GOOD AFTERNOON!

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will christian girl autumn rise again?

Join us as we bow our heads, hold our wide-brimmed hats to our hearts, and mourn this year’s annulment of Christian Girl Autumn.

For the uninitiated, the term stems from syntax coined by Megan Thee Stallion during her breakout 'Hot Girl Summer', which the internet (and marketing departments everywhere) endlessly iterated on. 

The forerunner of Christian Girl Autumn is lifestyle blogger Caitlin Covington. Covington went viral in 2019 when X account Blizzy McGuire posted a (now deleted) tweet featuring a photo of Covington and fellow blogger Emily Gemma in their fall finest - chunky sweaters, swooping scarves, and perfectly coiffed curls against a backdrop of foliage. The caption read "Hot Girl Summer is coming to an end, get ready for Christian Girl Autumn"—and with that, the queen of fall was anointed. 

Blizzy’s tweet was arguably threaded with a subtle derision for the bloggers’ ‘basic’ aesthetic, but the tweet ultimately struck up an unexpected e-friendship: Covington donated to Blizzy’s transition fund and urged her followers to do the same, subverting commenters’ hasty expectations about Covington’s political and religious views. All in all, a wholesome convergence of unlikely subcultures that yielded mutual virality. 

This year, however, Covington will be taking a step back from the spotlight. In a tearful TikTok announcement, she divulged that the expectations surrounding her annual autumn content blitz had become overwhelming. In all fairness, her affinity for fall snowballed in a way that defied expectation. The hashtag #christiangirlautumn has amassed millions of views on TikTok, and Covington’s noted that between curating outfits and planning shoots, "around 100 hours of work…goes into each trip." What began as content creation driven by a pure love for PSL season has transformed into a high-stakes performance. 

To Covington, we say: hold your head up, queen - your barrel curl is falling. We would have welcomed your annual resurgence with open, cardigan-clad arms, whatever form it took. But on today’s Panopticon internet, with billions in brand deals on the line and countless commentators prowling for their next cancellation victim, the instinct to meticulously curate is understandable. 

As we enter this Agnostic Autumn, we reflect on the things we lose to the pursuit of perfection. While the unfiltered chaos of the early internet is unlikely to resurge in full force, we hope that creators’ anxious fixation on perfection will soften—at least for our content’s sake. Authenticity may be dangerous and expensive, but the viral moments of the future belong to the people who can rise above the pressure to perfect. As Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden: “And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."

LUNCH BREAK

five quick consumption recs for the time between meetings

1. THE MAFIA IS KILLING ITALIAN FOOTBALL. A deep dive into how the 'Ndrangheta has infiltrated supporter organizations, aka ‘Ultras’, for some of Italy’s biggest teams. 

2. CHECK ON YOUR TUMBLR DIASPORA FRIENDS. A sad girl music civil war erupted and introduced Nicki Minaj to Lana Del Rey’s discography.

3. FLY HIGH, FRISBEE. A memorial to Seth Meyer’s dog and Andy Samberg’s nemesis.

4. ZOOMER 101. Let’s unpack some generational quirks.

5. MANY SUCH CASES. Newsom tries Trump’s caps-laden tweet style on for size—maybe imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery after all?

TREND RAPPORT

viral vocab of the week 

TRUMPISM (n.) –  A word or phrase that’s cemented its place in the popular vernacular through Donald Trump’s habitual usage. 

MS NOW (prop. n.) – MSNBC’s rebrand, which sounds like either a Jack Donaghy brainchild or a runner-up on the next season of Drag Race. 

LABUBUMATCHADUBAICHOCOLATE (n.) –  A conglomerate reference to the algorithm-friendly fads that buoy posts on feeds and inform limited edition menu items worldwide.

SEE YOU NEXT WEDNESDAY!

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