Alex Cooper is on top of the world, and it’s built on other women. She just hosted the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special on Disney+. Love Overboard, Unwell Productions’ first unscripted television series hosted by Gabby Windey, just premiered on Hulu. A new series was just announced. But what exactly got her here?

It’s not her interview skills, which are frequently and widely criticized — on TikTok, critics have called her “a PR opportunity, not a journalist or actual interviewer.” And it’s not the raunchy, sex-forward content that first put her on the map.

It’s ironic, actually, that the answer seems to be Alex’s approachable girl’s girl persona. Alex is just like you — she fan-girls over celebrities, she spends most of her time in sweats, and she loves to yap. She frames her approach as making guests “feel safe” rather than holding them accountable: “I have been on many shows — not to put other shows down — but the host is looking five inches to the right of my head and reading a teleprompter.” She’s just a girl you’re having a heart-to-heart with at the sleepover.

It’s difficult to stomach, but the truth is that the girl’s girl persona is just a clever ruse she uses until she gets close enough to take what she wants.

A Trail of Burned Women

Sofia Franklyn

Sofia Franklyn and Alex Cooper, roommates at the time, launched Call Her Daddy in 2018 and took off immediately. Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports purchased the rights just one month after its first episode debuted. The concept was genuinely novel: women talking about sex in graphic, unapologetic terms — the female equivalent of locker room talk, if locker room talk were actually interesting. Downloads rose from 12,000 to 2 million in just two months, so it tracks that the pair would want to renegotiate when the time came. As Sofia tells it, she and Alex had been aligned on their strategy for months — until she felt what she described as a “shift of insane magnitude” when Alex met with Portnoy in secret and signed a deal without her.

Since the split, Alex has gone on to build a $125M media empire off the shared intellectual property and cultural cachet of Call Her Daddy — and off the word “Unwell,” which fans widely credit Sofia with coining on the podcast.

Alix Earle

Following Alix Earle’s overnight rise to fame via her GRWM TikToks, Alex Cooper signed her as the first Unwell Network podcast, Hot Mess. In early 2025, Hot Mess was dropped from the network. Sources cited business friction, with Earle’s father concluding it “ended up not being a smart business move.” Earle later hinted at the falling out on her Co-Star app TikTok, saying the app told her she “can start s—” and that she had “so much information” — before a fan asked what happened between her and Cooper, and she replied: “How much time do you have?” But here’s the thing about Alex vs. Alix: Cooper has clearly learned from the Sofia fallout, which means there are almost certainly ironclad NDAs in place. We may never get the full story, but the pattern speaks for itself.

A New Level of Depravity

Taylor Frankie Paul is having a rough stretch. I’m not excusing her behavior (I’m actually quite repulsed), but it’s impossible to ignore that her ex and the father of her youngest child, Dakota Mortensen, is, at minimum, 50% of the problem. The coordinated media blitz that kicked off just days before TFP’s Bachelorette season was set to air was not a coincidence.

So imagine my surprise when Unwell Productions announced Unwell Winter Games this week, featuring none other than Dakota Mortensen as a cast member. Since so much has transpired, fans might have forgotten that TFP actually announced her Bachelorette casting on Call Her Daddy on September 10, 2025 — so platforming the other party in her public unraveling feels less like a creative choice and more like a statement.

In addition to the Mormons, Huda from Love Island was a baffling and problematic casting choice. During an Instagram Live in October 2025, a viewer called Olandria the N-word — and Huda laughed before ending the live. That’s not a gray area, and it’s not something you quietly move past.

The Bottom Line

Alex Cooper has chosen money over self, friendship, and allyship, yet she successfully became a cultural lightning rod off the brand positioning that she is one of us, that she is for women, by women. But Alex Cooper is a vampire. She just feeds on cash instead of blood.

Sofia Franklyn’s Daddy Issues hits November 10th. Watch this space!

The chaos began on January 3rd when the U.S. military struck Venezuela’s capital and captured President Nicolás Maduro. The operation immediately froze Caribbean airspace, grounding all US-registered flights and trapping the island’s elite visitors in a golden cage. Leonardo DiCaprio found himself marooned on Jeff Bezos’s superyacht. Even Wendi Murdoch couldn’t leave. Influencer Alix Earle, TV personality Bethenny Frankel, and dozens of other internet darlings were suddenly stuck.

