#popular family vloggers

[bi-hop]

labru modern au where Laios is a twitch streamer and Kabru is his twitch chat moderator but they dont actually like know each other irl and stuff and Kabru is very kind and stuff but Laios is like oblivious and then they meet up irl and turns out Kabru is one of Laios' fav vlogger / youtuber with 6M subscribers and Laios is like "HOLY SHIT WHAT???? YOU?? MOD FOR ME????" and Kabru's like "haha 😉 I do"

ODASJOSDJDJ this is such a funny thing to think about... I think Kabru would, if he stumbled into the world of chat moderation, thrive in it. he enjoys feeling out not only what is of course unacceptable across the board but also what is disruptive to the specific person he's working with. he's achieving an A in reading Laios' microexpressions (and honestly just. expressions in general) in order to determine if a joke warrants a warning or temp ban.

I have no idea what Kabru's channel would be about (this is a lie but it's more so me trying to think of something that Laios would actively watch) but I am enjoying the mental image of Kabru's most popular vlog being I Am Forced To Repel My Mother's Attacks: My Self-Defense Journey and the bio is like "Please stop questioning my family, I asked for this to happen. No, the dolls aren't fake. Yes, I did not need to go to the hospital, my foster brother was joking. I am fine."

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

i did it for winx i did it for powerpuff girls anyway here’s my pitch for a good “modern” scooby doo remake

shaggy comes from a family of paranormal investigators. at barely 16 years olds he returns to his hometown of coolsville with his dog after his super rich parents tell him it’s time to live up to the family name, taking him there specifically because of many rumors about cursed areas of the town and crmiinals who take advantage of said rumors to pretend to be monsters themselves. while there he reconnects with his old childhood friends and eventually all together they form the mystery inc... and have to deal with a benevolent yet very clumsy spirit who took over scoob’s body

character thoughts under read more!!!

shaggy is, again, the last of a family of paranormal investigators, who ever since he was a child had to deal with his parents bringing him in adventures and dealing with (real and fake) monsters. you’d guess that would make him brave, but. no that just made him very paranoid. while he acts like the team’s straightman, he’s also the only one who knows how certain monsters work, ironically working as one of the “brains” of the group!

scooby, again, used to be a normal great dane. a little lazy, not even particularly friendly, at least until shaggy brought him with him in coolsville; during their first night out. while he ends up falling into a trap, a benevolent ghost takes over his body, making him able to talk and tell the kids that coolsville is in big trouble and that they need to stick together. overall, he’s the team’s mascot, someone who’s directly connected with the main antagonist similarly to the mystery inc series, but also a goofy spirit (and now dog) who’s appreciating life!!

velma is a seemingly distant and cold nerd, but also the first one who joins shaggy in his adventures after she learns that all the curses and mysteries of her town might be real. her knowledge and ability to think on the fly comes from her being a dnd player and, most importantly, a dungeon master, and out of everyone she’s by far the bravest member of the team.  while a little snarky and with a lot of problems with social cues, she’s a smart and quick thinking young lady who’s happy to be part of a real adventure. and also has a girlfriend who may or may not be yet another monster since her being into criminals and monstergirls is a recurring trend now

daphne is part of the popular girls in school, but since we hate stereotypes she also has a reason to be popular other than “she’s pretty XD”. tiktok influencer and vlogger, she joins shaggy and velma almost by accident uhhhh i’d say 3 or 4 episodes into the series, maybe trying to start off a paranormal youtube channel, and eventually gets very close to them. the assigned people person, she knows everything about everyone in town and is generally very charismatic, but make her angry and she’ll make sure that you will remember with who you’re messing with.

fred, daphne’s boyfriend, is a member of the football’s team and the mayor’s son... and for “half” of the first season, he unknowingly acts as a minor antagonist, since i’d say. down with the politicians, the mayor is one of the bad guys, and with fred being a total himbo he accidentally works as his spy. eventually he finally understands that something is up with his dad, especially thanks to daphne who reminds him who truly cares for him, and eventually shaggy and velma too, with who he shares good memories of pretending to be detectives together and watching “that one weird show with the talking dogs and the kids looking for ghosts... goober or something!” he finally becomes the team’s wild card, the brawn and. yea i’d bring back his love for traps and elaborate schemes. he and velma become super besties after she tells him about her latest dungeon in her session

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

The IDF estimates, maybe based on a baby bottle that was found where hostages are known to have been held, in the basement of the Rantisi hospital in Gaza, that a woman who was kidnapped while pregnant, has given birth in captivity. That makes her child the youngest hostage, at the age of a few days at most.

While our kids and babies are being held hostage in dark basements and tunnels, Israel is offering Gazans medical assistance for their kids. At this link you can listen to a subtitled conversation (the article is in Hebrew, just scroll to the first embedded vid), where an IDF officer is offering the Shifa hospital manager to place at the entrance to the building 37 incubators and 4 respirators for the kids and babies. The officer also vows to the manager to help protect as much as possible the patients, wards and staff in the hospital. During the conversation, the offer is accepted, but the IDF says later it was rejected. As I can't see who would outrank the hospital manager, I'm guessing the "No" came from Hamas.

