t think Gen Z will allow culture to characterize them that way. Stay tuned.

Speaking of Cyclical Culture, Let’s Quickly Talk About the Normans

What got me into trends and strategy to begin with was K-Hole’s 2013 report Youth Mode. (Download it here) The report touched on ‘post authenticity’ cool that relies less on individuality and more on ubiquity— or sameness. If you’re like, “whoaAaAa that still sounds like today.” Yeah, they were onto something.

“Once upon a time people were born into communities and had to find their individuality. Today people are born individuals and have to find their communities.”

Flash forward 12 years later and we’re still ideating on the normies, or now— The Normans. Now, this Vice article articulates the Normans differently focusing on a specific North London Gentrifier look. But the core is similar.

“The Norman is the defining person-type of 2025. They are what the yuppie was to 1985 or metrosexuals were to Blairite Britain: a socio-economic style tribe born not of a desire to be different but a desperation to fit in. When I started thrashing out a few thoughts about Normans on X, many people in the replies already had their own names for the movement—things like “neo-millennial Aussiecore”; “Margate-core”; “DIY-bubble infantilism”—while in the United States they seem to call it “safe sleazy” for some reason.”

Ultimately, what I think this article points toward is the sense of ubiquity in today’s culture. We cannot escape our algorithms telling us what to wear, watch, and live. It creates a sea of sameness that’s difficult to escape. And where KHole’s 2013 report gave me a Midwestern pride of place “yeah, it’s cool to be normal!” I think today we yearn for pride in our nuance. Making the new normal of today feel a little icky.

Girlfriends

Rather, girlfriends. I’m living in an insane, dream-life fantasy world in which I get to watch the UPN turned CW, Tracee Ellis Ross fronted classic girlfriends for the first time as a woman in her 30s. Do you know how rare this is?

If you haven’t watched it yet you’re doing yourself a disservice, I certainly was. Here are my initial thoughts as I’m just about to start season 03:

Maya is my favorite and Darnell pmo.

I find myself oddly endeared to William despite him being a Bush Republican in 2001.

I could watch the show in utter silence and solely looking at the outfits and still be satisfied.

Joan has inspired me to wear my hair in ponytails more.

That damn song is stuck in my head all the time.

As much as I love SATC, Girlfriends is the show that should have been rebooted. You can immediately tell that the storylines would’ve evolved to be interesting, well-written, and timely in a way that doesn’t make you cringe away in secondhand embarrassment.

Instagram’s Favorite Past Time: The Copy & Paste

I wanted to briefly touch on Instagram’s new features, I’ve given my 0.02¢ snippet on Substack Notes and Instagram Stories but to recap:

Instagram is in a battle for relevancy as apps like TikTok continue to steal its lunch. When faced with this, Instagram tends to turn toward feature-stealing to keep users engaged. It’s like when they introduced stories to spar against Snapchat, or notes to compete with the other loser’s app. Now, they’re pushing reposts and location as their “new to them” features. So here are my thoughts:

We’re firmly planted in the disinformation age. Things can be suppressed, algorithmically deprioritized intentionally so that we don’t see them. Luckily, a repost feature (as seen on TikTok) is a way to circumvent this. It helps get information out that may have been confined to niche audiences. Good!

Instagram has also added a location sharing feature. Aside from the obvious “you probably don’t want strangers to know where you are” part (especially since Instagram is really no longer a place where just your family and friends are watching you) there’s something that feels troubling about being able to repost things… things that the Big Media may or may not love and your location being easily tied to it.

Listen, I’m not trying to actually tinfoil hat you, so TLDR; don’t share your location online.

Hard Pivot, but This Made Me Laugh

Girl leave him home!

r/kitchencels

Oh no, she’s on Reddit again. I stumbled across this page called Kitchencels. Yes, it’s what you think it is. If you’re unsure, it’s incel dudes making food and writing incel musings. Here you go:

“The Great Unbalding”

Hey, speaking of! Men are finally not being weird about being bald and wanting to change it. I’ve talked about men’s hairlines before but NYMag has coined “The Great Unbalding” and you know what? Good for them. Another, hopefully less jarring Reddit thread, “Tressless” have helped stumble upon a solution for those in tress distress.

Last but not least: Doctor + Patient Love, Henry, and How Chat GPT Still Sorta Freaks Me Out

I’ll make this quick as it’s hitting the Internet hard, but I was lucky enough to see the first installment of this several part series over the weekend. Kendra Hilty who is a life coach, yoga instructor, and teacher began to outline how she development a crush on her psychiatrist. TLDR; she says it was his duty to end the relationship but he must have been in love with her too because he did not.

There’s a lot more to unpack here in that regard, but a point of this story that’s rubbed me raw is this: she turns to ChatGPT to validate her feelings a lot… and I know, tools like this have made therapy tools more accessible, given people neutral-ish sounding boards, but I think her story shares a pretty dark (and weird) side to this. She named her ChatGPT “Henry” and he began referring to her as an oracle, infusing a level of mysticism into this whole thing that someone who may be going through a mental health crisis… may not need. You can see from her videos that she’s put full faith into Henry, relying on it for support and guidance not like a therapist… but instead a God-like deity. I’m hitting email limit length— but drop me a line on this if you have thoughts. Because boy, do I !!!

It’s relentless,