Hotels grew overcrowded, putting beds in living rooms of villas. Lavish parties erupted as the stranded elite made the best of the close quarters.

@aranisagoodboy#stbarths #chlamydia

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The TikTok That Started It All

Then came the video that spread like, well, a virus. A TikTok user claiming to work on a yacht in St. Barts alleged that an facial STI was spreading rapidly among visitors and crew, moving “from yacht to yacht.” According to the TikToker, an unnamed influencer was “Patient Zero”—and while never publicly identified, the poster claimed everyone on the island knew exactly who it was.

The comment section exploded. Fingers quickly pointed to Alix Earle, especially after rumors surfaced that she’d been “hooking up” with Tom Brady throughout the week with photos to support.

@bethennyfrankelVILE

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Bethenny’s Infection Goes Viral

But when Bethenny Frankel revealed that she and her daughter Bryn had developed a severe bacterial infection on their faces during their Christmas trip, even more dots began to connect. Frankel shared graphic close-ups of angry, inflamed skin. Good ole Bethenny – classy as always.

The infection was so severe that they’d left the island three days early and were on strong antibiotics. She blamed contaminated hotel linens—”pillowcases, towels or bedsheets.”

But it was her Instagram posts from before the infection that really sent social media into overdrive. Frankel had been photographed with Alix Earle, along with Glen Powell and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. The proximity seemed like confirmation, and soon, social media immediately linked Frankel’s very real, very visible skin infection to the alleged “Super Chlamydia” outbreak.

What Actually Happened?

Medical experts have pointed out that chlamydia doesn’t present as facial skin infections, but who’s to say the billionaire class hasn’t created an infection of their own? While no hard facts point to an actual STI outbreak in this paradise for the elite, the scenario doesn’t sound entirely far-fetched… Wealthy people trapped together, partying in close quarters, alleged hookups, all culminating in a mysterious infection? Sounds like a recipe for a Netflix special.

In my post-workday scroll through Reddit, I stumbled across a post revealing that Logan Paul’s recent lavish wedding was all a show, as he and his… partner(?) Nina are not legally wed. This now brings us to a total of three (3) fake weddings between Logan and his younger brother Jake Paul. I guess content really is king.

If you’re my age or older, you might know about Logan and Jake Paul for their combat sports careers – WWE and boxing, respectively, but they each got their start on the internet through prank videos on Vine, then YouTube where they amassed an impressive following through repeated virality. Jake even had a brief stint on Disney before their controversies reached a fever pitch.

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The Vlogging Era

Jake launched an influencer collective that included a talent incubator, content house and marketing machine in an LA mansion, which brought a Jersey Shore-esque energy to the YouTube audience. This included creators like Tessa Brooks, the Martinez Twins and Erika Costell.

Meanwhile, Logan positioned himself as the more responsible of the two, carefully curating daily vlogs, brand deals and even acting gigs before his fall from grace in late December 2017 when he uploaded a vlog that showed a deceased body in Aokigahara forest during a trip to Japan. The global backlash was intense and forced the brothers to rely more on owned content.

Fake Marriage 1: Jake & Erika

Earlier that year, Jake staged a wedding to his Team 10 housemate Erika Costell in Las Vegas, complete with a ceremony, officiant, and YouTube upload titled “We Actually Got Married,” solely for content. Jake later revealed in a New York Times interview that it was all scripted, comparing the stunt to WWE.

Fake Marriage 2: Jake & Tana

In 2019, Jake once again announced an engagement, this time to a storied YouTuber, Tana Mongeau. Tana blew up in the mid-2010s through her chaotic and largely fabricated storytime videos causing viewers to be skeptical about the authenticity of the news. The chaotic duo announced their “engagement” in June and held a lavish yet tacky, live-streamed Vegas wedding in July. It featured MTV coverage, merch tie-ins and even a fight at the altar, but no marriage license or legal officiant, making it another mere spectacle.