Rockets continue to be fired into Israel. Today, a rocket barrage at Tel Aviv, at a kids playground, left one person seriously wounded, and two moderately.

Thank you so much to the Israeli Nonnie who sent me this vid. Yes, that is exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned in my update yesterday, this is Hamas attacking Palestinians in order to take over this aid truck and get all of the food for themselves (the relevant footage starts 11 seconds in):

Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have been the British Prime Minister, and who British Jews called out on antisemitism, was interviewed by Piers Morgan. He was asked 15 (arguably 16) times to answer the question whether Hamas is a terrorist group, but refused to give a reply.

I was listening to this interview with Ella Keinan (it's in Hebrew), an Israeli travel vlogger, who has started posting about the Israeli POV since Oct 8. She didn't say anything I didn't know, but I thought the way she phrased things was powerful, so allow me to translate:

They created a brand called Free Palestine, which is not actually freeing the Palestinians and giving them what they want, but under this brand it's possible to do anything nowadays, it's possible to rape, it's possible to slaughter, it's possible to kidnap, it's possible to abuse, to kill, it's possible to hurt and kill Jews in LA, it's possible to attack them at universities, and you'll still be applauded. Meaning, you'll still be popular. That's how powerful this brand is.

Meanwhile, Israel's foreign diplomacy has officially been shut down due to a lack of budget. A lot of government offices are being shut down, and their budget is being re-directed to help the evacuated, the families of the murdered, the injured, financially supporting people whose businesses have collapsed, compensating those whose homes were destroyed by Palestinian rockets. So when you hear people dismissing regular Israelis' posts as paid propaganda by the Israeli government... what a fucking joke, Israel can't even currently pay professionals in this field, let alone regular people.

This is 19 years old Noa Marziano.

Yesterday, Hamas published a vid of her as a hostage. The Israeli media refused to cooperate with the psychological warfare, no one published it. Today, the IDF was able to confirm that Noa was murdered in captivity.

This is 12 years old Liel Hetzroni.

Her mother Shira, after gaving birth to her and her twin brother, suffered brain damage, and couldn't take care of her kids, so they were raised by their grandparents. Liel's grandfather and brother's bodies were already found. Today, after having been missing for 38 days, Liel's death was also pronounced.

This is 75 years old Vivien Silver.

She was a peace activists. Among other things, she used to volunteer her time driving Gazans to medical treatments in Israel. She was thought to be kidnapped in Gaza, but today her body was identified.

May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[olderthannetfic]

This might be an odd or personal question, but could I ask how you started knitting and where you started as a beginner? Or what would you recommend? I’ve tried to join clubs and groups irl, but there’s so much drama and gossiping. When I said I didn’t want to take part in that aspect, they started ostracizing and gossiping about me. Any websites, yt channels or books you’d recommend for a beginner?

--

Haha.

My friend, this does not even register on the scale of deeply personal or odd questions people have sent me.

I've been trying to remember exactly how I started and why (like, even before this ask). I think it was on a family vacation to Scotland the summer before I started college. That would have been in 1999.

I taught myself from one of those awful 90s pamphlets with the line drawings. They're a nightmare compared to being able to see someone do the motions in person or even in a video. I had some awful plastic needles and no guidance on yarn and just knit with what I found at some shop there. Do not recommend!

I achieved what I wanted during college, which was to make a nice cable-knit sweater that I still wear, and then I got frustrated with crappy acrylic yarn and drifted away from knitting until a year or so ago.

The fact is, I basically didn't do beginner projects. I moved straight from making one rectangle to making grandiose sweaters or whatever else struck my fancy. (But if you want to know, I was using Viking Patterns for Knitting and a bunch of Alice Starmore books, all of which you can still buy.) I know plenty of people who did it this way, but you certainly don't have to.

And you definitely don't need to learn from a terrible 90s printed pamphlet!

Luckily, nowadays, you can find a tutorial on just about anything on Youtube. I enjoy watching the technical and historical types discuss quirks of knitting you might not think of without years of practice or research.

Roxanne Richardson is great, for example.

Look for somebody old, not wearing a lot of makeup, and not talking about their indie dyeing/yarn business and you'll avoid most of the clowns who learned to knit five minutes ago and now want to be knitfluencers.

When I want a super simple technique tutorial, I usually end up looking at either Nimble Needles or VeryPink Knits. I find her super annoying, but her tutorials are spot-on. Norman's voice is much more soothing and I just enjoy his presence more, but both of them have good ultra close-up shots of what they're doing (which lots of vloggers don't because it requires special equipment).

I'd just figure out what kind of finished products you want to use knitting for and then find patterns and tutorials geared towards those.

Cables are relatively easy. Stranded colorwork requires a fair amount of physical coordination and some people find it rather difficult at first.

Circular needles are far more popular than traditional straight ones for people starting today.

Cotton yarn is relatively less nice to knit with than wool for most people, but it tends to be the natural fiber available at a low price point from major retailers.

