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Adults are fuming. Eleven year old girls have taken over Sephora skincare aisles and the internet at large has strong opinions about it. The recent online debate (fuelled by TikTok) discusses Tweens ravaging local beauty stores in significant numbers and wrecking skincare displays. Some even received complaints about products being grabbed straight out of their hands by prepubescent girls leaving with what one can only assume to be the faint cry of a T-Rex. Where did the chaos start? It is no secret that the growing pains you endure as a tween are tough. The constant preoccupation of personal appearance, the agonising self-consciousness, and the fragile self-identity is a difficult time to navigate. These impressionable young people still have underdeveloped prefrontal cortexs and are therefore way more likely to be influenced by their environments than one is later in life. Being influenced by exterior forces and obsessed about anything and everything at that tender age was part of growing up for all of us. We mustn't forget tween mania around bands, films, and products have always existed. We also don't have to look back far to understand the power of the tween audience and industry. For example the Disney-frenzy specifically targeting tweens in the early 2000s/10s and the incredible commercial benefits this had with said company raking in millions from screaming short people, or should I say their parents, in front of Hannah Montana or High School Musical was a true phenomenon. What is very different now compared to previous generations however, is the overwhelming presence of the third space. The first space being the influence of the home, second of school and/or peers, the third is the 24/7 influence social media has with its tight grip around necks. As if there was space for a third one in the first place. With the latest hype around skincare and the clean-girl-aesthetic that has caught on like wildfire on the internet, the glossy donut glazed skin that everyone is trying to achieve has certainly not bypassed any social media influencer. The terrifying thought of ageing and the constant pressure of having filtered skin, one would think we are living in a twisted digital version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Tweens scrolling through these platforms is today's version of flicking through channels at home, but on steroids. Through this, Gen Alpha has found a new obsession for retinol, exfoliating acids, expensive moisturisers and serums that are designed to minimise the appearance of ageing and that are traditionally aimed at an older audience and can be very damaging to young skin. They are now obsessed with the latest skincare brands their favourite influencers are using as much as we used to obsess about getting our hands on Britney Spears's new fragrance or the Spice Girls VHS. Influencers aside, the grip Disney had on young children has become somewhat of a blue print for today's cosmetic brands who have newfound methods that are extremely strategic and effective. According to BBC, one of the brands mentioned in the skincare-saga is California-based cosmetics brand e.l.f that had stock prices fly up 203% in the past year as a direct result of sales growth. Looking at their previous marketing efforts as well as their 'really affordable cosmetics' position in the market, e.l.f is one of many brands currently targeting the tween demographic and has successfully reached a broader age spread of consumers. The baby and child skincare market is predicted to grow rapidly and steadily until at least 2028, with brands following suit and launching products specifically aimed at tweenage girls. There is no denying this age group is currently being actively targeted by this industry. The more negative online discourse was mainly triggered by the immense popularity amongst both adults and children of self-described "clean beauty" brand Drunk Elephant (acquired by Japanese conglomorate Shiseido in 2019 for £665m), who then had to respond to the attention by explaining which of its products they would recommend for kids. A brand that from the word go had colourful packaging and fun push-down pumps, which I am assuming is part of the appeal. Regardless of whether or not they should be purchasing these products or creating "skin-cream smoothies" with testers at Sephora, the negative dialogue around Gen Alpha being into skincare has a particular undertone I can't necessarily put my finger on but I believe Kate Phelps (a Sociology professor at University of Wisconsin) says it best: “When you walk through a toy aisle, the majority of the toys being sold to young girls are covered in makeup… We think of an interest in makeup and beauty as something vapid and shallow, but that’s only because we’ve associated it with femininity.” . The judgemental belittling of female interests is of course a much broader conversation, but one that has been felt recently, for example the ridicule of women and teenagers camping outside stadiums screaming and crying out Taylor Swift lyrics. Football fans in those same stadiums can at times be way more emotional, provocative and straight up violent, yet no one seems to be commenting on them and their obsession with a bouncing plastic ball. But I digress. Perhaps what I am really trying to say is that there is no reality in which our capitalistic world will ever not try to make money out of whoever they like, nor will there ever be a reality in which children and teenagers will ever stop being influenced or obsess about the latest fad. So who can we turn to, to make sure Gen Alpha aren't ingesting kilos of damaging retinols and serums that are probably doing more damage than good? Parents. These young kids are born from millennial parents who have been much savvier with their skin care routines then their own parents ever were, meaning Gen Alpha's exposure to these skin rituals aren't necessarily only coming from the inter web. Maybe what needs to happen are more frank conversations at home around the topic. Yet let's be honest, there are way worse things these kids could be experimenting with and this online discourse has been blown out of proportion as they normally do when there are millions of eyes and ears in the online vacuum of nonsense.

