"There is no tension because I am not a journalist!"
An interview with Brenda Hashtag, Gourmet is now called [Untitled Food Magazine], and fintech bagels.
Good afternoon, everyone. I am halfway through Jasmine Sun’s report on American data centers, which she’s been teasing for the last few weeks on Substack. It’s a perfect example of what independent journalism can look like on this platform. And it has everything you’d want from a modern-day Western: slamming down beers, vibrating EMF gadgets, small town Facebook pages…
Today’s newsletter includes: The latest from Untitled Food Magazine (formerly Gourmet), fintech companies are making bagels, why brenda doesn’t identify as a journalist, the Hailey Bieber x Gap resale market, a writer who has held jobs at two separate Substack bestselling newsletters, American college grads are still living at home, and Meta’s C-Suite press tour continues.
Guest Lecture: Brenda Hashtag
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want. Past guests have included Mark Guiducci, Jake Sherman, and Clare de Boer.
Today, brenda answers your questions about publishing on multiple platforms, developing a personal moral code as a creator, and why all fashion brands have bad social media presences.
“How do you see the trajectory of your career as a creator? Is this still something you plan to be doing in 5,10,15 years time? Or do you have a game plan for tapping out?” - Phoebe
The job “influencer” has thankfully now existed long enough for us to have thousands of real-life X to Z evolutions to take examples from, so we are not just shooting in the dark: the influencer to burnout, to founder, to pyramid scheme promoter, to pop star, to deleting all social media and flipping houses, to designer, to actor, to creative director, to influencer - manager, to author, pipelines. I have always tried to be realistic about the demand for @brendahashtag, about ageing out of it, in terms of wanting to show myself, wanting to share my life, in terms of having something to say (I cannot fathom not being opinionated at some point though), in terms of zeitgeist (something only very few can hold on to forever), in terms of looks, as a woman I am painfully aware of the beauty standards in the media industry that I will, at some point in the near future, no longer serve. So far I have been able to shapeshift and re-invent myself every few years, changing platforms, changing clothes, changing topics, switching to video, starting a podcast, becoming an editor - but the expansion options, influence-wise, actually seem endless to me. I would like to write a book, I would like to appear on TV, I would like to make my podcast bigger, I still have so much to say. Influencers constantly promote someone else’s product when they don’t have their own brand, which is less risky than sitting on stock yourself, but also doesn’t earn you as much. I have dabbled in promoting my own things, a necklace collaboration with a friend, a small batch of my own Adidas shoe, and my book “brended”, but have yet to commit to doing something bigger, because getting a client some traction and likes (I am underselling myself here but you know what I mean) versus being responsible for sales, is a lot more pressure.
I believe you get into dangerous territory as an influencer when you’re only known for one thing, one format (unless you have found an evergreen like “what is your take”, “what is the best”), one brand, one product, and most importantly when you rely on one platform only. I mainly monetize instagram (where I have two accounts, brendahashtag and brendawareness) but I am also on tiktok, youtube, tumblr, substack, spotify and apple podcasts, because you never know where a platform is headed (I deactivated X after the last US election, that is 40,000 accounts missing from my portfolio of people I can reach). On a positive note, there are now more ways than ever for passive income as a creator, such as affiliate links and subscription based models, and I make sure I get paid for things that aren’t content, such as appearances (attendance fee), writing for other publications (that one doesn’t pay a lot), panel talks, lectures (again, doesn’t pay a lot), and most importantly consulting (I consult individuals and brands on all things I claim to know things about and charge a day rate for it). Without falling into fear in your day to day life, you have to consider becoming uncool, canceled, or both. I do hope to continue this journey that I am on, being someone with a platform that people pay attention to, forever. I look at Suzy Menkes backstage with her iPad filming Raf Simons upside down and think, “goals”. So there is no exit strategy in place; I try to not rely on one thing only and set myself up for the future in the most sensible way I know. I have investments in stocks, am a home owner, and not yet a birkin owner.
And maybe one thing to add, while I am sure your question for me came from a curious place, people tend to ask content creators this “what’s your exit strategy” question but wouldn’t ask graphic designers, copywriters, editors, and other freelancers the same thing. I hope I don’t sound defensive, I do see this question come up even in small talk and it might not always land well with everybody, pointing at the finish line. A lot of creatives are capable of adapting and pivoting, and so are influencers with an entrepreneurial mindset.