Picking up general tips like that by watching various youtubers will help you pick a project that won't be too painful to work on.

People who naturally knit loosely should consider grippy bamboo or wooden needles. People who naturally knit tightly should consider slippery metal ones.

My biggest piece of advice is that you're usually better off with something "hard" that you actually like rather than a "practice" project you don't care about, at least after you've made like one rectangle to practice doing a knit stitch at all.

--

Finding community can be hard, and yes, some crafting hobbies are infested with drama.

But if you just want to know how to knit, you're way better off with some video tutorials and a nice pattern you like.

[skulljackxiii]

GrojBand Comeback Tour - Lenny Nepp

Support me over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/skulljackxiii

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(Note: With little info at hand, there was a lot of room to add about Lenny and his character in this version. But looking back in the show, there were signs where he was different from the other Newmans by not having the same skill set as their counterparts; specifically having physical traits/capabilities being complete opposite from that of Laney, and the long running joke of being called a girl by his peers. So first off it would be interesting by making him a foreign exchanged student from London (since his name is Lenny) that has several medical/health issues that restrains him from being more physically active/capable, thus creates his insecurities of his masculinity. This is further impeded by him growing up as the youngest in a household with only girls in his life. Though they didn't really help with his problem, he did pick up many skills thanks to his mother and five older sisters with flourishing careers; such as a dance instructor, hair dresser, salon manager, beauty technician, and a fashion designer. It would also be fun that he would have this one-sided rivalry with Corey and tries to intimidate him simply out of jealousy, but Corey wouldn't take it to heart because he assumed that it was his own unique way of talking to someone.)

Role: Lenny is one of the key members of the Newmans, taking the role as the bass player and backup vocalist of the band. Along side that, he also has the responsibilities of maintaining the appearance of the Newmans by deciding what type of wardrobe and makeup is best for certain occasions. He also develops and instructs the choreography for their performances, this being his most passionate role given how it is the only physical activity that he flourishes on.

Outside the band, Lenny is a popular Vlogger that likes to share all his moments to the World; letting people know who he hangs out with, where he's at, who he dislikes, etc. This also makes him an addition pillar of support for the band by having so many of his viewers get to know each of the members behind the scenes and grow to like them. With this furthering the band's image, maintaining a lead in popularity against Grojband.

Bio: Lenny lived in London with his mother and five older sisters. Being born with health conditions, such as Asthma, Hyperthyroidism, and minor Muscular Dystrophy, caused him to be retaliate on medication and being overprotected by his family. With no father around he grew up mainly being influenced by his family, namely his sisters playing with him in activities that they're interested in, like playing dress up or putting on makeup. He didn't have much friends when he was little because the boys would think that he was a weak girl to play with, and the girls would think that he was weird for being more prettier than them. Though despite all these years under his family's care and insecurities about his body, Lenny still strived to be his own man and have everyone recognize that. That way he could finally feel confident about himself and have everyone he meets to stop calling him a girl to his face.

Some years later down the line, Lenny decided that he wanted to move out and go to America to attend the rest of his school years there, as part of his journey of being a real independent man. Of course his sisters were against this idea, but the one to back him up and understood his plights was his mother. After some arrangements with relatives over in the US and saying his goodbyes, Lenny was finally able to set off and be who really wanted to be, but upon his arrival things didn't exactly go as planned. Weeks went on and due to his social anxieties, fragile physic, clumsy nature, and feminine appearance, he became a target of bullying by everyone. 

This went on for awhile until a rough looking girl called Carrie Beff stood up and shut everyone up with a single single sentence. When he saw her for the first time, be came enamored by not only for her looks but also her strong presence that commanded respect and attention. Since then he did everything that he could to see her and get closer, but never had the courage to say how he really felt. So when he heard that she was forming a band and was looking for a bass player, he saw this as his opportunity. He exhausted so much of his time, energy, and finances to become the perfect bass player for the girl of his dreams. 

When the day finally came to showcase his skills and was accepted, he felt such immense joy that he never felt before. But that feeling wouldn't last too long when he realized that so much of Carrie's attention was always directed towards a rival band Grojand, specifically their leader Corey Riffin. Since then on he swore that he'll find a way to beat GrojBand and prove that he could be so much more than Corey will ever be.

[grievetherat]

I feel like rambling a bit about the Beatles; they have been my special interest for a while now but recently I've become especially hyperfixated.

I'm in college right now but my experience goes back to the 2010s when my father brought me trinkets from his trip to Liverpool some of which were Beatles-related. Living in a Eastern European country was a bit of a bleek experience as a child if you grew up being influenced by Western media. Being glued to the family computer or the TV, all I could do was admire the ways decade's leading up the the 21st century was shown in media, times which I was told were the darkest for my family (no electricity, no running water, the looming Soviet Union).

As such I was a yearning middle schooler, jealous of the Western world and their ability to create media that I admired. Don't get me wrong, I have gone back since then to realize even my home country had its charms and memorable breakthroughs in our culture of music or style but for me, as a kid being infatuated with the West, I was jealous of people who had their parents pass down cool records to them because they lived through the times when such music was popular, have access to merchandise or memorabilia, or the ability to visit certain historical places because I was worlds away from them.