Fake(ish) Marriage 3: Logan & Nina

Logan Paul and model Nina Agdal began dating in 2022 and had their daughter Esme in September of 2024. Logan and Nina held a lavish ceremony on August 15, 2025, in Lake Como, but on last week’s episode of the Impaulsive podcast, he revealed that he believes that marriage is a social construct and he doesn’t want the government involved in his relationship. He also clarified that “the song and dance” meant a lot to his “wife,” Nina.

There’s something to be said about the Paul’s commitment to MAGA who purports themselves to be the party of “family values.” Meanwhile, between the 2 of them they just have 2 fake ex wives and a baby mama… Does anyone hear a banjo?

But really, Jake faked his weddings entirely for content — the spectacle was the whole point. Logan, on the other hand, managed to package his non-binding vows as something more aspirational: a picture-perfect Lake Como ceremony, coverage in People and Us Weekly, and the Instagram carousel every girl is supposed to dream about. Only catch? He’s openly admitted he doesn’t believe in marriage and refused to make it legal.

So in the end, Logan gave Nina the hype of a wedding without the commitment, and she seemed perfectly willing to accept that trade-off. Every little girl’s dream!

Last year, Amazon influencer Sydney Nicole Sloneker (née Gifford) filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against fellow creator Alyssa Sheil, alleging copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and misappropriation of likeness for replicating her “neutral, beige and cream aesthetic.” She sought $150K in damages for lost income and mental distress. The case represents a milestone in the digital age, challenging the legal definition of intellectual property.

The lawsuit was widely referred to online as the “Sad Beige” case—an internet shorthand for the clean-girl, neutral-toned influencer aesthetic that first went viral thanks to satirical TikToks by That Sad Beige Lady (Hayley DeRoche). Her deadpan commentary mocked the minimalist trend of dressing babies and homes in washed-out neutrals, calling it “sad beige” and sparking discourse about the emotional flatness of such aesthetics. While intended as satire, the term quickly became a cultural reference point.

Just over a year after filing, Sloneker chose to dismiss the lawsuit due to the unsustainable cost of bringing the case to trial, but took to TikTok to explain her side of the story. In the video, Sloneker defends her choice to seek legal retribution.

@sydneynicoleslonefinally telling my story

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She also describes, in detail, the ways in which Sheil was copying her content, from purchasing identical home decor to getting an eerily similar tattoo, alleging that Sheil was intentionally trying to create confusion amongst viewers. Commenters agreed.

While the lawsuit did not pan out in Sloneker’s favor, TikTok removed Sheil’s original account. She has since made a new one, where she posted in celebration of the dismissal of the lawsuit, captioning her video, “the hardest year of my life is officially over…”

@alyssasheillthe hardest year of my life is officially over…

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This saga spotlights a growing challenge in the creator economy: protecting the intangible elements that define a personal brand. For influencers, aesthetic choices (color palettes, editing styles, voiceover tone) aren’t just preferences, they’re part of a carefully curated IP strategy that drives visibility, partnerships, and income. When others replicate that blueprint too closely, the harm can be real, even if current laws fall short of protecting it. Sloneker’s case may not have succeeded in court, but it opens a meaningful conversation about the gaps in legal protections for digital creators whose livelihoods depend on originality.

realbrittanydawn

A post shared by Brittany Dawn Nelson (@realbrittanydawn)

Who is Brittany Dawn?

If you haven’t heard of Brittany Nelson aka Brittany Davis aka BDawnFit aka Brittany Dawn, congratulations on not having an eating disorder and/or not being in a cult! I first became aware of Brittany as @bdawnfit back when I was starving myself in college. I followed just about every female fitness influencer with a 23-inch waist and Brittany certainly fit the bill. At the time, she was known for marrying her high school sweetheart and attaining an ideal body type after years of battling yo-yo dieting and eating disorders.

Like most fitness influencers, Brittany developed a program without any formal education or credentials beginning in 2014, priced between $92 and $300. She branded herself an eating disorder expert and claimed that she had “special training” to help them cure their illnesses.

Things began to unravel when dissatisfied customers began to congregate in a Facebook group called “Brittany Dawn Fitness Business Complaints” in 2018. They accused her of providing generic plans rather than customized ones and providing equally general advice as opposed to true guidance, support, and instruction as they were led to believe they would receive.

