my year in lists: sweet sixteen
second quarter review featuring… notes on marketability, recommendations all around and the return of the love column–make sure to submit if you want more direct advice! details below ;)
By the time you receive this, I will have already turned sixteen (edit: maybe just a smidge late with the quarterly review, whoops)! Instead of thinking about growing older, however, marketability has been on my mind a lot more frequently. How to make myself be more like someone you would be more likely to open a newsletter from.
While certain people of course have platforms because others enjoy their content, within niche spaces that house things such as girl blogs and think pieces, it almost seems like a battle of who can be the most radical while still positing themselves in a likable manner. Who can become the next hottest name drop. Within 2024 feminist online spaces, saying you read Rayne Fisher-Quann has become the slight equivalent of 1970s women reading Toni Morrison, or 1950s women reading Simone de Beauvoir–or maybe that’s just to the chronically online crowd that didn’t exist back then.
Even in spaces that make an effort to critique the male gaze, the manipulative ways in which things are marketed to maintain success–it’s truly impossible to escape and gain success without actually trying in some capacity. Á la “selling out.”
READING RECOMMENDATIONS
Teen Girls Are Being Victimized By Deepfake Nudes. One N.J. Family Is Pushing For More Protections, Haleluya Hadero
Yesterday I posted a semi-deep dive TikTok into deep fakes and their many implications, specifically going over some ethical considerations and the legal limitations currently in place (Check it out pleaseeee). In doing my research, I found this incredible article about teenage girls being the target for pornographic deep fake content.
https://whyy.org/articles/teen-girls-victimized-deepfake-nudes/
What A Presidential Candidate and a Tik-Tok Influencer Have In Common, Asisa Kadiri
I will forever admire Asisa’s writing and I really can’t say it enough. She has the incredible ability to weave politics and pop culture and relevance in an extremely enrapturing way. I particularly love the way she’s able to effectively summarize events, and shortly after Donald Trump’s attempted assassination, I just knew Asisa would make a killer article (no pun intended, whoops). Send her all your love!
The word "staged" quickly trended on X with many speculating that the attack was fabricated. This phenomenon was not limited to fringe groups but was actively promoted in users' feeds, often by verified accounts. The speculation centred on security failings and quickly escalated into disbelief and disinformation. Images and videos from the event only fuelled the speculation, with some suggesting the incident was staged to garner sympathy or as part of a larger conspiracy involving Trumps bid for his second go at the Presidency. Primarily, incorrect attempts to identify the shooter helped support the narrative of a far-right agenda, with Trump’s recent esablishment as a convicted felon and his unsettling past as a symbol of American Fascism and unavowed bigotry ensuring that he remains an untrustworthy figure.
LOVE COLUMN: MIDNIGHT RAIN IN ANAHEIM
I don’t think that I’ll ever memorize this route / ‘Cause I am lost, but not in you
Unfortunately, casual dating is the furthest thing from right for me, but perhaps I realized that a bit too late. The stereotype around Taylor Swift’s song Midnight Rain is unequivocally about the girls who always value their career over romance, who “don’t have time for this,” who hate complication and would rather self-sabotage. I should’ve listened to my gut as soon as he told me that was one of his favorite Taylor Swift songs. However, it was still a valuable lesson. I was never going to effectively rebound a rebound. Perhaps everyone, at some point, has to be doused with the realization that being unready is perfectly fine, like cold water! Your cautionary experience will mean nothing if you don’t slow down. Be mindful of your own readiness and interest.
Hey, psst, want your love situation to be featured in AuxComp with some advice? Submit to this Google Form! The next quarterly review will be published on September 30th, so be sure to submit before the 23rd!! This opportunity will definitely be fun and I’m happy to be connecting with you guys and the new audience from TikTok this way!
Still haven’t fully watched Sex In The City, we’ll get there by the next quarter… maybe.
WATCHING RECOMMENDATIONS
I am truly so serious when I say that Ludwig’s Mogul Mail gives me hope for contemporary journalism within male-dominated spaces. He is always highly rational and I have yet to see such clear-cut, structured journalistic practices. With the Sketch situation, in which the popular sports streamer got outed for his former queer OnlyFans presence, Ludwig explained the information empathetically, and was critical of the person who leaked the information in the first place who went against the very journalistic principles they claimed to have. Yay using your journalism degree!
LISTENING RECOMMENDATIONS
After seeing a TikTok that says Taylor Swift fans are setting her up by trying to compare her to the likes of Beyonce or Ariana Grande and they should instead be putting Swift up with lyricists such as the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney–I couldn’t agree more.
Nobody telling me the second Joni Mitchell put all of her music back on Spotify felt like a major betrayal. A ballad detailing how Mitchell put her then-infant daughter up for adoption, Little Green is an extremely intimate and personal track, hoping that her daughter has the happy life that Mitchell could not give her.
Anywayyy, here is the article playlist! Encompassing all of this second quarter (or at least, all that I can remember). Can you tell I went to a Los Campesinos! concert and had a blast?
Wow, was this quarter a doozy. Thanks for sticking around! Lots of exciting things to look forward to, especially on the TikTok account, where I’ll be active daily (or close to it).
If you enjoyed this quarterly review, be sure to subscribe, it’s completely free and the easiest way to directly support me and my work! Also, be sure to share this article with someone who reallyyy loves Red40.
All my love, Alaïa ♡