Alaina Demopoulos

Brooklyn

Daily Features Writer at The Guardian

@theguardian daily features writer. past lives @thedailybeast and @allure. yes sir, i CAN boogie! she/her [email protected]

Articles

Is that a cat in the Cheetos? New York comedian spotlights the city’s famous bodega felines

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

Growing up in Ridgewood, Queens, the comedian Michelladonna (real name: Michelle Reiss), knew she could always count on seeing Lulu, a black-and-white striped cat, whenever she ran into the corner store for a snack. She counts Lulu as a close confidante, a silent witness to the goings-on of the neighborhood who knows everyone’s gossip. “I have literally gone to Lulu at the end of the night and been like, ‘Hey girl, let’s talk,’” says Michelladonna, who is 26.
Trans musician Bells Larsen was forced to cancel his US tour: ‘My livelihood has been robbed’

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

Bells Larsen knew that releasing a low-fi, folksy album about his transition as the Trump administration relentlessly attacked LGBTQ+ people would give it an inherently political edge. But the Canadian singer-songwriter did not expect to be caught in a bureaucratic nightmare while attempting to tour the US – and ultimately have to cancel that tour due to the gender marker in his passport.
‘It’s Disneyland for preppers’: why apocalypse-minded shoppers go to Costco

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

Last summer, Costco shoppers noticed something new on the big-box store’s shelves. For the low, low price of $62.99, preparedness-minded customers could snatch up what one food influencer called a “Costco apocalypse dinner kit”.
Self-identifying ‘hot girls’ are mobilizing to elect a progressive as New York City mayor

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

“Hot girls” may not be a polster-approved voting bloc in the way that young men or the college-educated are, but since the 2020 election the demographic has held a particular status – at least for the very online. It started in 2020, when the model Emily Ratajkowski officially endorsed Bernie Sanders’s pre-pandemic presidential campaign. Inspired by Ratajkowski, self-professed hot girls piled on their endorsements, posting selfies with the hashtag #HotGirlsForBernie.
will QVC’s 24-hour TikTok shopping channel entice gen Z?

1 month ago | msn.com | Alaina Demopoulos

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Flash sales and charm bracelets: will QVC’s 24-hour TikTok shopping channel entice gen Z?

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

I’m watching a woman standing in her living room in front of a table stacked with woven faux-leather fanny packs. She’s convincing me to use the next two minutes to score a deal on a bag I definitely do not need. A countdown clock ticks down in the corner screen. It’s a classic QVC scene, but instead of watching TV, I’m on TikTok. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
The ‘office siren’ is over: why gen Z are succumbing to dull workwear

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

Only someone who has never truly experienced the existential dread that comes with holding down a soulless 9-to-5 would ever romanticize corporate life. And yet, this time last year, fashion influencers were doing just that. The “office siren” trend was all over TikTok and headlines in Vogue and InStyle. Sirens, we’re told, wore skintight pencil skirts, collared shirts unbuttoned to show ample cleavage, and maybe a pinstripe vest to tie it all together.
‘Can kick me out of any funk’: why Sullivan’s Travels is my feelgood movie

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

I shudder to think who I would have become had I never once been a 13-year-old girl roaming the stacks of a suburban Blockbuster Video. I fell in love with movies mostly because I wanted to impress the older high school boys who worked behind the counter. The nicer ones took time to recommend their favorite films. So I must thank the beautiful, near clone of OC-era Adam Brody who enthusiastically sold me on Sullivan’s Travels, Preston Sturges’s 1941 classic.
A scholar and a hater: new podcast focuses on historical figures that suck

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

When the historian Claire Aubin gets together with her colleagues for drinks after a conference or academic meetup, the conversation always ends up one way. “We’re all sitting around a table, talking about our most hated historical figure,” she said. For Aubin, it’s Henry Ford, an ardent antisemite whom Hitler called “an inspiration”.
‘Financial microaggressions’: why ‘pink tariffs’ hurt women more than men

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alaina Demopoulos

Many shoppers know about the so-called pink tax – a needless markup on products marketed to women, even if those products are essentially the same, just cheaper, when sold to men. Personal care items such as razors, deodorants and shampoo fall into this category. But shoppers may be less aware of “pink tariffs”, or taxes on imported goods labeled as “women’s items”.