As such I became fixated much of my teenagehood on the prospect of "what it could have been" for me, If I had the chance, I was basically a westernboo, I was chronically online most of the 2010s, exploring the emerging internet culture, the online sphere, youtube (because who else would have been the perfect subject to develop a parasocial relationship with British vloggers ahem dan&phil), but I also began to develop taste in music. As such it coincided with my father's visit to Liverpool, which fascinated me, the trinkets he had brought back along with the LOVE album CD, were mesmerizing. I mean I enjoyed my fair share of 2010s pop music, but by the end of that CD listen, needless to say, I became a pretentious prick.

To say I was interested in them is an understatement, I was obsessed; but I couldn't really explore my Beatles obsession with anyone my age so I paraded my hyperfixation to my father (a beatles fan, who took pride in me developing this interest) and the adults in my family, as simply an infatuation with the decades (the 60s-70s) to seem smart and sophisticated. They would praise me for being a history nerd and ask me to tell them fun facts about the Beatles which i pretended to simply comply with, but in reality, I just wanted an excuse to bring up the Beatles. Of course, those fun facts needed reading-up so i consumed as much reading material online (or from the few english history books my school library housed) as I could. I read of their contributions to music, their history, rock n roll, the pre-Beatles, post-breakup, their solo careers, the hippie counterculture everything ( i guess as much as a i could comprehend at them time lol) but most importantly, i read of John's tragic passing as well as the many articles, hypothesizing on 'what it could have been' for the Beatles.

My undiagnosed brain had melted at that one singular possibility.

Truly, in modern internet slang, the alleged/hypothesized Beatles reunion has been my Roman empire since the day I graduated middle school to today simply because I think of it every day at least twice. Eventually middle school obsession had matured into a primary interest, a personality trait, more of a "hello, I'm Nym, and I'm a big fan of the Beatles" and it would automatically tell the type of person I was. Only a few things after the Beatles had the same lasting effect on me (Gravity Falls as an example lol).

It also didn't help that I listen to them and their solo releases on the daily and that they're actually everywhere, being the greatest band in the world, but I think it's only in my tism brain that can't scratch that itch that makes my enjoyment of the Beatles such a surreal experience. Perhaps I could finally put it into words to give middle school me some sort of closure:

There has always been something so devastating to me about John's and George's passings. humans come and they go but for them it was abrupt, cruel; living in the 2020s now, there's something so poignant to me that begs the world why they never got to experience the next century to its full potential.

We knew the Beatles were over in 1980, the tale isn't as obscure as the Roman Empire because it feels like it has only just happened, it's part of modern popculture right? And yet we live in the 3rd decade of the 21st century, completely shifting the perspective to a type of lingering wound from such a long time ago that it never really heals anymore.

At the time, I had told this to my mother, how it bothered me so much. She had assumed I had realized the concept of sudden death and become afraid of it, and to her credit, she had tried her best to help me 'overcome it' as well, but it was never death that bothered me, it was the unfairness, the lack of closure and I guess the bittersweetness that lingers with me every time I turn on a Beatles song.

Being a Beatles fan has been a surreal experience really; I believed this weird, almost para-sociality with the closure that never came that I yearned for so long as a middle schooler would dissipate over time and I could enjoy the Beatles legacy as every other adult had around me, enjoy a fun fact now and then, get a trinket from a trip. I never really achieved that, I'm in college and they still essentially function for me as the fall of the Roman Empire. Especially with the release of Get Back a year or two ago and Now and Then, it's essentially gotten worse. Sometimes I can't bear to think about it anymore and sometimes I can't help but reminisce on what it could have been.

Anyways, I still treasure them in such a weird way, I think it takes a lot for a human tale with all its flaws to be this compellingly tragic and bittersweet to keep up a gen z college student at night over half a century later. Idk

[thevindicativevordan]

If DC is to a "Ultimate DC" for Superman? What would be your preferred vision / direction for Superman and his mythology? In other words, how would you handle an "Ultimate DC" Superman?

If DC has greenlit this, it's 100% because of the success of Hickman's Ultimate Marvel relaunch. Therefore the logical thing to do is take a look at what Hickman has done. His Ultimate line is a success in part because it serves as a contrast to the main 616 universe, while also throwing in a few genuine curveballs to attract interest. Approaching an Ultimate Superman with that mindset, here's his status quo as I would establish it:

First off: Put him in a different suit. The only complaint I have with regards to Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man is that he's wearing the classic suit with a slightly different spider symbol. I get that 1610 Peter was the same, and Hickman is simply following tradition, but I think that if you plan on having an alternate counterpart to your main hero exist on an ongoing basis, their costumes should be different enough to let anyone identify who is who at a glance. For an Ultimate Superman, that means a different s-shield and no trunks. Let the Earth 0 guy wear the classic outfit, and put Ultimate Superman in something like the pic above. Also incorporate some of the New 52 designs that marked him as younger, like the messier hair.

