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Outdoor Voices, an athletic apparel company, is closing all its stores on Sunday, according to four employees at four different stores who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the news. In an internal Slack message reviewed by The New York Times, some employees were notified on Wednesday that “Outdoor Voices is embarking on a new chapter as we transition to an exclusively online business.” Products in stores are going to be discounted 50 percent, according to the Slack message. The news came as a surprise, two of the employees said, adding that they were not offered severance. Outdoor Voices, which lists 16 retail locations on its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Organizations: The New York Times, ”

☆ A Dedicated Taylor Swift Reporter Faces Swift Criticism Online
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But before Mr. West, 35, had the chance to file his first story on his new beat, he was getting criticism from two sides: journalism watchdogs and Ms. Swift’s fans. The objections started rolling in shortly after Variety broke the news of his hiring on Monday. The article included an interview with Mr. West, which provided newsroom ethicists and Swifties alike with grounds for complaint. At the same time, the singer’s fans debated whether he was a big enough Swiftie to capture their beloved star. Some people in both camps said the job was better suited to a woman.

Persons: Bryan, Taylor Swift, Taylor, ” Organizations: Bryan West, Gannett, USA, Variety, Mr Locations: United States, Phoenix

☆ A YouTube Gossip Spills a Secret of Her Own
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the last five years, Spill Sesh, a popular YouTube channel, has covered the world of social media stars, providing detailed recaps and tart commentary on their scandals and beefs du jour. But even as the Spill Sesh channel racked up more than 700,000 subscribers, the person behind it kept her identity secret. Or someone related to a famous YouTuber? Or maybe a famous YouTuber, doing gossip on the side? On Friday, the mystery was solved when the person behind Spill Sesh revealed her secret in a new video.

Persons: Sesh, Kristi Cook Organizations: TMZ, The New York Times Locations: Florida, Los Angeles

Earlier in the evening, Ms. Klum revealed her highly anticipated costume: a giant human peacock constructed with the help of 10 Cirque du Soleil acrobats. In a booth upstairs, the rapper Ice-T sat with his wife, Coco Austin, who was clad in fishnets. As she leaned over the back of the booth and chatted with some other guests, Ice-T snapped pictures of her. The club, filled with about 500 guests, was decorated for the holiday, with fun house mirrors lining the entryway and cobwebs draped from the ceiling. Across the room, the costumes were elaborate.

Persons: Heidi Klum’s, Klum, Coco Austin Locations: Chelsea, Manhattan

☆ The Hot New Thing in Social Media Is Here. Again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The history of social media platforms is littered with apps that had their moment before fading. And in 2015 there was Beme, which was marketed as an online space for sharing everyday life as it really is. Much like Dispo, Lapse encourages people to take pictures the way they did in the analog days, when disposable cameras were all the rage. When the photos are ready, several hours later, their takers can decide if they want to post them for their Lapse friends or archive them for private viewing. All photos posted on Lapse must be taken in the app and cannot be altered in any way.

Persons: Gen Organizations: Apple Locations: United States

☆ It’s a Bird. It’s a Dame. It’s Heidi Klum’s Halloween Costume.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

She picked a peacock because she thought the dynamic way the birds are known to show off their feathers would lend itself well to the performance. Ms. Klum wore a stretchy velour unitard in a shade of bright cobalt speckled with subtle sparkles to simulate the neck and head of the bird. Her hands were painted in blues and greens and decorated to conceal any trace of human skin. She wore shoes that looked like ballet slippers, which blended into the costume of the man whose thighs she stood on. The shoes were a little too tight, she said, but “you need a good grip” — something she had learned from the circus members.

Persons: Klum Organizations: du

☆ To Go Viral on TikTok, Do This
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

If this story were a TikTok video, the writer would be applying lip gloss right about … now. Unscrewing the cap on a tube of mauve goo and giving it a generous swipe across puckered lips. And once you see it, you won’t be able to unsee it. A clip of the “Laguna Beach” star Kristin Cavallari sitting in her car lip-syncing. A nutritionist offering tips on how to curb your cravings.

Persons: won’t, Kristin Cavallari Locations: Erewhon, Los Angeles

☆ The Tabi Swiper vs. TikTok’s Vigilantes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This week, I found myself breathlessly refreshing TikTok and Twitter — still not ready to call it X, sorry — for the latest updates in the saga of the Tabi Swiper. The story goes like this:After a second date, a man named Josh went home with a woman named Alexis Dougé for the evening. The following morning, after Josh left, Alexis discovered that her Tabi Mary-Janes — a pricey shoe from the brand Margiela with a polarizing cloven toe — were missing. It didn’t take the internet hive mind long to identify Josh, who had just given his girlfriend a pair of the same shoes. After a protracted public shaming, Josh came clean and gave Alexis her shoes back.

Persons: Twitter —, Josh, Alexis Dougé, Alexis, Mary, Janes, Jessica Roy, I’m Organizations: Twitter

☆ Grown-Up Theater Kids Run the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Muttering “thank you, five” under their breath when you swing by their cubicles to remind them about a team meeting happening in five minutes. Performing slightly too well at office karaoke after protesting slightly too much about getting onstage. Former theater kids. What happens to theater kids when we grow up? There’s, of course, the dream scenario: The theater kids who are driven and talented and lucky enough become working theater adults.

