00:00:00.000Hello, hello, hello. It is Friday, the Super Bowl is this weekend, the Eagles aren't playing
00:00:09.960so I don't really care, but you might be going to a Super Bowl party and you may want
00:00:15.700some things to talk about. You may want to catch up on the latest influencer news. So
00:00:21.500we're trying something new on Fridays. We're just going to do a quick and dirty recap with
00:00:26.680our coven of influencer and social media reporters about the big news that you may have missed this
00:00:32.560week. It's like the daily, but with foul language and a lot more fun. First up, we have something
00:00:41.000that is actually relevant for your Super Bowl party. What does Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's
00:00:47.240relationship have to do with the latest right-wing conspiracy theory taking over the internets?0.98
00:00:53.780We have Glamour reporter Steph McNeil here to explain her story from this week.0.57
00:00:59.820So we all know that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey have completely taken over everyone's life, our entire culture.
00:01:08.240We are now in a Taylor and Travis monoculture.
00:01:11.060um and apparently it is not only a monoculture among those of us who like entertainment and
00:01:20.400pop culture but it is now seeping in some of the worst parts of our culture the right-wing ecosystem
00:01:27.420all of the hype around their relationship reached a fever pitch when the chiefs won the game that
00:01:35.060got them into the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago where it it was just kind of this magical
00:01:42.160moment I assume until slash if they win the Super Bowl on Sunday where we had followed them this
00:01:49.520whole season Taylor Swift is having the best year of her career she is dating Travis who is on this
00:01:56.460team that is now going to the Super Bowl and it was just kind of the pinnacle of this almost reality
00:02:01.520show we've been following for so long. It was that just kind of this being this peak of this
00:02:07.240huge cultural moment combined with the fact that there has been some reporting that the Biden
00:02:12.940campaign has really been hoping to get Taylor Swift as a surrogate going into the election,
00:02:18.660hoping for her not only to endorse him like she did in 2020, but also to really come out and
00:02:26.340fundraise for him and really kind of get her fans to vote for him essentially um and so I guess this
00:02:34.580kind of broke something in the right-wing influencers brains and they started to speculate
00:02:41.440that this all is planned like it's too much that Biden needs Taylor's endorsement or wants Taylor's
00:02:53.580endorsement. And now all of a sudden, she's not only a super influential figure among her mostly
00:03:00.720female audience and those who follow pop culture, but now she's become this hugely influential
00:03:05.840figure among the NFL and sports and football. And they started speculating that, you know,
00:03:14.500nothing's nothing happens by coincidence. So it has to be that Taylor and Travis are a huge
00:03:21.240sigh up by the Biden campaign to get everyone to fall in love with them. And then when they
00:03:27.040inevitably endorse Biden, they say, to just convince the entire country to vote for Biden.
00:03:35.100If that doesn't make a lot of sense, it's not supposed to. I do think that Taylor Swift has
00:03:41.640a huge amount of political power. And I think it's interesting because she's really only flexed1.00
00:03:48.940that muscle a few times. In the Miss Americana documentary, a big part of it is that she is
00:03:56.800kind of debating whether she should essentially come out as a Democrat and whether she should
00:04:00.500endorse a Democratic candidate in her home state of Tennessee. And since then, she has been somewhat
00:04:07.640politically active. She's not the most politically active celebrity by far. She kind of comes out
00:04:13.220for big things or it seems causes she she personally really cares about like I said
00:04:18.920she endorsed Biden in 2020 um but even since 2020 her political or not her political power but her
00:04:29.760cultural power is so huge now it's like I wasn't alive for the Beatles or Elvis but I have to think
00:04:36.980it's kind of unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime and I think that if you know she got on
00:04:42.260stage with Biden, I do think that I don't know if it would necessarily sway people who are going to
00:04:47.980vote for Trump to vote for Biden, but I think it could make an impact. And I think Travis Kelsey
00:04:53.500as well, you know, he has really stood firm on a couple of big political issues. He's been very
00:05:00.260supportive of the vaccine, which obviously shouldn't be political, but he's been in commercials
00:05:04.060encouraging people to get the COVID vaccine. So, I mean, yeah, I definitely think that if the two
00:05:09.760of them came together and, you know, didn't just say on Instagram, oh yeah, by the way,
00:05:14.260vote for Biden, but really like campaigned for him. I do think it would make a difference.