Earth 0 Superman serves as the head of an extended "family" who wear variations on his crest and share in his mission. Ultimate Superman therefore should be a loner, at least at the start. No Kara, John Henry Irons, Kon, Kenan, or any other fellow Supers. No World's Finest partnership or Justice League either, I want Ult. Supes isolated.

Hickman gave us a married Spider-Man to contrast with the eternal bachelor 616 Spider-Man. Therefore the Ultimate Superman should be the eternal bachelor to his married mainline counterpart. Therefore if he's dating anyone it should not be Lois. Pair him with Lana or a villain like Livewire/Maxima, make a new OC love interest, don't have him dating anyone at the start, whatever. But we've seen Clark and Lois together as boyfriend/girlfriend and as husband/wife, don't immediately rush into that here. Keeping this Superman free to date others helps keep him unique and worth reading on an ongoing basis.

Against my wishes, Pa and Ma are alive again on Earth 0. Fine - kill them off here. Again, Earth 0 Superman has the large family, Ultimate Superman is a loner.

Keep the power levels low. My preference would be to have this Superman starting off at Golden Age/early New 52 levels of strength. He can't fly, can't bench press a planet, can't liquify concrete with a glare, can't hear a bird squawk a galaxy across, he's a street level hero who's basically Spider-Man tier. Earth 0 Superman is insanely powerful thanks to PKJ buffing him, let's make this guy more grounded.

We need a few wild curveballs like how Hickman killed Aunt May but kept Uncle Ben alive on Earth 6160, or how Peter and Harry don't know each other at all. My approach? Ultimate Clark does not work for a news organization, not a traditional print/legacy one anyway. He does not work for the Daily Planet, or even the Daily Star, he works as a writer for the popular podcast Wired In With Williams, hosted by Leslie Williams and exclusively licensed by CatCo (major entertainment/new conglomerate owned by CEO Cat Grant). Lois and her comrades at the Daily Planet are Clark's rivals, the dying remnants of traditional journalism who are giving way to the "new media". I would defy tradition by not having Clark ultimately join the Daily Planet - instead the Planet ultimately closes it's doors and it's Lois and her co-workers who find their way to Catco.

Jimmy is not a photographer, he's a vlogger and an incredibly popular one too. Everyone loves seeing him investigate weird shit that frequently results in Superman showing up to bail him out. Clark also helps script Jimmy's videos like he does with Leslie, and the two are close. They were roommates but Jimmy ended up moving somewhere nicer while Clark remains living in Suicide Slum.

Current Superman run makes heavy use of Lex - therefore I'd buck tradition again and not have Lex be featured for the first year. Instead, Ultra-Humanite and his Intergang, Red Cloud and the Invisible Mafia, and the secretive group known only as the 100 serve as the criminal foes Superman must face, with Maggie Sawyer and her Special Crimes Unit hunting Superman for his vigilante activities.

Earth 0 Superman is beloved and trusted, Ultimate Superman is hated and feared. People do not like or trust this freak, even the common folks Superman is trying to protect. He's viewed as a dangerous outlaw with uncertain motives. At the start people do not know he's an alien, most believe him to be a human with superpowers.

Instead of the North Pole, Superman's Fortress is in a pocket dimension called "The Phantom Zone", and he is able to teleport there via a "signal watch".

This is the basic building blocks for how I would approach creating an "Ultimate Superman". It's a status quo that is recognizably Superman, but also different enough from the mainline version to intrigue.

[dhaaruni]

For Veronica Merritt, 38, the creator behind @thismadmama, the calculations are more complicated. As a mother of 12 who mostly documents life with her large family, she claims that when she makes a video with one or two of her children, she’ll share the profits with them, but if the video is a haul of the entire family going shopping at Dollar Tree, she considers the $10 they got to spend there to be their payment. When she made a TikTok comparing two of her daughters, the younger felt embarrassed because Merritt called her the “weird kid at school” in contrast to her older sister, who was labeled “popular” and “bubbly.” But Merritt says they decided not to take the video down because it was doing well and making money through TikTok’s monetization program, which pays creators for qualified views. The video is now pinned to the top of her page, with 2.3 million views and counting, netting $1,100 as of late February. As a form of reparation, she decided to split the profit from the video between her two daughters, with the stipulation that they use the money for the bedroom makeovers they’ve been wanting.

[richincolor]

Banned Books Week Day 5

It has been a week filled chock full of information and good books. We hope our posts gave you valuable information or encouraged you to get involved.

If you missed any of our book recommendations click below to find out our favorite banned books. 

Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu

The hilarious and heartbreaking confessions of a figure skater turned collegiate hockey player who’s terrified of checking . . . and is desperately in love with the captain of his hockey team.

Eric Bittle is a former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier. But as accomplished as he is, nothing could prepare him for his freshman year of playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University in Samwell, Massachusetts. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South! For one? There’s checking. Second, there is Jack—his very attractive but moody captain.

A collection of the first half of the mega-popular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: # Hockey is the first in a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.

If this novel appeals to you, show your support by visiting your local library or purchasing a copy at Bookshop.org.

