💎 Platforms are cleaning up and creators are cashing in

LinkedIn declares war on fake UGC, Pinterest doubles down on thrifting, and we’ve got six cultural gems [from brainrot plushies to micro-dramas] to kick off your week.

In this Monday’s email we’re sharing:

• 6 articles to start your week — From Wplace is building community online to Brands hiring “clippers”

In the full edition, available for members, we look at:

• LinkedIn’s new updates to ride the platform of AI slop [move over YouTube update]

• Pinterest released their 2025 Fall Trends Report and are going all in on Thrifting to attract Gen Z.

• Recent publications: What brands can learn from the rise of Fanfiction, 💎Platforms are evolving. Copycats are thriving. Are you ready?, Tenniscore: the new normal for athleisure

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💎cultural gems

🐻‍❄️ Labubu is proving that the only way to embrace the trend is to go deeper into the lore and lean in to the IRL brainrot.

📚 TikTok’s latest trend has people creating “monthly curriculums” with goals ranging from reading econ textbooks for fun [yes, really] to glow-up guides that require more red-light therapy than a skincare lab.

🖼 Wplace is like a giant, pixelated playground—over a million users are teaming up to color a four-trillion-pixel world map, one pixel at a time.

✂️ Brands are hiring ‘clippers’ to churn out bite-sized promo videos on TikTok and Instagram.

🎭 Hollywood exec Lloyd Braun is launching MicroCo, an AI-assisted studio making low-cost, TikTok-style micro dramas.

🧔‍♂️ Pinterest’s male user base is booming, now over one-third of its 570M global users, driven by Gen Z interests like wellness, AI, and parenting. The platform has launched a “Pinterest Man” hub to cater to this growing audience.

Deep dives:

We’re sharing our final 2 cultural gems articles and two rising trends that you need to start the week:

• LinkedIn is making it easier for brands to sponsor content — we break down the first 2 steps to upping your thought leadership game

• Reddit is coming for search — the niche-community platform is hoping to become a go-to search platform. We share the 3 steps brands should take to get started on the platform

• LinkedIn is finally cleaning house — LinkedIn just announced new moves to combat fake accounts and AI-generated UGC. This shift could seriously change how we all interact with the platform, with a push toward more authentic, higher-quality posts in your feed.

• Pinterest is getting thrifty with Gen Z — Pinterest just announced that they're launching “Pinterest Thrift Shop,” a feature inspired by Gen Z’s love of secondhand fashion and resale culture. Sound familiar? [Probably because we called this months ago].

In addition to today’s piece, members also get access to our recent deep dives including What brands can learn from the rise of Fanfiction, 💎Privacy pitfalls on Instagram and how YouTube Shorts is stealing TikTok’s spotlight, plus our community & platform specific guides and the foundations of digital strategy to make sure your starting from a place of strength.