00:05:20.360Next up, we have Teen Vogue's for Tessa Latifi to talk about whether or not kid influencers
00:05:26.600are actually going to start to get paid by their parents. And are we all sick of rich people and1.00
00:05:34.440fake rich people on TikTok. I'm so glad that you are on today because there's been a lot a lot of
00:05:42.460news in the world of influencing and you've been reporting on a lot of this news and I just yeah
00:05:51.520I want to I want to hear all the things you wrote a story about the states that are now trying to
00:05:57.880require influencer parents to pay their kids, which I am here for. I am all for this. I'm going
00:06:07.980to read the opening of this article because I think it is so important. Imagine that you're
00:06:13.420the child of an influencer. Your parents pull in serious money in the multi-billion dollar industry
00:06:19.680of family influencing, but it is your childhood and adolescence documented in this monetized
00:06:26.560content. You participate in lucrative brand deals, appear in content that gains profits through
00:06:33.160views, and help your family's platform. But when you reach the age of 18, there isn't a dollar
00:06:40.740set aside for you. I mean, it's fucking dark, man. It's crazy. It's crazy in 49 states that's1.00
00:06:51.400legal. So which which state is it not legal in? Illinois. Fascinating. Fascinating. You'd think
00:07:00.280it would be California or something. But Illinois, I'm here. I'm here for what Illinois is doing.
00:07:05.400So, yeah, in Illinois, the earnings of child influencers are protected legally.
00:07:11.820But it does seem like there is going to be a change in at least six other states. Talk to me
00:07:19.220about that. Yeah, it feels like there's a reckoning. I mean, just in January of 2024,
00:07:24.480Maryland, California, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio and Arizona all introduced legislation that would
00:07:30.520mirror Illinois's legislation and even in some cases deal with privacy concerns. So it's really
00:07:36.200a big deal because in 2023, only two states introduced it in the entire year. So it was
00:07:41.780Washington State and Illinois. Illinois passed it. Washington State is still in the House of
00:07:47.340representatives. And then in the first month of the year in 2024, we have six states joining.
00:07:54.000Why do you think so many states are signing on now? What is changing?
00:07:57.960I think the tide is just changing the way that we look at kid influencers and the way
00:08:02.960that we think about them, especially relative to how child actors were so unprotected for so long
00:08:08.120and in some states still are so unprotected. And people are like, wait, why are we not regulating
00:08:13.320this industry at all when kids are the backbone of it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And this legislation
00:08:19.380entitles child influencers under the age of 16 to at least 30 percent of the adult vloggers
00:08:27.460compensated video content produced within a 30 day period, which includes the likeness, name or
00:08:34.900photograph of the minor. That's I think that's that's pretty good language around a law.
00:08:39.980yeah it is and you can see that they're trying to stretch it as much as possible because obviously
00:08:45.280like there are posts that are monetized that are just like photo posts or there are ones that are
00:08:50.680like they're talking about the kid the entire time but maybe the kid isn't shown but that's
00:08:55.060their likeness name or photograph yeah i mean it's crazy and you have talked to a lot of adult
00:09:04.800children of influencers who believe in laws like this and who believe in regulations around how
00:09:13.800children can be used in videos. Talk to me about them. Yeah, I mean, I think they're very hopeful
00:09:20.120on one hand that the the world and the country is finally like paying attention to their struggles.
00:09:25.880But the other on the other hand, it's really sad because for a lot of them, it's too late, right?
00:09:30.520Whatever we do now won't save the kids that this has already happened to. And I'm not sure how the laws will address when they go into effect. Does that mean that if a kid turns 18 before that, that they're not allowed remuneration? It's just so complicated. And it feels like no matter how far these laws go, they can't go far enough to save these kids' childhoods.
