Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like today.
I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
everyone. All right, let's just get into
the stories. I have no updates, but as
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And let's get into the stories for today.
So the first story that I have for you guys is that Bran Flakes
has opened up about how he grew his platform to become a full
time influencer. Bran Flakes stays transparent
about his influx and saying journey.
OK, so Bran Flakes is a big tick tocker.
He has how many followers does he have now?
1.3 million followers. He went viral a few months ago
when he was talking about his income breakdown as an
influencer. And he was really transparent
about like how much he made last year and the percentages that
like went to his team that went to his management.
So he has posted a new video that a lot of people are also
talking about where he explains how he was able to make a
transition from working 9:00 to 5:00 to being a full time
influencer. And he did this, he says, by
prioritizing documenting his life over living his life for a
period of time, obviously. Sounds sad but really the reason
I was able to become a full time influencer was I prioritize
sharing my life over prioritizing living my life.
When I meet that is. When I worked 9:00 to 5:00 I was
just an average adult. I got up in the morning, got a
coffee, went to work, sometimes would work out, make dinner,
watch TV, go to bed. Weekends would hang out with my
friends. My life at first did not change
that all the same, but what I would do every morning was OK.
What parts of today am I now going to share?
Oh, I'm going to a new restaurant this week with my
best friends. I should share what I ordered.
Going to the grocery store this week?
Oh, let me do a haul of all the groceries I bought and then do a
video of what I cooked for dinner.
I'm going on a date this week. Let me talk about my current
dating life. So I was still living my life,
but I was putting emphasis on how was I going to share that
online. I really like that he's opening
up about this, especially in this industry.
I like that he's talking about how he worked hard to get to
where he is. I think there's such a stigma
around influencing, especially TikTok in particular on the
inside, like as in people who have kind of made it, I feel
like there's a lot of pressure for them to almost portray this
image that like it just happened to them because for a lot of the
early Tik Tokers, it did. There is definitely a stigma
around the career of being an influencer and the desire to be
an influencer. And I think that stigma is a lot
less when it just appears that somebody was interesting enough
that they built a following organically or their personality
was good enough that everybody wanted to follow them or
whatever. So I really like how Bran is so
honest about how hard he's worked for this and how much he
wanted it. That is something I resonate
with a lot. I am constantly out here talking
on my TikTok about how badly I want this business and this
career to work. You know, like, I have no shame
in the game. Like, I am trying so fucking
hard to make this work and it is so challenging.
And everyday I'm still like, I have no idea if this is going to
take off or if this is actually going to work.
And I'm not embarrassed to admit that.
And I think in certain industries, certain circles and
certain countries like Australia, there's a lot of tall
poppy syndrome here, you know, where people feel it's a little
bit embarrassing to be seen trying, but I don't care, OK,
I'm a striver, I'm a Trier. And I like that Bran is talking
very openly because to get to the level, like Bran has 1.3
million followers, OK, that's a lot of followers.
But aside from his follower account, he is incredibly
relevant in the influencer space right now.
And it's that relevancy that you almost can't put a price on
because there are a lot of people on TikTok who have 1.3
million followers, OK, But they are not getting invited on every
single brand trip. They are not making just shy of
$1,000,000 a year. They are not in these circles
and getting these opportunities. And so I like that he is
showing, like, yes, I have built something for myself.
And of course, there's always an element of luck in anyone's
success. But like, I have worked so
fucking hard for this. This was a strategy.
This was a plan. I wanted to be an influencer.
Here's how I've done it. Bran isn't the only one who's
been opening up like this lately, though.
Creator Kelsey Souls has also been sharing very openly lately,
which has also been a big topic of conversation on TikTok, about
how she intentionally built her TikTok career by posting up to
20 times a day while she she was working her nine to five.
I actually see this trend of Tik Tokers speaking openly about how
they worked for this and they tried for this and they they
sought out like influencer fame. I see that as similar to what
we're seeing with a list celebrities who are admitting to
getting their work done. You know, it's like for an A
list celebrity, the embarrassing thing, the stigma is around the
fact that they are getting more work done than we probably know
or think. And I think of course, there's a
similar stigma. It's not the same, but there is
like a similar level of stigma around influencers who didn't
just, like, happen to fall into it, you know, who actually, like
tried to become famous influencers.
