Working Girl's Guide #60: Teens are unemployed, dupes at Costco are making waves, and I'm back to hawk my phone chain

Universal Studios and Disney are suing Midjourney, I spent the fourth cleaning out my closet, and I’m back with another call for phone chains.

Let’s get into it.

This summer, teens can’t get hired

The under-19 crowd is hitting a 15-year low on employment rates. Why? The competitive job market means plenty of adults are competing (and getting hired for) the type of work that used to go to the youngest subset of employees, and computers (think: self-checkout) are doing a lot of the work teens of yesteryear would have been hired for. 50-odd years ago, teen employment hit 59.9%. Today, we’re at less than half that. Ah, to be a teen in the 70s working at a drive-in!

Lululemon is suing Costco over alleged dupes

Does anyone remember when Lulu hosted a dupe swap 2 years ago? Well, they’re not feeling friendly about dupes anymore. Lululemon is suing Costo for copying their items; Costco is selling knockoffs of items like the Hi-Tec Men’s Scuba Full Zip jacket, which goes for more than $100 on the Lululemon website, while Costco’s version is less than $20. Dupe culture has been on the rise, with 71% of Gen Zers saying they sometimes or ALWAYS buy a dupe over the real thing. Some even claim dupes are cooler than the original. Let’s see who wins this thing in court!

Disney and Universal are teaming up against a common enemy: AI

Midjourney is an AI image generator that’s been training its model on IP owned by both Disney and Universal; while the two studios are technically rivals, nothing unifies enemies like a common nemesis. So the studios are filing a lawsuit (together) that calls Midjourney a “bottomless pit of plagiarism,” and, honestly, great diss. The studios are claiming Midjourney has been knowingly stealing their animations, going so far as to displaying their takes on beloved characters like Shrek and Yoda in the “Explore” section of their website. Big week for lawsuits!

Unfortunately, bae and I were sick this past weekend, so we spent the Fourth hotdogless, patioless and boatless. Instead of celebrating, we…organized our closet. Which I’m actually not mad about? With so much travel and such hectic schedules, there’s something nice about spending the weekend at home getting organized! I’m sparing you images of us sick in bed, so here's us from the weekend prior, looking cute. Next year, we will be back to spending the holiday drinking on a boat!

Deviating from my regularly scheduled blazer suggestions to share the unexpected: jeans and a tee? What the heck? I wouldn’t rec this fit for any old day in the office, BUT it would be perfect for a casual Friday into drinks with friends to kick off the weekend (accompanied by a Spritz, obviously). ALSO: me in color? What do we think? Me in color PLUS stripes? Anyone have anything to say?

If your closet is feeling super cluttered, put everything you're unsure about in a trash bag and hide it under your bed for two months. If you don't frantically dig through the bag looking for something specific, donate the whole thing without even opening it back up. This works because you will completely forget what's in there, and if you haven't missed any of it enough to go searching, you clearly don't need it come fall. Plus there's something weirdly satisfying about donating a mystery bag, like you're giving away a surprise box to someone who will actually appreciate whatever random cardigan or pair of pants you completely forgot existed. The items that make you panic and think "wait, where's my black sweater?" are the keepers that earn their way back into the closet. Everything else can go make someone else very happy!

Thanks for reading!