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

In this groundbreaking William C. Morris Award winner for a YA debut, Gabi’s life is a mess–her family, her friends, her attempts at a love life–but writing helps, especially since it turns out she’s pretty good at poetry.

Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year of high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn’t want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it’s important to wait until you’re married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, “Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas.” Eyes open, legs closed. That’s as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don’t mind it. I don’t necessarily agree with that whole wait until you’re married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she will think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.

If this novel appeals to you, show your support by visiting your local library or purchasing a copy at Bookshop.org.

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

When Springville residents–at least the ones still alive–are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school’s first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life.

But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And what they don’t know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.

If this novel appeals to you, show your support by visiting your local library or purchasing a copy at Bookshop.org.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way.

After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.

The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. So cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?

Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.

If this novel appeals to you, show your support by visiting your local library or purchasing a copy at Bookshop.org.

[sadgirlnoga]

My 2024 predictions:

Sssniperwolf will be forced to delete all content featuring her ex husband

Very specific Deviantart accs will become animetoks next targets

Somebodies gonna make an ice cream stand where all the flavors are named after political ideologies, resulting in some of the funniest reviews to ever be seen

Girl defind will be caught in a fraud scandal

Hunter Schafer will announce she is leaving euphoria after the official trailer for season 3 is finally dropped

Numerous claims of Matt Walsh cheating on his wife with trans women(or a trans woman) will be brought to the public eye

A massive amount of family vloggers will have their channels taken down by Youtube, potentially forcing other family vloggers who havent had their channels striked to take down all of their content and/or retire

Copious amounts of forgotten kids shows will become super popular on Tiktok

Deviantart will be floptoks next target

Courtney Love will become a meme

Andrew tate will have beef with Pepsi of all things

Poison will be announced as dlc for Street Fighter 6(again...)

Three Days Grace will be caught in a massive scandal

Liza koshy will be forced to make an apology video, for what? Idk yet

Non russians are gonna discover shkola(2010) and start referring to it as "russian euphoria" (im literally already doing this, no im not russian)

And last but not least( or should i say the least attached with reality of mine yet) a self portrait of Van Gogh will get recalled or sold off to someone, footage of it being brought into a truck will spread across the internet like wild fire.

[onboardsorasora]

mr seven 🤨👀

Oh my Dewis wag/influencer Daniel fic🥰 Daniel is a popular travel/luxury vlogger/influencer and he keeps his relationship very private. Here's the first part ☺️

Daniel smiled at the artfully arranged bouquet that sat on the corner of his desk. He reached out to stroke a bright petal before going back to focusing on his most recent vlog.

He loved traveling and he loved vlogging. It was something he stumbled into and was surprised at how easily it came to him. He was charismatic and personable and apparently that translated well in his content. His millions of followers across social media were a testament to that.

He loved all of the busywork that came with being an influencer and running his own business. But he truly did not like editing his own videos.

Sure, he made enough money to hire someone to do it, but Daniel was a stickler, he didn't like people touching his things. Or knowing his business. He was a very private person, usually. No matter what his profession was.

He didn't particularly want to share his private life with the world. His family, his close friends. His boyfriend.

His fans and following know he's in a long term relationship. With how open and forthright he is with them, it was fairly impossible to keep a long term romance a secret.

His fans were sharp eyed, they noticed the moment things were different. The moment he let the first ‘we’ slip. Eagle eyed for gossip, they noticed every gift and change. So Daniel appeased them. Discreetly, of course.

They knew he was in a relationship, they knew he was happy and in love. That was it. There was nothing more they needed to know about the man dubbed ‘Mr. Seven’.

Daniel snorted at the name, unconsciously coined during a brand trip. Daniel could still hear the teasing tone when Blake had cooed ‘ooh Mr Seven' during a quick check in tiktok. The rest had been history.

[hostilemuppet]

y'know i've been wondering. does anyone in tdau have like, an actual job??? bc poppy's queen/president, and bruce has the cantina and there are doctors and farmers. but i'm not sure if I'd classify 'yoga instructor 2 hours a week" as a job

well, theyre. yknow. celebrities. thats kind of the point. most of them are popular entertainers

poppy is a solo artist, and smidge is her sound engineer/manager/bodyguard. delta is also a solo artist

brozone have reunited and started to release new music. they go on tours! floyd also has his solo career, and i imagine branch also frequently collabs with poppy

barb and carol (and previously riff and val) are in a band

viva has her podcast, as do s&c. guy diamond is a family vlogger. gus, synth and holly darlin are twitch streamers

most of them are established as having a clear source of income. but if you only mean, like, a standard 9-5, then i think it might only be velvet. i dont know if we established it anywhere officially but im pretty sure we talked about it and decided she had a shitty nondescript office job that pays surprisingly well but she ends up using half her paycheck to bribe floyds maids for dirt. what little she has left over after essentials goes to nonbrand boxed wine, because she never learned to save for a rainy day