00:09:56.080no no i don't i don't think they can but they can do some good i yes after reporting on this
00:10:04.200for four years now i genuinely believe that any restrictions are good because it makes us pause
00:10:11.400it makes us pause yes think about this world instead of it just remaining something that we
00:10:18.100do and consume willy-nilly we need to think about it as both serious business and as something
00:10:25.180addictive. And when we have these regulations, at least we have another layer of mindfulness.
00:10:33.320Yeah, absolutely. And maybe it'll make the parents think, too, and think about it as,
00:10:37.500OK, this is work. This is not just like this fun content, like whatever, like making content is
00:10:42.240work. You and I know and we're adults. I know. I know. I mean, I'd be making so much content
00:10:47.100for this for this hot Sicilian every day. Yes. And look, I mean, if I thought my kids would sell0.51
00:10:54.800books. I would totally put them in the videos. Well, listen, they probably would. Would they?
00:11:00.820Would they? I mean, all of this money is already going into their college accounts anyway. So I'm
00:11:06.500like, why don't why don't I make them work? See, it's a slippery slope, slippery slope, my friends.
00:11:12.680It is. It is. But yes, we I mean, these I think these laws are such a good thing and you're doing
00:11:44.120You know, we're not feeling as good as we used to anymore.
00:11:47.420No, I really think that like the King Kylie era of influencers where we were just like wanted to see influencers and celebrities like flex their Cartier rings and Bentleys and like thousands of boxes like people are over it.
00:12:02.040And I don't know if it's because people are like struggling to afford rent and there's so many layoffs and, you know, a trip to the grocery store is so expensive.
00:12:10.140But people are just like, this is actually kind of gross.
00:12:13.000yeah yeah it is it is actually kind of gross and i i feel yeah i feel yucky when i'm on the social
00:12:22.200media too long i mean you're you're writing about how on tiktok there is just this storm brewing
00:12:31.080brewing around the all too curated lifestyle and you know is it rich people getting richer
00:12:38.820especially as we're living in this world of constant layoffs and inflation. So many people
00:12:44.760are struggling right now. And now consumers of this content say, you know, I'm just I'm just
00:12:50.020kind of sick at looking looking at rich people getting richer. Yeah, totally. And you see this
00:12:55.820like it's really fascinating because what brought this to my mind is two things this week. So there's
00:13:01.300this one influencer on TikTok whose name is Darcy McQueenie and she has millions of followers and0.86
00:13:06.800her whole thing is just like overconsumption. And just I mean, every day it's like, let's do a
00:13:13.000Sephora haul. Let's do let's open packages, whatever. And she had this series of videos
00:13:17.800where she was like, oh, let's open these boxes of PR gifts that have been waiting for me to open0.55
00:13:24.760them for months. And it was like literally like four massive box, no, four massive stacks of
00:13:30.580boxes. Like I can't even it was like a whole room full of like gifts. Right. And she was like,
00:13:36.220I have no idea what's in any of these two months of PR packages means four days of
00:13:40.240unboxing and the stitches and duets and comments were like bananas that came out of it.
00:13:45.160Like it was mostly people being judgmental either towards Darcy herself for having so
00:13:49.520much stuff and like showing it off or the companies for sending that many gifts to one
00:14:05.260And I mean, I don't know, this is kind of like a double edged sword, but Darcy did say she was going to donate most of the stuff back to fans.
00:14:21.240Just like a lot of celebrities who are getting paid for their baby photos back in the day from magazines, we're like, we're donating all this money.
00:14:32.260OK, it's an easy thing to say, you know.
00:14:35.060So easy. And thank you for following up because not enough people follow up. And then, you know, these influencers and celebrities get away with it. And, you know, I do want to just throw out one real life example. This kind of content is damaging.
00:14:52.700You know, I work with a lot of young women who consume this content and they get very depressed that their lives do not look like this, that they do not have these things.
00:15:06.440And in a perfect storm in the past year, they have been purchasing all of these things on those like Klarna payment plans.
00:15:16.760Because now it is so easy to purchase these things on a so-called payment plan without even a credit card or a credit history.
00:15:25.840And now they're paying some like $3,000 a month on these payment plans because they wanted that Apple Watch and that Michael Kors purse and that new laptop.