You might not be familiar with the niche corner of YouTube that I found myself deep-diving into lately, one where you can follow the journey of people who jump on what seems to be the fairy tale adventure of buying a castle in the French countryside and living happily ever after. Is it as simple as a turn-key purchase and a dream coming true? British designer Anna Mayrhofer and her Italian filmmaker husband Philipp moved to Normandy in 2019 after the sale of their Parisian apartment which they switched for Chateau Le Fleur Honfleur, a stunning 18th century chateau. All was well and good until they realised the sheer costs of renovations that the property would need, a slight underestimation on their part that would need quick resolution for their bed and breakfast and chateau life to be sustainable. As a result they took on another venture of joining the world of YouTube, posting videos at the end of 2020 thinking it would be good exposure for the property once the gates of their bed and breakfast business re-opened post pandemic. Their channel How To Renovate A Chateau (Without Killing Your Partner) now has 445,000 subscribers and has brought in regular advertising revenue which rather quickly started resembling a real salary. YouTube was at a gallop competing with the revenues of their B&B, so much so that they as recently as this year threw in the towel in order to go full-time on YouTube and dedicate their energy on editing videos and renovating their space. With both of their very unique skill sets, no wonder this has become a tremendous success story. Anna's incredible eye for interior design and aesthetics (having Balmain on your CV probably explains the sheer talent) has transformed the chateau into a beautiful space that you can tell has been influenced by her English roots. This combined with her husband's very funny and clever editing as well as what seems to be an ease for all things DIY, make for the perfect duo. The discussion around the sale and purchase of French castles has weirdly been a personal interest of mine for a long time. Having grown up within a French speaking and Francophile circuit, the cost of these properties have always been mentioned and been rather intriguing. We have unfortunately reached a generation where the upkeep of these properties is not only immensely time-consuming but really expensive due to varying factors like the rise in the cost of living and inflation to name a few. Hence why a lot of these French families, some with immense historical attachment to their chateau and who most likely had the privilege of inheriting these amazing properties but don't have the same means as their predecessors, are now forced to sell. As seen with the enormous success of channel 4's "Escape To The Chateau" series following Dick and Angel Strawbridge renovating their Chateau De La Motte Husson property, it seems the Strawbridges were (at least initially) highly dependent on their wedding venue business and the making of the show to keep the grounds running. In the latest Q&A video filmed by the Mayrhofers with fellow Chateau owners, the heating bill alone whilst running their bed and breakfast was around €10,000 a year. This number has now decreased to €7,000 a year keeping the family of four warm during winter. It is nevertheless bewildering thinking about the totality of annual bills these places must accumulate once all combined. Castles may come at a relatively decent price across the pond compared to the unrealistic costs of purchasing a castle in the UK, but they clearly don't stay cheap once you've hopped over. Another fellow YouTuber who underestimated the cost of owning a castle is Stephanie Jarvis from The Chateau Diaries channel, which has accumulated another impressive number of 240,000 subscribers from her current YouTube career. According to the BBC, Stephanie purchased her Chateau de Lalande near Limoges back in 2005 after combining resources with a friend by selling both their properties in London. Once again, as many do, the initial plan was to transform the rooms into a working B&B and hire the property out for events. She goes on to explain how 2020 was going to be the first year they would be making a profit on the latter, after nearly 20 years since purchasing it. This of course all had to be cancelled. Having previously been involved in "Escape To The Chateau - DIY", Channel 4's spin-off, she turned to the camera once again to keep people up to date with her latest projects. During lock-down her channel took off, and so did her revenues. Not only has her accumulated following on YouTube been sufficient enough through advertising revenues and viewer donations to keep renovating/restoring her chateau, but it has also enabled her to hire four full-time staff to help with the day-to-day running of the bed and breakfast. She also heavily relies on the goodwill of volunteers that come and go through the chateau in exchange for accommodation. It's like watching an episode of "Friends" with characters coming and going, depending on the season - rather entertaining if you ask me. Mayrhofer and Jarvis are not the only ones who have jumped on the YouTube wagon for support, there is more than a handful that I've discovered in my search for more chateau content. The Beau Chateau channel featuring the Chateau de Lesigny near Paris is currently being renovated by an American couple, who rents the property and its grounds out to film crews as a source of income. Escape to Rural France is another run by Dan who's taken on Chateau de Chaumont (rumoured to have been one of Coco Chanel's stomping grounds) in central France that unfortunately was left to complete ruins before Dan's intervention. When I say ruins I am referring to the cutting down of trees growing in the entrance and re-building structural floors - quite the project. There is so much out there for those interested. Perhaps this niche corner of YouTube I found myself in was originally triggered by my own recent renovations of our first London flat (on a much much smaller scale of course, London is not generous on square footage). It has been nice escaping to more grandiose projects and more square footage for inspiration and entertainment. For anyone that has ever taken on a renovation project, however big or small, you will understand the stress it can imply. So perhaps it's being part of renovating something without having to think about any bills or receipts that has been the satisfying discovery!