[ganymede-time]

if titus andronicus were alive today he would be one of those tiktok mommy vloggers. it's the obsession with control over his kids lives. the frankly unearned popularity he has with the people. the constant verbal chronicling of his family's trauma. the theater-kid-esque dramatic showmanship. when will a production of titus be brave enough to realize my true vision

[ronnie-quinn-doodles]

💚👑 Lexi (Hazbin Hotel OC) 👑💚

CW: Abuse, family vloggers

Being half-koala/half-rhino, Lexi is an autistic sinner demon that loves all things colorful. They are obsessed with scene and emo culture and have an appreciation for the arts. However, their life is not all sunshine and rainbows. Before dying with their ableist, conservative, Christian, family-vlogging parents (Jennifer and Mark) from an EF5 tornado that struck their hometown in Alabama, they were abused by them and were exploited on social media without their consent. Lexi was blamed for the deaths by Jennifer and Mark and became cursed to be in their family vlogs for Voxtube and Voxtagram. During this time, the parents slowly became overlords due to their soul-sucking popularity of their family vlogs and forced their child to sell their soul via contract.

Lexi escaped their hellhole of a home to the Hazbin Hotel in hopes of being redeemed so they could go to Heaven and no longer be trapped under their parents’ tyranny. However, their sassy, teen-like attitude and disregard for authority is holding them back. They act this way as a way to cope with the abuse they had to go through.

Voice claim: Demi Lovato

[planetofsnarfs]

Former mommy vlogger Ruby Franke once said, in one of her many, many mommy vlogs, that she would never accept being “canceled,” and anyone who didn’t like the way she treated her children just hated “responsibility.” 

Yesterday, a judge sentenced Franke, who pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse this past December, to one to 15 years for each count, to be served consecutively. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will determine the exact amount of time she will serve, though it will not be more than 30 years as that is the maximum allowed for consecutive sentences in the state. 

Some might say that’s a little more than “canceled.”

Ruby Franke, like many Mormon ladies in Utah, had a family YouTube vlog documenting every day of her life with her husband and six children and dispensing parenting advice. It was called “8 Passengers” and it was hugely popular among the kinds of people who watch family vlogs. How huge? Two and a half million followers huge. 

Then, one day, she bragged in a video about how her daughter Eve’s kindergarten teacher texted her to tell her that she didn’t have any lunch, and could Ruby please come bring her one, whereupon Ruby informed the teacher that it was Eve’s responsibility to pack her own lunch, and if she didn’t have any she would just have to go hungry. Ruby added that she hoped no one gave her daughter anything to eat. 

This got a lot of traction outside her usual audience of family vlogger fans, from people who didn’t think it’s actually great parenting to starve children. 

Not long after that, she recorded a video with her son Chad who revealed that, a month after he came home from a “wilderness camp” for troubled teens (which sounds a lot like that horrifying one Paris Hilton was sent to), he played a silly prank on his little brother, waking him up and telling him to pack his things because they were all going to Disneyland. His punishment? He wasn’t allowed to have a bed for the next seven months and had to sleep on a bean bag. 

Ruby laughed and laughed the entire time like what she did was real cute. 

This didn’t go over well with viewers, and eventually someone started a Change.org petition to demand that the Utah Department of Child and Family Services do a welfare check. They started calling as well, and eventually they checked on the Frankes and, well, didn’t do jack shit. While they didn’t do anything, 90 percent of Franke’s sponsors on her YouTube channel did. They left.

It was at this point that Franke started portraying herself as a Good Conservative Mom who was being canceled by Bad Liberals Who Hate Responsibility.

“The reason we got canceled was because I was demonstrating, as I have done from day one, what a responsible mother looks like,” she said in a 2021 interview with The Wrap. “And it scared the living bejesus out of these kids who do not want to be held accountable. So that is the motive for the hate being thrown at me. I’m the antidote to their acting out, and they know it.”

Yeah, either that or they figured — correctly — that if this is what this woman thought was okay to put on camera, that whatever was happening off-camera was 10 times worse, or at least had the potential to get there. 

Eventually she abandoned family vlogging in favor of family counseling and joined forces with Jodi Hildebrandt, who was also charged in connection with this case. No one heard much about her until Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt’s home (where he was staying) and ran to a neighbor for help, emaciated and covered in wounds and duct tape. 

Police arrested Franke, and not for the crime of being a responsible mother.

Via New York Times:

From May to August 2023, Ms. Franke, a mother of six, created a “concentration camp-like setting” for two of her children, who were 9 and 11 at the time, Eric Clarke, the Washington County attorney, said during the sentencing hearing. She regularly denied them adequate food, water, entertainment and beds, and isolated them from others, he said. Ms. Franke, 42, also forced her children to do physical tasks in extreme heat, without shoes, socks or water, Mr. Clarke said. They were forced to stand on hot concrete in the summer heat for hours and sometimes days at a time, he added, and were beaten and regularly bound by their hands and feet. The injuries were so severe that the children required hospitalization.

If you’re wondering where the duct tape came in, it is because Hildebrandt and Franke “treated” the areas from where they were handcuffed and legcuffed with “homeopathic remedies” and then wrapped them in duct tape. 