“Do you think authenticity is possible online?” - Anki
There are levels to this shit, but overall, no. Social life has always been about performance, way before the introduction of social media. Most of us behave differently with our parents, friends, strangers, some of us are performing alone in the house. The moment you are being watched, your behavior changes. Every one of my posts, even when I think it’s coming from the depths of my soul, is made with the awareness that an audience will see it, read it, interact with it, judge it.
Obviously there is a distinction between authenticity, expressing what is yours, and performance, how you choose to express it, so they aren’t necessarily opposites. I am seeing this great screenshot of some Charli xcx interview go around: “I’m very self aware, which hasn’t solved anything.” So I am not fighting my urge to perform, and maybe that has actually brought me a bit closer to an authentic online self? This is gibberish, you are at the afters in someone’s kitchen at 6 a.m. listening to me talk about authenticity while your friend is hooking up with someone on the couch and you just want to go home.
“How do you navigate the tension between maintaining editorial credibility as a journalist and doing brand partnerships as a creator, especially while working for a magazine?” - Nathalia
There is no tension because I am not a journalist! It is a word that is used to describe me sometimes but I do not use it myself. We are talking about fashion here, I am doing (mostly) fun interviews with successful people, my work is not digging into brand’s supply chains to uncover something. Much respect to those who do that! In fashion, I can count on one hand the publications who don’t let their writers accept flights, gifts, free dinners, free stays from brands, and many other things that a journalist wouldn’t do from an ethics code standpoint. They all have advertisers, and they sure as hell aren’t speaking negatively about them. The entire thing is a conflict of interest, so when I get shade from “professional” fashion journalists about my brand business flights, who are currently walking around with their new Prada bag, please be so for real!!!!! So yeah, I see no tension here. I love my different jobs, influencing, writing, consulting, and I do them to the best abilities of my personal moral code, and that’s that on that.
“I really admire the confidence you have in your vision, and the belief to always speak your truth. How much do you rely on your partner / close friends / colleagues to discuss your ideas and observations before sharing them publicly? How much do you sense check yourself?” - Panayiota
Thank you so much for saying that! To everyone’s detriment, myself included, I don’t think before I post, let alone discuss anything with anyone. Everyone works in different ways, some people need to formulate the text message to their situationship with three friends, some people view their AI as their soundboard, I can remember being 15 and hanging out in stores with my girlfriends and trying things on and just thinking to myself, why are they giving each other so much feedback? I know which T-Shirt I want and I don’t need to discuss my choice with them, I either have enough pocket money to get what I want or I don’t, but I never enjoyed this time of contemplating together, which, I came to realize, is the fun part for most people. I am also an only child and was raised in a way where I was able to make a lot of decisions on my own, what I wanted to wear to school, I was never forced into playdates with my parents friends’ kids, and maybe no parent or guardian ever really second guessed my choices. So I guess I didn’t grow up around contemplating. I am a pretty impatient person with everyone around me (and myself), so when I notice patterns such as someone calling or texting six different people for their decision making, I think that is more of an attention issue. I know you asked about something completely different but I feel it’s all intertwined right? I admire people with a strong sense of self, people who trust their gut feelings, and that is how I try to operate! So when it comes to sense checking myself, I hope to constantly learn and grow. And while I take my work pretty seriously, I don’t give the internet as a whole that much weight; I can post and change my mind. Not in the eyes of cancel culture maybe, but I find that admitting something is beyond your control…that acceptance isn’t surrender. It’s reclaiming control.
“If you had to return to wearing color, which one would you choose and why?” - Samara
Nope! And while I am at it, abolish theoretical questions!!! They tell us absolutely nothing about a person, only reality and actions do! I will not love you as a worm!!!!!!!!!!
“What percentage of your brand deals are inbound, vs you or your team seeking them out?” - ALB
It’s 100% inbound, which I don’t recommend to anybody, especially not when you’re starting out. I work in a super niche sector of the fashion industry, so there aren’t many gigs out there. When I was just starting out, I got some great advice from a friend who worked at Nike at the time, doing global brand communications. This is not one size fits all advice because he knew me and where I was going, so take that with a grain of salt: The best thing you can get is tailored jobs. Where you make yourself so unignorable that they want you on their team. Instead of “we are doing this bag activation, here are the deliverables,” you want “we are dying to work with you, how can we make it work?” This sounds delusional, but that is what I am after. I do believe in a thing called “brand fit,” but posting for free a hundred times will not make you a brand ambassador, in my opinion. I focus on myself, on my followers, and trust that brands will want to be a part of my world. I had no prior contact with Adidas, not one gifted item or showroom invite, before they offered me to do a superstar with them. I had never driven an Audi before I started working with them. You build your world, you work in your personal branding, on recognizability, and on not being interchangeable. They will come! If you do what everyone else is doing, they won’t. Unless you work the “cost leadership” strategy, Michael Porter’s classic, competing on price. I do not, lol. That doesn’t mean we don’t follow up, or ask clients for calls every few months to see what they’re working on, some outreach should always be done! Relationships have to be nurtured. But honestly if you come with a community, that is the absolute greatest commodity online. That is not to say there aren’t many great examples of people who love a product or brand, and reach out and pitch themselves, it just never worked for me. Because you kind of start at the short end of the stick, asking for something. But again, I am in a very niche sector of my industry, working with exclusivity as one of my sellers.