The Fallout

Brittany’s follower count began to dwindle, then she released a now-deleted apology video on her YouTube channel. Then, she went on Good Morning America to reinforce her condolences and own up to her “mistake.” Ultimately, she lost hundreds of thousands of followers and was sued by the state of Texas for deceiving customers with eating disorders.

The Lawsuit

On Feb. 1, 2022, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Brittany and her company, Brittany Dawn Fitness LLC in Dallas County. The majority of the customers involved in the case have histories of eating disorders and report things such as “almost passing out,” etc. while Brittany “largely ignored” the complaints.

Brittany’s Response

A pivot in content

Brittany, who divorced her high school sweetheart began to transition to Christian content and has slowly begun acquiring a following once again. According to BuzzFeed Internet Culture Reporter Kelsey Weekman, “her Instagram following dropped from 573,000 at the peak of her fitness career in August 2018 to 420,000 in February 2021 when the lawsuit was filed. Now it’s back up to 472,000.”

As Kelsey also points out, many question her motivation for choosing to create content geared toward Christians whose philosophy is so heavily rooted in forgiveness. She also takes advantage of the strong language involving “enemies” and “demons.”

realbrittanydawn

A post shared by Brittany Dawn Nelson (@realbrittanydawn)

A second marriage

Brittany married her second husband Jordan Nelson on Sept. 18, 2021, a former police officer who was sued by the ACLU in 2013 for using excessive force against an unarmed Black man. 

About a month after their nuptials, Brittany posted a video to her YouTube channel entitled, “my heart is shattered... my dog died in a hit and run...” in which she discloses that her husband shot their dog Brodie after he was hit by a car.

realbrittanydawn

A post shared by Brittany Dawn Nelson (@realbrittanydawn)

Infertility Issues & Foster Parenthood

On her social media, Brittany has shared very openly about her struggles to conceive and aspirations to become a foster parent. She first began posting about her desire to foster a baby in late 2022, and posting about purchasing baby supplies.

Due to her current standing with the state of Texas, Redditors believed this couldn’t possibly be true, but lo and behold, Brittany and Jordan claimed to receive a baby on Dec. 12, 2022. It appeared that they had custody of this baby for a few weeks, and received a second on Feb. 23 that departed from the home last week.

realbrittanydawn

A post shared by Brittany Dawn Nelson (@realbrittanydawn)

No remorse

In addition to her digital religious content, Brittany now also hosts workshops and retreats under her ministry called She Lives Freed, where she actually baptizes attendees in a feeding trough.

Other than her now-deleted apology video, Brittany has not shown any ounce of sympathy toward the thousands of people she scammed and harmed. In fact, she often frames herself as the victim in her social media posts and has recently leaned into speaking out against cyberbullying.

Dallas court officials have not announced a new trial date yet. Stay tuned for more info!

Sources:

Kelsey Weekman, BuzzFeed

Reddit

• r/brittanydawnsnark

WFAA

The Dallas Morning News

Influencers have undoubtedly become a prevalent part of our culture. They touch nearly every aspect of our lives, influencing everything from the way we wear our hair to which vitamins we take. They’re even influencing which sex toys we use. Considering their power, I think it’s important to take a good look at who we are following and whether their influence on us is positive or negative.

As we move closer to a new year, it’s important to reflect on your social media habits and how they’re affecting your day-to-day. Here are a few influencers to think about unfollowing in 2023:

Claudia Oshry and Jackie Oshry

You may know Claudia by her Instagram handle, @girlwithnojob. The former meme queen has become a serial podcast starter alongside her sister Jackie. The pair hosts a podcast every weekday where they break down the “Fast 5” pop culture stories you should know about that day. The podcast was recently added to the Dear Media network, which also houses popular shows like Not Skinny But Not Fat and The Skinny Confidential, which is hosted by the network’s owners Lauren and Michael Bosstick.

The Oshry sisters are daughters of far-right political commentator Pamela Geller, who is literally banned from the UK - the whole thing - for her anti-Muslim “activism.” She co-founded a hate group called Stop Islamization of America. Pamela was married to Claudia and Jackie’s father Michael from 1990 to 2007 and Michael died the next year, leaving behind $5 million for each of his daughters (they share two others: Olivia and Margo - also influencers) and $4 million for Pam.