As a typical Millennial having grown up on all the classics: 'He's just not that into you', 'Confessions of a shopaholic', 'The Proposal', '27 Dresses', 'Hitch' (the list is long...), I look back at this era of film fondly with a painful pinch of nostalgia - where has all the time gone? That's why the recent hype and talk around this well-known genre caught my attention like a bee to a flower. Did someone mention Paul Mescal is soon to join the Romcom club? A couple years back my ears perked when 'Ticket to Paradise' featuring Julia Roberts and George Clooney came out on streaming platforms (talk about big industry names...!). I thought something's happening here. This was later on followed by the media storm around the much talked about 'Anything but you' starring Sydney Sweeney, as well as Jennifer Lawrence's performance in 'No hard feelings', and 'Your place or mine' featuring Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon. It doesn't necessarily mean that the last romantic comedy hadn't been made since we were all still braiding our hair and having sleepovers back in 2009, but the rise in popularity, buzz and investments these films and/or series are getting lately is something to note since their original decline back in the early '10s. Stylist magazine just recently announced the beautiful Simone Ashley (also known for her lead role in 'Bridgeton') is set to lead in Prime Video's new Romcom 'Picture This' series later this year. Although these tend to be a little formulaic and predictable (one Twitter user referred to them as being the fast food films of the industry), it's refreshing not knowing the plot or half the script of these newly made films (rather embarrassing that I can whisper half of '10 things I hate about you'). Even Normal People's heartthrob Paul Mescal is rumoured to be part of an upcoming Emily Henry book adaption. Crossing all fingers and toes. So is the good-old fashioned Romcom genre here to stay? Contrary to the early 2000's "will they, won't they" run-of-the-mill plot that majority of us gobbled up featuring exceptionally good-looking Hollywood actors (although this is in someway still the case today of course) - there is a sense that this new generation embracing the comeback expect more diversity and authenticity, and rightfully so. No wonder 'My big fat Greek wedding' (2002) is still the highest grossing Romcom of all time with its more relatable and awkward characters, which clearly shows we were even craving this authenticity way back then. 'Crazy Rich Asians', 'Always be my maybe' and 'Bros' are also examples of more diverse and authentic casts that proved to be immensely profitable in recent years. They all challenged a genre that has mainly been led by the white heterosexual male gaze. According to whats-on-netflix.com there are currently 48 romantic comedies available on Netflix, 25 of these were added on there as recently as 2022, and this number is growing. Streaming platforms, as we know, had a massive boom following the pandemic making content easily accessible to consumers on a subscription-based structure. This was also a time I found myself only wanting to watch feel-good content in an era of complete uncertainty and the need to escape back to simpler times, and I know I wasn't the only one. Perhaps this particular consumer behaviour gave these streaming platforms insightful data on what to invest in next regardless of whether these were to be released post-pandemic. “Without a shadow of a doubt, the reason that people tune into romcoms more during periods of crisis and stress is because of the distraction that these genres offer” says Emma Kenny, a UK-based TV psychologist. That same sentiment can also ring true around the recent popularity of reality-TV series based on the glamorous lives of the rich and famous that have been released one after the other (a.k.a 'Bling Empire', 'Dubai Bling', 'Selling Sunset', etc.), when in fact the world has been struck by economic crisis and hardships following global inflation increasing the cost of living and the continuous tragic updates coming from war-torn countries. Pure escapist content is perhaps being made to shut out the world's current unstable and uncertain future. This trend was possibly triggered by the global pandemic but with today's ongoing political climate there is perhaps still a need for day-to-day escapism that has been picked up and noted by these production companies and Hollywood at large. This so-called Romcom Renaissance also begs the question whether the actual romantic aspect of these "chick-flicks" is what is having a moment. In this chaotic digital world offering endless choice and swiping on the latest dating app, perhaps the escapism and comfort lies in watching a set up situation of main character meeting a love interest with relative ease, main character creating conflict and this conflict being quickly resolved before the end of the film. Done deal, happily ever after? According to Dr. Bella DePaulo on Psychology Today, the percentage of adults who are unmarried or not in a committed romantic relationship is increasingly growing, and most of them are unwilling to change their single status. Another study shows that more than a third of Brits say romantic comedies have changed their romantic expectations - is there a direct correlation? One would have thought with our newfound technology and dating platforms that finding a 'happily ever after' match would be on the rise? However entertaining a Romcom might be, are we facing a generation having grown up on the hollywood formula to have unrealistic views on love and long-term partnerships? According to Dr. Bella DePaulo, Romcoms ultimately send a message that no matter the obstacle, finding love means forgiving, ignoring, and accepting at the expense of everything including family, friends and career. I am no expert in love, but that to me sounds incredibly unrealistic and misleading to the frankly mundane reality of being in a long-term relationship. The grand gestures and sacrifices of a fictional character can't always be replicated in real life, it is at the end of the day only meant to be entertainment, not a blue print to what relationships should look like. Regardless of how we look at it, the resurgence of these "happily ever after" films are very much welcome in my world. The formula is a formula for a reason, like in music, there is no shortage when it comes to perspective or new takes on love and relationships - and it works. We just need those fresh perspectives to keep going and the good old Romcom will prevail for years to come. Just don't take anything too literally.