Persons: it’ll, Ben Platt, Tony, Evan Hansen, ” Locations: “

☆ Hawaii-Tok Wants Tourists to Stay Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

TikTok’s algorithm shows you videos based on other videos you’ve interacted with. So this week, after I watched a video or two about the fires sweeping through Maui, my For You Page was nearly all content from creators in Hawaii. One central topic kept coming up: Should tourists stay away from the island of Maui after last week’s deadly fires? Kate Ducheneau, a TikTok creator from Lahaina whose family evacuated during the fires, told me it had been hard seeing tourists around the area. “I was in line, just trying to get a Starbucks coffee,” she said, when she spotted a couple who appeared to be tourists.

Persons: Kate Ducheneau, ” Organizations: Target Locations: Maui, Hawaii, Lahaina

In the throes of responding to the Maui wildfires that razed the celebrated town of Lahaina and claimed over 110 lives, Hawaii remains mostly open for tourism, despite the misgivings of both residents and tourists. “Do not come to Maui,” Kate Ducheneau, a Lahaina resident, said in a TikTok video that has been viewed more than two million times since it was posted on Sunday. Last week’s tragedy has intensified long-simmering tension over the archipelago’s economic reliance on tourism, a dependency that sparked anti-tourism protests in recent years and brought the state to its knees during the pandemic. Many residents, particularly in Maui, are furious over the uncomfortable, contradictory scenario of visitors frolicking in the state’s lush forests or sunbathing on white-sand beaches while they grieve the immense loss of life, home and culture. Others believe that tourism, while particularly painful now, is vital.

Persons: Kate Ducheneau, “, ” Locations: Lahaina, Hawaii, Maui

Get ready for blast off: We’re going to the Planet of the Bass. This week, social media users were bumping “Planet of the Bass,” a parody of a ’90s Eurodance song with clubby synths and grammatically confounding lyrics. Since he shared a 50-second clip on TikTok last week, some fans have been declaring “Planet of the Bass” their song of the summer. The song has already ignited a minor controversy around the identity of its elusive vocalist, credited onscreen as “Ms. But then, a plot twist: On Thursday, Gordon posted a second video in which Trullinger was replaced with Mara Olney, another content creator.

Persons: —, “ DJ, Kyle Gordon, Biljana, Gordon, Audrey Trullinger, Trullinger, Mara Olney Organizations: Crazy Times Locations: Brooklyn

“I want to be in these Netflix shows, I want to be in the Hulu shows, but we’re standing by the writers, we’re standing by SAG,” Ms. Giulietti said. She said she was living at home with her parents in Cheshire, Conn., and putting off renting an apartment in New York City while she saw how the strike — which, along with a writers’ strike, could go on for months — would affect her income. The last time Hollywood’s screen actors and writers went on strike, social media platforms and the $5 billion influencer industry didn’t exist. A number of creators have pledged support for writers and actors and circulated “scab” lists of influencers who promote new releases or appear at related events. Others have been frustrated or confused by instructions from a union that doesn’t protect them, and that some had never heard of.

Persons: ” Ms, Giulietti, TodayTix, Hulu Organizations: Netflix, Hulu, SAG, Searchlight, Disney Locations: Cheshire, Conn, New York City

☆ ‘Attenzione, Pickpocket!’ A TikTok Star Watches Out for Tourists in Italy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

We opened TikTok and Instagram to let the people of the world know that when you come to Venice, be careful. Sometimes all day after work, because I work in the morning. The way they look at people, the way they look at bags. Are you ever concerned that you’re calling out a person who is not actually a pickpocket? It is so strange to say … I have something inside me and I recognize immediately.

Locations: Milan, Rome, Spain, Barcelona, Venice

☆ Are Influencers on Strike Too?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Many social media influencers have joined them. And many influencers work directly with movie studios and other Hollywood entities, who pay them to promote shows and movies, whether it’s on TikTok, YouTube or the red carpet. This week, SAG-AFTRA announced specific guidelines for influencers during the strike. Influencers are advised to “not accept any new work for promotion of struck companies or their content.” That means no TikToks about Barbenheimer or red carpet walks for “Meg 2: The Trench.”And SAG doesn’t care if influencers are being paid for those posts or not. Any posts about struck work are considered to be crossing the picket line.

Persons: AFTRA, “, Meg, Barbie ” Organizations: SAG, YouTube, influencers Locations: TikTok

☆ How PinkyDoll Mesmerized the Internet With ‘Ice Cream So Good’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Madison Malone Kircher | More About Madison Malone Kircher | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you watch a livestream video hosted by the TikTok creator PinkyDoll, it won’t be long before you hear her say, “Ice cream so good.”She will say those words again and again, her tongue hanging out as she noisily pretends to lick a cone. In a typical performance, Ms. Sinon, who is 27 and lives in Montreal, stares into the camera lens while delivering a set of canned phrases. As she streams, viewers send her digital gifts in the form of cartoon items like roses, dinosaurs and ice cream cones. Each item translates to a cash payment for Ms. Sinon. The gifts float onto the screen and Ms. Sinon reacts to each one with the same cartoonish mannerisms.

Persons: PinkyDoll, Sinon Locations: Montreal

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