Wow, I could talk about this forever because I feel it’s also important to mention that every market is entirely different. My French agents sometimes won’t reply until the follow-up email, to signal the first offer wasn’t so interesting to us. In an American market, that often means you already missed the window of the deal, because a contract is signed within one day of the initial email and the deliverables are due yesterday.
“How do you take care of yourself when you travel so much for work?” - Maria
So, I am on a plane every week, which is insanely disruptive on the system, I do not want to glamorize that. I struggle with anxiety, mostly one that I make up in my head that then manifests into real, physical distress. Some days I am more coping than living. I don’t drink any alcohol, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke. I have done all of the things in the past, and am so insanely grateful that these things are not a part of my life anymore. So that honestly is my main self-care. I would like to say that I work out consistently but sadly have not yet managed to keep a rhythm of anything while changing locations every week. I would really like to start running, because you can do it anywhere, but so far have only had some failed attempts every few months. If anyone has some motivational tips for me, please!!!!!! Besides that, my biggest enemy of self-care is negative self-talk, I am trying to do less of that.
“What is your best stain remover for white clothes?” - Julia
My things are all dirty! I think the dirtier the white vintage Levi’s, the better. I think clothes are meant to be worn, and they will get dirty in the process. If you are struggling with deodorant stains in armpits, I use a deodorant from the brand Susanne Kaufmann, it’s clear! I am not sure if you can get it in many countries though.
“Is there a fashion brand that she thinks is really good at social media?” - Rachel
I can only talk about high fashion brands here and you know what, no. I think everyone is bad, and not in a camp way. Most luxury brands are kind of stuck in their brand guidelines that they paid some agency soo/too much money for to abandon their made-up rulebook. The logo can only be used with this much distance from the subject, everything has an insanely long chain of commands and ends up at the desk of the CMO when a moment has already passed. Campaigns need to be tailored to each (social) media, they have enough money for that but don’t see the need.
“Who was the last person to inspire you?” - Benedicte
I am inspired by my friends who know about their hierarchy of needs. I have a friend that will go on a run on a group vacation, no matter what, because he knows he’ll be grumpy otherwise. And I look at that and think, damn, the discipline! But it’s honestly more an honoring of yourself, knowing what you need out of your day to have a good day. I am my worst version of myself when I feel like I am on other people’s time and have abandoned my deadlines, my own to do’s, my need for healthy food, for sleep, my sacred alone time, whatever it is that keeps me sane. I get irritated and frustrated and take it out on my environment with passive aggressiveness, blaming whoever “kept me” from what I was supposed to do. Feeling like I am spineless. Failing to record a podcast when I am with my partner, who would happily leave me alone for a few hours if I would just say so. I don’t want to get that mixed up with the concept of community, I do not want to alienate myself from what is best for everyone! I just would love to be a bit more regimented. So people that do what they need to do in order to feel happy, no matter the circumstances, they really inspire me.
“What keeps you grounded during turbulent times, both at work and in life?” - Joaney
Picking up dog poop first thing in the morning really helps.