The popular "main character energy" is a term that has been floating in the online ether for a little while now (a.k.a TikTok) and has been defined as a characteristic of a person prioritising themselves and their own happiness - you know, Carpe Diem and all of that. Typically it's all about someone embodying positive attributes such as self-confidence, self-respect and self-love, like we typically witness at the climax of a cheesy RomCom when the leads finally come to their senses and take ownership of their situation. However, lately I have been gravitating towards a list of best-selling books which all are antithetical to this concept and although their fascinating main characters' behaviours, thoughts and emotions are truly at the focal point of the plot, they are in my opinion pretty unlikable main character energies. Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors (2022) A new year's eve typical meet cute ends up with Cleo (a 20-something British struggling artist and U.S. green-card seeker) meeting Frank (a 40-something marketing mogul) and the rather toxic relationship/rushed marriage that ensues. The constant miscommunication running throughout the book is reminiscent of Sally Rooney's fictional style with the agonising push and pull, feverishly tiresome. Set against a gritty and glamorous New York backdrop, Mellors rather successfully paints this generation's chaotic world amidst endless choice and the continuous search for happiness which seems distressfully unattainable. Cleo is unpredictable, stubborn, chronically lacks a sense of belonging and has this "make your bed, lie in it" attitude. If you are into slightly frustrating and a-typical love stories, this one is for you. Don't expect a Hollywood plot twist at any point. 2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh (2019) Imagine - utterly privileged and spoiled young woman, plus unlimited access to sedatives. A lethal combination that is at the epicentre of Moshfegh's novel, closely following a truly unlikable and disaffected protagonist set in the early '00s. The unlikeableness is probably heightened by the fact that this particular main character is left unnamed throughout the book. So dissatisfied with her current life situation, she decides to go into Ambien hibernation for an entire year, only coming out of her "good American sleep" for Pizza and her usual run to the local deli. Her world is surrounded by equally unlikable characters - her obscenely optimistic best friend Reva, tormented and possessed with the idea of image and status, and who ultimately doesn't care enough to even question the narrator's medicated sleep. You also have the college ex-boyfriend who she obsesses about even though he's spent years tearing her down. You would think a bit of sympathy for her would brew within you throughout the book, but it truly doesn't. However, although obnoxious, Moshfegh's character is intriguing and perhaps has the ability to poke at our own anxieties, selfishness, and intrusive thoughts we wish we could act upon but thankfully never do. 3. I'm A Fan - Sheena Patel (2023) An unnamed main character (once again) is caught in an affair with a married and promiscuous man "the man she wants to be with" which she obsesses over, as well as all the other women he is sleeping with. One of them in particular "the woman I'm obsessed with", which she prolifically stalks on social media. She cannot fathom why he chooses to divide his life up between multiple women instead of committing to her, all whilst having a (completely oblivious) long-term boyfriend herself. Patel dives into today's social online complexities, how we pick apart and judge, and how we verbally/non-verbally communicate through screens. The continuous torture she puts herself through by his lack of interest and absence is dire, but in someway (although extreme) is kind of relatable. We've all been all-consumed by the wrong person at some point in our life to the despair of our close friends, and no one can pass a lie detector test saying they've never had a jealous deep dive into someone's online account. It's perhaps this universal feeling that makes this book worth a read despite Patel's very unlikable female lead.