The Oshry girls themselves have come under fire in the past for their own controversial comments. In 2019, Jackie claimed that a mass shooting was more likely to occur in cheaper movie theaters, then doubled down on this once questioned about it. Old tweets made by sisters have also resurfaced including one from Claudia in 2014 that reads, “I can’t but feel like I’m funding terrorism when I take a cab.” Since then, the sisters have only continued to make tone-deaf comments about marginalized groups like Black Lives Matter.

Tinx

If you’re not on TikTok, you may not know Tinx. Born Christina Najjar, the 32-year-old rose to internet stardom during the early days of the pandemic, dubbing herself “TikTok’s older sister.” She created content surrounding relationships and mental health. A former rich kid, Tinx grew up in London and attended Stanford for undergrad.

In April of this year, a ‘snark’ subreddit dedicated to her dug up old tweets spanning over a decade that were quite unsavory. Considering my old tweets haunt me even though the account is long gone, I sympathize with this. However, many of the tweets were posted less than 2 years ago, just before she gained popularity.

Her early tweets mostly targeted celebrities and their weight or appearance (nothing out of the ordinary for a young idiot with unlimited access to the internet) while others slipped into QAnon-y and COVID-denier territory.

Tinx eventually owned up to her shit and apologized for the tweets. While she handled things well, the COVID tweets were a little bit too recent for some to forgive her. After all, she was 30-years-old at the time.

Rachel and Dave Hollis

Okay, so this one is a doozy. Rachel Hollis garnered internet fame back in 2015 when she posted a bikini photo, celebrating her mom bod - stretch marks and all. She capitalized on this fame by writing a self-help book entitled, Girl, Wash Your Face. The book was phenomenally successful despite its terrible advice, vapid content and toxic positivity. It resonated with privileged white girls. I purchased the book in 2018ish and couldn’t get through it. Some notable tidbits were:

• Diet shaming: Rachel instructed her readers to envision their friend Pam, who has trouble sticking to a diet and asks them why they should trust Pam if she can’t stick to her word.

• Victim blaming: Rachel insists that the only thing getting in the way of your success is you! She claims to have started her business with nothing but “a Google search bar,” but conveniently leaves out that her then-husband was a senior executive at fucking DISNEY.

• The worst relationship advice ever: Rachel tells us the story of how she won over her husband. She was 19 and he was… older, and didn’t really want to claim her as his girlfriend. He wouldn’t introduce her to anyone and wouldn’t commit to her. She lost her virginity to him and then he broke up with her. Eventually, he changed his mind and they lived happily ever after… (They’re now divorced.)

Dave Hollis, the aforementioned fuckboy-turned-family man, eventually quit his fancy Disney job and decided to join forces with his highly successful wife, who wrote another popular bullshit book and started touring the country. He wrote a book of his own. Then, they started a podcast called Rise Together, which turned into a conference where couples could pay upwards of $2,000 for their invaluable marriage advice.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, the power couple announced their divorce. They’d done everything they could, they said. It just wasn’t working. Unsurprisingly, the folks who shelled out thousands of dollars to take advice from these frauds were horrified and demanded answers. They received none.

After the divorce, each of them landed in hot water once again. Rachel made headlines after making a video in which she referred to her housekeeper as “the sweet woman who cleans her toilets,” and claimed that yes, she is “super freaking privileged” because she’d earned it. The video was in response to a follower who commented that Rachel speaking about having her house cleaned twice a week made her unrelatable. Her response to this was, “What makes you think that I want to be relatable?” And comparing herself to feminist icons like - wait for it - Harriett Tubman.

Dave, on the other hand, spent two hours on Instagram Live demanding that his followers purchase his “life-changing” second book, Built Through Courage. He told his followers that by not purchasing his book for “eighteen stinking American dollars” they were breaching their contract with him, shaming them for viewing his content without also compensating him financially. During the 120-minute Live, his young daughter repeatedly asked him to make her breakfast, which he refused to do and told her to “get a life.”

Those are the highlights, but for more tea, check out this BuzzFeed article.

66% of people say that influencers impact their buying decisions. If you’re in that majority, be informed about the folks you’re following!