"I'm A 15-Year-Old Girl, And My Social Media Feed Is Full Of Vile Misogyny"
A look at what girls are really seeing online. PLUS: What adults need to know about BuzzBallz, the declining birth rate, and what teens are really doing with those AI chatbots.
Hi Readers!
I’m Christopher Pepper, an award-winning health educator and the co-author of the bestselling book Talk To Your Boys.
I regularly out send curated collections of news stories and essays like the one you are reading right now. Think of me as your friend who keeps up with everything and sends you the most interesting stuff.
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In this edition:
The High-Alcohol Drink Taking Over Gen Z
I Am A 15-Year-Old Girl. Let Me Show You The Vile Misogyny That Confronts Me On Social Media Every Day
Ethnic Studies Courses Linked To Higher Grades, College Eligibility
Deepfake Nudes Are Haunting America’s Teens
710,000 Fewer Babies Were Born Last Year In U.S. Compared With Two Decades Ago
Man Up! Shut Up!
The Camps Promising to Turn You — Or Your Son— Into An Alpha Male
What Teens Are Doing With Those Role-Playing Chatbots
The High-Alcohol Drink Taking Over Gen Z (New York Times)
By Callie Holtermann: BuzzBallz are hard drinks sold in bottles that resemble phosphorescent billiard balls. They contain around 15 percent alcohol by volume, more than double that of the average beer. And Lucy Rocca first heard about them from her 13-year-old daughter.
It was December, and Ms. Rocca was talking to her daughter and a friend about a shopping list for a New Year’s Eve party. When the girls brought up BuzzBallz, “I was like, ‘Whoa, no way,’” Ms. Rocca, 50, recalled. She asked where her daughter had gotten the idea. “All my friends are drinking them,” she responded.
BuzzBallz have been around since 2009, but today they are practically ubiquitous. You can find them sprinkled like confetti throughout college parties and stacked by the checkout at convenience stores. The fluorescent orbs are easy to spot on a Florida beach during spring break; in a crowded social media feed, they glow like beacons. The drinks are portable, flavored and cheap, a combination that has earned them a reputation as a go-to beverage for Gen Z. READ MORE
From Christopher - WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS STORY? As a health educator and a parent, I have to try to keep up with trends, especially around substance use. BuzzBallz have definitely moved into the “things to watch out for” category.
I Am A 15-Year-Old Girl. Let Me Show You The Vile Misogyny That Confronts Me On Social Media Every Day (The Guardian)
By Anonymous: I’m a 15-year-old schoolgirl and like most teenagers I spend a fair portion of my spare time on social media, often scrolling through short-form videos on apps such as Instagram or TikTok. All of my friends use those apps, and many spend multiple hours a day on them. I actively try to avoid online misogyny, but I am met with it incessantly whenever I open my mainstream social media apps. It only takes a few minutes before there’s subtle or overt misogyny, such as comment sections on a girl’s post filled with remarks about her body, videos made by men or boys captioned with a degrading joke, and even topics such as domestic violence or rape, trivialised and laughed about.