“As someone consistently on deadline, what does your time-management strategy look like? Is there room for mess in the brendaverse?” - Kat
So, I have sadly never fallen flat on my face, hence will not learn. Starting at grade 6, I have almost failed the school year, every single year, and was the loser at home having to take extra classes and or tests during summer break, just so that I could attend the next school year. Currently I am answering the feedme questions instead of writing a text for a Phaidon book that is due in two days, I haven’t even started the layout or anything, just because I know I will probably pull myself together 2 hours before the deadline and write it. At what cost? Extreme anxiety but also extreme “I am a god” feeling while sending the email and submitting the text. There is no time management whatsoever, only a knowledge of myself and my creative process. I think this is something extremely important for anyone working for themselves to figure out. When do you work the best? At what times of the day? In what state of mind do you need to be? Some of my friends need to be angry, heartbroken to create (“A computer can never be spiteful or horny and therefore shouldn’t make art” or however that sentence goes), some need to be happy, some need to be prepared. I need alone time, I need 4 hours of staring at the wall for 1 hour of writing. I go into interviews completely unprepared because I trust myself to come up with interesting questions on the spot (you might see that as offensive, if you are being offered the same gigs you can just do it better than me!), I go into university lectures unprepared because I have always found it to be more valuable to just let students ask me questions than to read them my script. When it comes to paid content of course that is entirely different, a well-paying client wants to see what you will be posting and saying. For those kinds of deadlines, my management is on top of me putting reminders in my calendar and I have never turned in work late. But most of my content is organic, I don’t have a posting schedule and just wait for an idea. Sometimes that means 10 posts a day in four platforms and sometimes it’s crickets.
“Do you think there are any white spaces in fashion media that you think someone should fill?” - Emily
I honestly do not believe in market saturation in the age of branding (lol I hope nobody quotes this because this sounds like “let’s stop selling podcast equipment” territory), you can fill any space you want or make up a new room and sit at your own table and invite people over. It is a lot harder to join platforms that have matured, obviously, but I believe that if you have something interesting to say, a new point of view, useful knowledge, people will find you. And stop pitching your ideas to dying media when you can be self-published. I think monetization methods are endless at the moment, that’s not to say you can just start a Substack and make a living from it, unless you have secret informants at LVMH and Kering and can paywall information that affects the stock market. I think a huge white space in fashion media is streaming, the consumer demand is endless and I feel people would actually tune into a 16-hour-a-day livestream of fashionTV. If someone wants to start it, I want some airtime! Our commodity in high fashion, attending shows that are limited to 400 seats and being in “the rooms,” in general, has so much demand, I think it would do so well. Also from a brand’s perspective, all of their livestreams are so incredibly lame, most of them don’t have a moderator, there is a huge need to make those better. Brands with 10M instagram followers have 2k livestream watchers on their shows because it’s not enjoyable to watch unless you’re a superfan, that’s embarrassing and needs to change. Go pitch!
“How has your experience on Substack been so far?” - Emily
Omg, it’s like X without the haters and trolls! It feels so wholesome! Maybe because I have not had a viral moment on here yet. It is my first experience, besides my consulting work, being able to monetize my thoughts, and feeling like they are worth paying for, to some people. Not having to have a brand involved. That feels incredibly rewarding and validating. I don’t think I have exactly found my people on here or built a strong community, and the 50 percent email opening rate is pretty humbling sometimes.
In another question on here I talk about not wanting feedback - I don’t think that applies to writing. I think we all need editing, and not AI editing that hypes you up and switches out sentences for more lame versions. At 032c, I have a real person trying to make sense of my rambles, telling me my sentence makes no sense, asking me to refine, asking me to cut (hate!!!! cutting), asking me to elaborate. So while I grew on here, my writing didn’t get any better. I don’t check myself, and editing is my least favorite part of the process. I finish a text and send it out immediately. And sure, some of it is part of the charm, but it will never make me sharp. We are all a little too close to our own product and a second set of eyes does help make our messages clearer. So yeah, a lot of the articles I read on here, even from people with 100k followers, is absolute garbage writing. Takes one to know one :)
“What’s a piece of professional advice you wish you got a year ago?” - Emily
Nothing I wish I got a year ago - but I believe that in business, the person willing to walk away holds the power!
SHOP THE FEED ME STORE!!!
Clothing and goods for in and out of the office. Designed at the Feed Me HQ.
The Gap x Hailey Bieber jeans, which retail for $90, are unsurprisingly almost sold out. They’re going for $220 on eBay.
Is Jonas Du the first person to hold jobs at two separate Substack bestselling newsletters? Du, who graduated Columbia last year, spent the last two years at The Free Press as a fellow. He’ll now be covering Washington, D.C. for Pirate Wires.
More than one quarter of recent college grads are living with their parents—a return to the high mark during Covid. The Times puts numbers to what anyone with a recent college grad in their life anecdotally knows to be the case: “Data from the economists Stefania Albanesi, Rania Gihleb and Ning Zhang show that the portion of college graduates ages 23 to 27 living with their parents has returned to the high it reached during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than one-quarter did so as of last year, from a low of about 18 percent in 2001, according to updates to the paper that are not yet online.”
