Status Samoyeds and Basement Girls

Quen Blackwell is the latest face of Nike; Phoebe Bridgers covered Nirvana in the BBC Live Lounge; Molly Lambert profiled Charles Melton, the 35-year-old Riverdale alum who’s rumored to be the next Beast in X-Men; Chipotle is collaborating with Gen Alpha influencer Salish Matter; and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t counting down the days to the premiere of Earle Meets World (15, if you care).

MEET THE ‘BASEMENT GIRLS’ WHO DIG UP DIRT ON FUTURE GREEK PLEDGES, nypost
Behind every viral RushTok dance is a hidden “coven” of sorority sisters known as “Basement Girls,” the data-obsessed operatives who actually decide which pledges make the cut. While the “floor girls” perform choreographed routines in front of sorority hopefuls, reports Faran Krentcil, their strategic counterparts sit downstairs in “Parke sweatshirts and Uggs,” running custom “grading” software while painstakingly cross-referencing recruits’ Instagram grids, high school GPAs, and letters of recommendation. (Fwiw, we did a version of this when I was in a sorority at Mizzou almost 20 years ago, though we used old-fashioned bulletin boards.) “We are the puppeteers of rush week,” one girl told her. “Basement Girls are like the CIA of sororities,” said another.

I’M A PSYCHIATRIST. I’M HEARING SOMETHING NEW FROM YOUNG WOMEN., nytimes
Young women who have never set foot in therapy are invoking therapy-speak, showing up to their appointments announcing their diagnoses — ADHD, OCD, anxiety, depression — “almost before telling me their names,” said psychiatrist Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell. About 50% of Gen Z have labeled themselves with a mental health condition, with girls in particular researching symptoms on Instagram and taking TikTok quizzes to self-diagnose. Several of Garfinkle-Crowell’s patients insisted they had anxiety because it was “less scary to blame an inherent flaw in their brains” than to examine anger toward loved ones. One girl used self-diagnosis for whatever felt like “too much” about her, letting her fulfill “the teenage female’s highest calling: to be chill.”

‘BABY BOTOX’ IS EXPLODING AMONG N.J.’S YOUTH. HOW IT BECAME A COSMETIC MOVEMENT., nj
At one Morristown plastic surgeon’s practice, under-30 patients have grown from about 10% of Botox clients 15 years ago to about 25% today. “There’s a lot of people in that age range that are almost starting to think of Botox like a very fancy skincare treatment or a high-end haircut,” said Dr. Brian Glatt. One 23-year-old consultant told the reporter she spends $500 every four months on injections she started as a teenager. “Are we just perpetuating this, like, impossible beauty standard?” said nurse practitioner Radhika Patel. “At the end of the day, am I the devil doing this? Probably.”

LINKEDIN HAS ACCIDENTALLY BECOME A DATING SITE—DESPITE ITS NO-ROMANCE RULES, wsj
LinkedIn as a dating site has been a recurring storyline for years — Business Insider called it “the hottest new dating site” back in 2024, and SFGATE reported in July that 1 in 5 workers had used it to research a potential partner. What’s new is that couples are actually getting married off it. Rachel Wong accepted a connection request from Sam Sawchuck, who apologetically admitted he’d first spotted her on Tinder; they’re now looking for a wedding venue. Financial adviser Amal Hagisufi cold-messaged Moustafa Madkaur about a job, got ignored, then reconnected after he saw her on Plenty of Fish; they’re now married. While pursuing romance on a professional network may be frowned upon by some, it’s certainly more effective — and much, much cheaper — than a high-end matchmaker.

DEMOCRATS ENTER THEIR THIRST TRAP ERA, axios
The left is testing a new political strategy: thirst traps. The party’s main TikTok page has given the heartthrob treatment to Sen. Jon Ossoff, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, among others. The Recount’s Grace Weinstein said the page makes a “very intentional choice to feature the most attractive male members,” which marks a shift from 2024, when Democrats came off “schlubby and … nerdy.” Now, “rizz, for lack of a better word, is the dominant feature,” she said. Berkeley political scientist Gabriel Lenz pointed out that candidate looks have always mattered, but “Harding never got edited to Usher’s ‘Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home).’”

CAN TAYLOR SWIFT TURN THE SAMOYED INTO THE NEXT FRENCHIE?, wsj
After a fluffy white Samoyed puppy trotted off Taylor Swift’s private jet in Palm Beach last month, searches for the breed on the American Kennel Club website jumped 15% that week. Samoyeds — which run $4,000 to $7,000 — currently rank 55th in the U.S., between the Weimaraner and the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, while Frenchies have ranked No. 1 in America for the last four years. The breeder community is “all abuzz,” said Deborah DeFonzo of Atomic Samoyeds in Hampton, NJ. Demand appears to be up: Rachel Fealko, a third-generation breeder in Ann Arbor, got 50 applications for just three puppies this summer. I’ll spare you my adopt-don’t-shop screed, but just know I’m biting my tongue. 🙂‍↔️

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