Franke later revealed in court that she also believed that her children were “possessed” and that extreme discipline was the only thing that could save them. this was a belief, she said, she got from Hildebrandt. Indeed, much of her court statement involved blaming Hildebrandt for more or less brainwashing her into believing that child abuse was what her kids needed. 

Hildebrandt is her own kind of monster, so this would be believable if not for everything else Franke thought was a great idea before May of 2023. So much for all that accountability she once loved so much.

It is possible that if, instead of assuming Franke was being “cancel cultured” for “demonstrating … what a responsible mother looks like,” the police and DCFS actually took the complaints seriously in the first place, those kids never would have been hospitalized or otherwise further traumatized. Wouldn’t that have been nice?

[aizenat]

I was watching this woman who does child free content on yt, and she was showing clips of a woman on tik tok who was complaining about some family vlogger influencers (because that’s somehow still a thing in 2024 apparently) on ig who went on a cruise and apparently went to have dinner after the kids went to sleep so they could have a romantic night alone. They had baby monitors and nothing actually happened, but the internet does what it always does and this girl is just moralizing about all the could be dangers that COULD have happened in a worst case scenario because god forbid people don’t live their lives with crippling anxiety constantly planning and expecting the worst thing to happen at all times (not defending the couple but girl nothing happened just shut the fuck up).

And I had this thought I’ve been having a lot where I’m thinking this woman who I’m watching react to this girl’s tik tok (a supposed journalist lol) is wasting her time watching a girl waste her time making tik tok after tik tok moralizing about a couple she doesn’t know doing something that wasn’t the smartest but led to no issues, bitching about this couple sharing their stupid lives online.

And like I just thought to myself “why does this girl on tik tok care so much about this couple to make all these videos faking concern about these kids that are fine? Why is this YouTuber wasting her time reacting to this girl making tik toks about a family neither of them know and how they raise their kids? Why is this couple able to get enough people watching them vlog their lives that they can afford a nice cruise (and apparently make enough to afford a hypothetical nanny for the kids so they wouldn’t have to leave them alone sleeping in the rooms just for a date night, according to critics), and enough attention to get major backlash for doing something I’m sure most of our own parents did at least once or twice.”

Like truly, what does ANY of this matter? I don’t know ANY of these ppl I’m engaging with. I don’t care about family vloggers: I find them all reprehensible. I don’t care about some random white woman’s moralizing on another couple not being perfect parents like she thinks all parents should be. I don’t even understand why the child free content creator was even commenting on the drama. Like what was the point? Don’t have children so you can have date nights without worrying about kids?

Like who cares? Why are we all so obsessed with other people’s lives? People we don’t know, will never know, who will get canceled in a few years for something (if they’re lucky enough to last that long) just to do it all over again with a new influencer. That south Asian ray guy was the most popular YouTuber and and then it was pewdiepie then one of the Paul brothers then dream then Mr beast and he’s getting canceled now so it’ll be someone new this time next year.

Again and again the cycle goes and what do any of us get out of it? Are we better people for it? Are we even entertained? Why does ANY of this shit matter? Truly?

Idk how corny or eye roll inducing it is to say this but the entire internet, and most of modern media, has become a literal virtual reality matrix that we’re all acting like we have to participate in. You don’t go online, you miss all the news. Everyone from boomers to gen x to millennials to gen z to gen alpha don’t know how to connect to people without it. At my last job, my coworkers would bond over memes they’d share on fb or send each other snapchats or tik toks and constantly reference them. And because I’m not on the sites, I was literally missing out. And when I’d ask them to send things to our group chat so I could enjoy the fun, they just ignored me.

In today’s world, if you’re not plugged into the matrix, you pretty much don’t exist. It’s a red flag if ppl can’t find social media on you. YouTube commentary videos don’t even introduce players in drama because they assume you already know who they’re talking about for some reason. I’m expected to know all the latest tik tok influencers and streamers and podcasters and all the other mundane morons taking up space online. Why? Why do I need to know any of them just to keep up? Truly? Why?

Meanwhile, no one knows how our government work to organize effectively (looking at the faux “pro Palestine” ppl protesting the dnc without any fucking real plan all while ignoring that three of the most progressive and pro Palestinian representatives were up for reelection and let two of them LOSE their reelection bid, pulling more pro Palestinian voices away from congress; as well as ANYONE telling people to not vote or vote third party in November), no one seems to care that we’re living through a major environmental catastrophe, NO ONE READS, art is literally dying thanks to corporate greed, men are gearing up for a major anti feminist backlash that I’m afraid no woman under 30 is quite prepared to fight against, and no one can afford to live a happy and comfortable life.

But I have to care about stupid influencers being stupid online for stupid amounts of money because everyone is chasing a bag instead of working to make the world a better place.

I’m genuinely hitting a limit. Not in the manosphere way, but I’m seriously taking the red pill and getting the fuck out. This online world is just so bleak and miserable. I can’t deal with this shit anymore. It’s burning me out and I’m exhausted by it all. I genuinely just need out. Completely and fully. I’m so completely done.