Gourmet, the worker-owned food magazine that launched earlier this year after noticing that Condé Nast failed to renew the Gourmet Magazine trademark, is going back to the drawing board. Last night, they sent out an email that said, “Starting tomorrow, we’re going to begin the process of rebranding. You’ll still get your regular Tuesday and Thursday newsletters, but they’ll be coming from [Untitled Food Magazine] until we unveil our new moniker.” Many food publications have launched over the last year, but Gourmet has by far been my favorite. The writing is sharp and magazine-y, and the product has a high concentration of surprise and personality. Even though there is not one person behind the personality (smart). I wasn’t looking for a cooking newsletter, but it fell into my inbox and now I love this one.
I texted Amiel Stanek, one of the owners of the magazine, to find out how things are going over there in the wake of this [Untitled Food Magazine] news. Re: the assumed Condé intervention, “Goulash Unlimited LLC has agreed to rebrand and cease use of the GOURMET trademark as part of a confidential settlement agreement with Condé Nast.” Moments ago, the in-limbo email sent an email that said, “The long and short (and legal) of it is that we have agreed to rebrand and cease use of the Gourmet trademark as part of a confidential settlement agreement with Condé Nast.” Here’s the rest of my conversation with Amiel from last night:
ES: You don’t sound as stressed as some other media operators I talk to. What’s the secret to running a media startup in 2026 without losing your mind?
AS: “Speaking only for myself: a mortgage with a 3.25% interest rate. The fact that we’ve all been around long enough to know that if we wanted to get rich we would’ve done something else—and, despite that, still wanting to spend a great deal of time writing and editing and cooking and goofing off. Being a coöp helps, too. It probably isn’t “easier” per se than a more traditional hierarchical media model, but there is a satisfaction that comes with collective decision making, a deep comradeliness that makes even the hard things feel worth doing. As a cohort we have a pretty strong sense of joie de vivre, which keeps things in perspective. We get to make a fun thing with our friends, drink wine together, pay ourselves, pay contributors more than most other outlets do, and people want to read it??”
ES: Can we look forward to any events or other surprises this fall?
AS: “We’ve got at least one Capital P Party in the works, but also looking forward to hosting some more intimate happenings for subscribers on both coasts. The party we hosted at International Bar, where we cooked a giant pot of soup in the backyard and broke down an entire wheel of Parm and drank pint glass-sized margaritas was such a blast, and we want more opportunities to just hang out with the weirdos (complimentary) who are into this thing we’re doing. Merch, for sure. A lot of our collective bandwidth has been tied up with other things for the last few months, and we’re ready to spread our wings a bit.
ES: What are your biggest pet peeves about food media, that might’ve become more evident since launching Gourmet?
AS: “I don’t know that this has necessarily become more evident, but I think that people often fail to keep in mind how boring food is on a fundamental level. That is what makes it compelling to write about—your job is to take the most mundane of things and inject it with enough style and point of view that it doesn’t put someone to sleep. That’s a challenge! I’m not saying we’re batting a thousand, but I’m pretty allergic to food media that is too self-regarding, or operates under the assumption that the topic at hand is interesting on its face. Oh, and ‘shatteringly crisp.’ No more of that.”
Banking services company Mercury, which is valued at $5.2 billion and backed by Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, is now making bagels. Kind of. Instead of opening their own cafe like fintech peers Capital One and Corgi, Mercury has been partnering with restaurants and cafes like Leon’s Bagels in New York and Breadbelly in SF. You know who makes a good bagel? Leon’s. You know who probably wouldn’t make a good bagel? Mercury. I think Mercury has strong marketing – it never comes off desperate or like it’s trying to be something cooler than a startup for banking services. (I should say that Mercury advertised with Feed Me earlier this year).
Prediction Market Insider Trading Corner: George Santos was ordered to pay $35k for placing bets on Kalshi about whether he himself would attend the State of the Union address in February. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Santos deceived bettors into believing he would attend via posts on social media (e.g., “I’m going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys”), and then bet against his own attendance once the market moved, making around $17,500.
Meta’s C-Suite press tour continues. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, went on Throwing Fits this week. He discussed Instagram’s rules around nipples and how Instagram Story views are ordered.
"abolish theoretical questions" 😂 I love brenda's mind
influencer / journalist distinction is such a cop-out. suggests just leaving ethical behavior to people who profess to have ethics. we should all be judged based on how ethical we are, not how skillfully we avoid taking on ethical commitments.