wtf is everyone talking about? — issue #1
the nyc influencer takedown, tiktok tv and plushies come alive
ICYMI: I officially started my journey as a freelance strategist! Since being laid off back in January, I took the past month-ish to grieve my life as a 9-5 (sometimes even later) baddie. This has been the longest I have gone without working since I graduated from university in 2021 (I had a full-time position lined up for me post-grad and started working 3 weeks after my graduation date).
I don’t know how to do life without a set routine or schedule. I definitely don’t know what I’m doing as I enter this new era in my career journey. But per my last wtf is she talking about essay, no one really knows what they’re doing until they do it.
So this is part of me doing it. When I worked as a senior strategist at my last agency, I loved discussing all the latest and greatest in marketing culture with my coworkers. An intern I had referred to it as “professional gossiping,” which I absolutely adored and will be unofficially adding to my list of services (shoutout to you, Haley).
While I plan on continuing my every-other-week schedule for more in-depth, introspective thought pieces on my main newsletter, I wanted to start using the off weeks to publish a quick roundup of marketing trends and news that are catching my strategy eye
Introducing: wtf is everyone talking about?
This first issue I will be sending to all of my current subscribers, but moving forward, these will be published via the Substack platform only to not inundate my non-marketing friends’ inboxes. If you would like to keep up with this subsection of wtf is she talking about?, please subscribe to this newsletter separately.
Without further ado, let’s get into it:
THE RISING COUP AGAINST “NYC INFLUENCERS”
The Tea: Mom, can you pick me up? The girlies are fighting. If your FYP is anything like mine, you’ve probably been flooded with the ongoing debate on whether or not “NYC influencers” are “boring.” This was the first video I saw that led me down an absolutely chaotic rabbit hole. The creator calls out how these influencers are “carbon copies” of one another—right down to their identical bracelets, panic attacks, and seemingly shared love for shopping at Revolve. Needless to say, it spiraled from there. Some people were jumping to agree or sharing their own negative experiences with certain influencers. Others came to their defense and called out the unnecessary hate for women who are just trying to live their lives. Another group was offering a different perspective on the matter, saying that these “NYC influencers” everyone’s hating on aren’t even native New Yorkers, if only people diversified their following to influencers who are actually interesting.
The Takeaway: I don’t think this discourse is really about whether NYC influencers are boring, but the further shift away from the aspirational influencer lifestyle that doesn’t resonate for many people. We saw this with the backlash of the recent Poppi vending machines drama and how many people complained that a brand was sending expensive gifts to already rich influencers (which the founder has provided more clarity on). We saw this with the pushback on extravagant brand trips from notorious brands like Tarte. A majority of brands seem to be hindered by their tunnel vision, fixated on the same roster of copy-and-paste influencers who can garner the most reach and impressions. In reality, these vanity metrics don’t do anything to build long-term engagement with their audiences. If they only took the time to scroll past their limited circle of the same polished, 500k+ follower influencers, they would find a diverse wealth of creators who are working to build genuine communities with their followers.
ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF…
The Tea: I’ve been obsessed with Tower28’s short series, “The Blush Lives of Sensitive Girls.” Undoubtedly a nod to Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls (which I just read in Brand Baby’s latest issue—also all about the rise of TikTok TV shows—that the brand actually collaborated with a previous writer of the show!), Tower28 draws humorous parallels between modern dating struggles—ghosting, streaking, regret—to blush mishaps. Similarly, e.l.f tapped into culturally relevant storytelling with its recent e.l.f.enovela series, using the beloved telenovela format to build excitement for its upcoming launch in Sephora Mexico later this year.
The Takeaway: It’s not enough to bank on a one-off, highly produced piece of content that will be forgotten the second people scroll away. As people reevaluate their relationship with content consumption, there’s a growing desire for more intentional, longer-form content that actually rallies a whole community behind it. Episodic content on a short-form platform like TikTok can solve for this. Remember when the 50-part series “Who TF did I marry?” went viral? Or how we all got sucked into bootlegging a whole movie through 100+ clips? Brands like Tower28 and e.l.f. understand this: investing in episodic, character-based content that keeps people coming back for more. By building familiarity with reoccurring characters and ongoing narratives, brands aren’t just selling products but crafting a universe people want to be a part of. Other accounts doing this well include Planet Money and Alexandar Wang.
LEAVE ME AND MY PLUSHIES ALONE!
The Tea: Has anyone else been seeing this strange but somewhat captivating trend of people personifying their stuffed animals? Some of my favorites include this one, this one, and especially this one.
The Takeaway: While these videos might seem silly (and at times somewhat cursed), it isn’t just a one-off trend. I can’t help but think about all the other ways people have been animating their inanimate objects. They’re dressing them up, they’re putting them to work, they’re writing their elaborate backstories. I can neither confirm nor deny if I have also prescribed to this behavior myself (I have). The rise of the kidults has been brewing for the past few years, and in 2025, there are no signs of slowing down. According to a report by Circana, adults contributed $1.5 billion in toy sales in Q1 2024, surpassing preschoolers for the first time. I mean, given the state of our sociopolitical environment…it comes to no surprise that the toy market is thriving from many adults seeking distraction in the comforts and joys of childhood. Especially with this year primed for some highly anticipated box office releases like the Minecraft movie and the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, the sandbox of opportunity for brands and marketers to dig into is vast.
What have you been talking about? 👀 Let me know if you have thoughts on any of the trends I mentioned or if you’re following anything new that I should spill the tea on for the next issue!
Until next time 👋