FRIDAY FOURTEEN ISSUE 165

Incredible, honest, raw writing on the gap between mothers and childless women

Why every app feels like TikTok now

Curtis Sittenfeld and Marian Keyes in conversation about reading and writing rom coms is the mood lifter we all need right now

Ariana Grande has spoken out about body image after years of the media and fans weighing in on her changes in appearance. Her TikTok has sparked a wider conversation about how comfortable we feel discussing other people’s bodies, and that we never truly know what someone’s healthiest body looks like

These Adelaide housemates are on the hunt for a new roommate, and their TikTok ad is so convincing that married women in the UK are packing their bags

How to hold it together (featuring Cher’s advice)

Mario has stunned the box office becoming the highest grossing game adaptation and animated film ever

Juice, cordial, or water? This week we discovered the latest internet craze: #WaterTok, a world of endless Stanley Cups, flavoured water packets, and Skinny Syrups where ‘birthday cake water’ is a thing. Aussies are confused and left asking the same question – when is it no longer water?

A judge in India has used ChatGPT to determine bail on a murder case – and this wasn’t the first time AI was used in a legal setting. Scientists are struggling to explain how some forms of AI work, leading to concerns about accountability and transparency

Which face is real? aka the best way to train your brain to recognise deep fake images

Boundaries and self-care are important, but is the rise of “therapy-speak” making people more selfish?

In tech news: It seems BeReal’s spell has been broken, social media has now been around long enough that kids are now discovering their parents’ accounts, and this week we stumbled across Die With Me, a new chat app that you can only use when your phone has less than 5% battery remaining

So does President Obama *really* read all those books he recommends? A writer for Esquire decided to find out

And in other news: In lieu of mass layoffs, swifties right now, when you watch too many chiropractor vids, smash or pass, the biggest issue in long distance friendships, feeling the centrifugal motion, the 9-5 of social media jobs, makeup in 2016 was a lot, what listening to SZA feels like, me and my homies hate pie charts, logging into Hinge, saving your spot at a buffet, proof that women can do anything, maybe we're all just iPhone 5s, rainbows are actually full circles, the best podcasts of 2023 (so far), oh so this is why our Tupperware comes out of the dishwasher covered in water, and when an insufferable person has a birthday