What is a VSCO girl? That's what everyone wants to know. VSCO CEO and co-founder Joel Flory told Cheddar the topic "really shot up" this year as Google recently revealed the eponymous term was the second most popular "What is…" search of 2019.
There is no official definition, but a quick search seems to reveal a VSCO girl as a teen or tween who takes selfies of herself decked out in trendy gear (think oversized T-shirts and Hydro Flask water bottles). But according to Flory, to its users, the term means more.
"It's a young woman that you'll see in the Google search that is an 'activist'," said Flory. The company's new survey of more than 1,000 Gen Zer's ages 14 to 23 found that "activist" is a label many are happy to hold..
"They're proud and thankful about how social media helps them really label themselves and figure out who they are in their identity," he added.
But, according to VSCO's survey, while 46 percent of Gen Z take pride in being "activists," 37 percent feel they have to hide their political beliefs around family members during the holidays. "Coming into the holidays, they're really anxious to how their family views them and 45 percent say they feel judged by their family for their social media posts," Flory said.
He also discussed VSCO's acquisition of Rylo, the camera and video-editing app company. VSCO sold off the brand's hardware to Best Buy and will be focusing on ways to utilize the software.
"We were able to see an early prototype and beta version of their new consumer mobile app that actually helped people be more expressive with all these great video tools and loved it so much that we really wanted to bring it into the VSCO suite," Flory said regarding Rylo.
As smartphones continue to come with better camera and video editing features already built into the hardware, an app like VSCO is focused on how to leverage the technology smartphones already provide.
"I view it less as a competition and actually more as an accelerant, and so if we think about creativity, it used to just be for those who self-identified as creative. The advancement of the hardware of these devices is really making creativity a global language," Flory said.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