We're in an era of transparency. And I know we've talked about
this before, but I believe a lot of it comes down to the fact
that everyone is so burnt out right now.
The world is absolutely fucked. And so there's never been more
disdain for people who are privileged, who have money and
fame, like an influencer, like a celebrity.
And so to bring them back down onto Earth, they have to start
being a bit transparent about things.
Otherwise we're all going to turn on them even more.
We're already turning on them, but like even more so I do think
this is maybe not like an intentional strategy from them.
I think a lot of it is probably subconscious.
It's just like in general, they're probably reading the
room a little bit. There's probably a bit of a
temperature gauge and it's influencing how they interact
with the public. OK the next story that I have
for you guys is that Yahoo is slowly transitioning from a
publisher to a creator platform in March 2024, Yahoo launched
its creator program, which is a quote program giving writers an
all in one platform to publish, monetize, connect and grow their
businesses by sharing stories to the Yahoo News network of more
than 185,000,000 monthly US visitors.
In addition to elevating and established creators, the
stories they share will allow Yahoo News to expand its content
categories presented in a fresh format.
So that is from Yahoo's announcement on this transition.
OK, so Yahoo Creators is essentially like a distribution
channel for creators to reach Yahoo's giant audience while
also giving Yahoo some relevancy in the creator economy.
According to Digi Day Quote, the program allows creators to
publish original content directed to Yahoo's site and
access tools like ad monetization with A5050 revenue
split. Each creator has a dedicated
moderator from Yahoo's creator support team that gives feedback
and vets content in real time after it's published.
So on the Yahoo homepage since it launched, you'll see there's
a creator vertical now alongside kind of like all their regular
news. It's actually like a very cool
idea. The program has been really
successful. Just last month, the company
reported that Yahoo Creators had its highest revenue month since
launch. And now kind of the update on
this is they're offering more editorial control to creators.
So they have a full dashboard similar to what you would see on
like the back end of YouTube. Creators can upload directly to
the platform without kind of the red tape of traditional
publishing. There's Commission opportunities
based on what they're publishing, if there's affiliate
links and stuff. So it's really becoming like
this full-fledged platform. There's only, I believe, 135
creators right now in the program, which is why they can
have like a dedicated person working alongside them, but
there are apparently hundreds of creators on the wait list.
I wanted to talk about this just because it's very interesting.
I think this whole concept, I mean, it literally marries like
all of my interest when it comes to my work experience, right?
Like publishing media, trying to figure out how to make new media
work, the creator economy, kind of combining all those things.
I think this is a really interesting idea.
Obviously Yahoo is like a news aggregator and their GM has said
that they want to remain an aggregator, like a publisher.
They're not trying to be like a content distributor.
But you know, it sounds like it sounds like they are honestly
starting to give some social platforms.
So they could be giving some social platforms a run for their
money, especially ones like sub stack.
You know, there's a big boom right now with newsletters, but
now that it's no longer novel, it's so hard to grow and it's
really hard to monetize if you don't have a big following.
So this is a really cool initiative.
I guess it's not totally unique. There's other publishers that
have creator programs as well, but I just thought the sites
into Yahoo and like what they're doing and how it's working for
them. I don't know.
It's interesting, at least to me as the owner of a media company
that exclusively talks about Internet culture and the creator
economy. All right, the last word that I
have for you guys. So we have been getting requests
to cover Love Island and I do feel like Love Island is a blind
spot for me and pop culture. I'm sure if I started watching
it, I would be like obsessed with it.
OK, but I have not watched it. So it's very much a blind spot
for me. However, Love Island Island *
Sierra Ortega has apologized now for using a racial slur in a
resurfaced social media video and in other posts.
And that has been all over my feed.
