Happy Thursday! Today’s newsletter is free because I want to thank all of you, although I extend my utmost gratitude to those of you that subscribe to the Yapper tier and keep the lights on here.

Yap Year is officially one year old today. As the name of this newsletter might suggest, I took inspiration from the idea of a gap year, using this space to continue to explore and pursue internet culture writing after I got laid off last year. 

One of the greatest gifts that this newsletter has given me is the opportunity to rediscover my own voice. It’s been a fascinating year in the media industry and one that has pushed almost everyone I know to really reevaluate their approach to the job. Many of us have been forced to do this after our newsrooms endured brutal layoffs, with some outlets doing multiple rounds.

It has become essential then that journalists, especially those earlier in their careers, create their own platforms in order to continue working. It’s a bit of a harsh reality and one that I tried to avoid at all costs in my previous role. Most publications don’t really let you have your own newsletter, channel, or brand anyways, so it was pretty easy to ignore the pressure to build these things. Many mainstream outlets are still resistant to the idea of making their reporters into personalities with their own thoughts, opinions, and idiosyncrasies. However, the past year has shown us all that the writing’s on the wall.

Yap Year has not been a perfect journey and it will continue to be a learning experience. Still, it has opened up new opportunities and allowed me to write about things that I would never be able to before. Ultimately, I started this newsletter because I think internet culture is important and I wanted to keep talking (yapping!) about it. It’s not only important to me, as someone who grew up online and developed much of my taste through my online communities, but it’s also simply a huge, underreported part of culture. 

There was a period of time between about mid-2020 and early 2023 when internet culture and creator economy beat reporters were in pretty high demand. I was fortunate to start my career during this boom. As we approached 2024, many of my peers and I began to notice that we were pushed primarily toward two different beats — tech or entertainment. Never mind that these two areas of interest have become even more intertwined over the years, highlighting the need for journalists who are deeply informed about internet culture, creators, and online audiences. But it seemed like outlets seemed to find the internet culture beat to be… trivial? A waste of resources? Perhaps it’s that we were trying to translate Youth Stuff™ to old people, which I don’t imagine did very well with that audience.

But as you and I both know, people live on the internet now. Over half of Gen Z prefer watching social media content over traditional entertainment. Something I have been deeply interested in, which has been difficult to pitch and place stories for, is how many of these creators handle the responsibility of having this audience. What standards do they abide by when sharing information? How do they treat their employees when they decide to scale? How do they reconcile the speed of the internet with the desire to create quality content? As people become poorer and the internet continues to spawn new ways to make somewhat of a living, folks keep upping the ante to get attention. I think that it’s crucial to look deeper into this rather than pull away.

Yap Year has given me the space to interrogate all of these things and more. It is ultimately a place for me to explore the idea of online influence, from flash-in-the-pan trends to major creators to Big Tech. It has not — yet! — become a place where I can freely pursue the big internet culture reportage that I was able to do with the resources, clout, and legal protection of legacy media. We have some work to do to get there, but I am excited to see how we grow in the second year of this newsletter.

Over the past year, I’ve gotten to cover almost everything — and I truly mean everything. I’m fortunate to have covered politics, menswear, entertainment, and breaking news at a wide range of outlets. But Yap Year is where I get to continue to do the work I like the most and feel the most knowledgeable about. Thank you to all of you who have subscribed and I hope to continue to bring you the weird little internet things for a long time! 

Next week, I will be sending a survey out to better understand what you guys like to read on Yap Year. I am also considering revamping the paid tier, so all you Yappers keep an eye out. But to cap off this newsletter, I have rounded up my favorite pieces from this first year. I’m a firm believer in reflecting on where you’ve been before diving head first into what’s next. Whether you’re new or a day one subscriber, here are some pieces that I think are worth revisiting.

2016 is stealing 2014’s nostalgia nachos — I wrote this in April 2025 so you could say I saw the 2016 nostalgia coming. Fast forward to this year, I got to talk about 2016 nostalgia in January on Vox’s Today, Explained.

It's about time we bring back swag — I wrote this two weeks before Justin Bieber dropped SWAG. I actually think we could go harder on the Swagaissance in 2026.

Dashboard Confessions: Jae Stephens — Pop star Jae Stephens is on the rise and she’s only gonna get bigger. It was recently announced that she’s performing at Lollapalooza. Read my interview with her last year about her Tumblr days then stream TOTAL SELLOUT.

The YouTube videos that internet culture experts grew up with — I loved chatting with some of the best internet culture writers and experts about the YouTube videos that shaped them. Since YouTube is kind of the first and most established site for creators, many of our first online memories and interests were formed there. 

Wanna know what "2014 Tumblr" was really like? —  People don’t talk about the idea of being “Tumblr famous” enough, so I admitted how badly I wanted it here. It was so interesting to become popular for your taste even if no one knew how popular you actually were (since Tumblr never displayed your follower count). It felt like an effortless kind of clout that you can’t get online nowadays. 

How brainrot has evolved — I think kids these days are exposed to some pretty low quality content, but to be fair, they’ve been given a bad wrap for consuming brainrot. As someone on the older side of Gen Z, I know for a fact that we had our own version of popular mindless slop. So, I decided to go through the list. 

Gen Z optimism — This one’s more recent but I think it’s worth resharing. I also predict we’ll see more of this attitude among young people in the coming year. Things are bad and the youth are tired of sitting in it. We make our own joy around here!

Performance and learning — This is one of my best performing pieces, which surprised me because it was kind of messy. In essence, I was frustrated that many people cared more about the appearance of learnedness and taste than they did about the actual acquisition of it. I actually think this gets at this issue of tech bros’ newest obsession with tastemaking that was just covered in the New Yorker.

Say no to crashout content — This has been an issue permeating the internet for years. What do we do when a creator seemingly has a mental health crisis online? Do we just sit back and watch like sick voyeurs? Or do we simply disengage altogether. I also talked about this topic on Yap Year oomfie Kayla Says’ YouTube channel. 

Who is Gen Z's Alexa Chung? — We’ve hit It Girl inflation and now we’re in a clout deficit. Because everyone wants to be — and can easily become — “it,” there are few people who actually are “it.” You can’t want it that bad, but in the influencer age everyone wants it that bad.

To another fabulous year with all of you! Have a great weekend everyone 💋