This whole situation around Sierra has been all over my feed
so I figured I would give you guys a little bit of insight
into this. Sierra Ortega is a Love Island
contestant and while she's been away filming the show, fans
found a few instances of posts on social media and which she
used an anti Asian slur. So there's one in 2015 in her
Instagram caption and then there's a few screenshots that
are circulating. It's obviously hard to verify
these, but it seems she posted something with that same slur on
her stories in February 2023 and then a follower replied to her
saying girl that's a derogatory term for Asians.
And then Sierra allegedly wrote back.
I just got educated on the topic, immediately deleting.
I never knew the history of that word but will for sure not never
use it again. Thanks for letting me know.
But then in 2024, she posted another story allegedly of her
getting Botox done in which she used the word to describe why
she wants to get Botox around her eyes.
And then there's another screenshot circulating from that
same year from the DMS. Again, hard to verify this where she
allegedly used it. And somebody replied saying this
is derogatory. And she allegedly replied saying
oh man, thankfully that's not how I used it.
So all of this has been blowing up literally all week.
While Sierra was away on Love Island without her phone 2 days
ago, her parents made a statement.
The backlash that their daughter has been getting, they wrote
quote. As Sierras parents, this has
been one of the most painful weeks of our lives.
We've seen the post, the headlines, the hurt and the
hate. And while Sierra hasn't seen any
of it yet, we have. And so have the people who love
her. We're not here to justify or
ignore what surfaced. We understand why people are
upset, and we know accountability matters.
But what's happening online right now has gone far beyond
that. The threats, the cruel messages,
the attacks on her family, her friends, even her supporters.
It's heartbreaking. And no one deserves that kind of
hate, no matter what mistakes they've made.
Around the same time, it was announced that Sierra was
leaving the villa for, quote, personal reasons.
And now 48 hours after she got back to the US, she has taken to
social media to address the whole situation in a video and
an Instagram story. And I do want to note that in
the video, I'm going to play a clip of it.
But I do want to note that in the video, she does address the
screenshots that are circulating, but she seems to
imply that they're not totally accurate.
She doesn't say that, but she doesn't fully admit to them.
So that's why I'm saying it's like hard to verify if some of
the screenshots that are circulating are accurate or not.
Like people can so easily fake screen shots so I don't know.
I am not the victim in this situation.
While I was in the villa, there were some posts that resurfaced
from my past where I was very naively using an incredibly
offensive and derogatory term. And before I get into the
details, I want to first start by addressing not just anyone
that I have hurt or deeply offended, but most importantly
the entire Asian community. I am deeply, truly, honestly so
sorry. I had no idea that the word held
as much pain, as much harm, and came with the history that it
did or I never would have used it.
I had no ill intention when I was using it, but that's
absolutely no excuse because intent doesn't excuse ignorance.
It just doesn't. And I just need you to know that
I am so sorry, but this is not an apology video.
This is an accountability video. And I think right now there are
tons of things floating around, different screenshots with
different time stamps and fueling this narrative that I
sort of doubled down once people tried to correct me and was
like, oh, like, I don't know, I'm still going to use it, but I
just thought was not the case. Like, the truth is that in that
moment, the lesson was learned. What's been extremely, extremely
difficult is the way people are approaching my family and my
loved ones. You know, they have had ice
called on them. My family doesn't feel safe in
their own home. I'm receiving death threats.
Like there's no need to fight hate with.
Hate. Obviously I cannot accept this
apology. Any opinion I have on this
apology is literally a moot point because it's not for me.
But we need to stop weaponizing ice against people.
This is sick. OK, I talked about it yesterday
or the day before in the episode about Adam McIntyre.
But calling ice on somebody in this current climate is so scary
and disgusting and I feel like it is an act of violence in and
of itself. But yes, Sierra has addressed
everything and I have seen quite a few people say that the Love
Island producers, whoever is in charge of vetting and background
checks needs to do a better job because this is the second in
the same season, the second contestant to go home or get, I
guess kind of have early removal.
Removal. Yeah, I guess removed early.
Removal's the right word. Yeah, like due to controversial
comments that have circulated online.
Anyways, guys, that's it for Mini Scroll today.
Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys.
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I love you guys. Have a good weekend and I will
talk to you on Monday. Bye.