For My Next Girlboss Grift I’ll Be Dropshipping a Benson Boone Dupe to Your Door

Imitation isn’t innovation and you can’t buy a personality

May 22, 2025

Welcome back, everygirlz! If your internet spaces look anything like ours this week, you’ve been inundated with Benson Boone discourse (read: slander), countless exposés of various girl boss apparel brands, and endless commentary on the propaganda we are (or are not) falling for. While these are seemingly very different yet concurrent squabbles… per usual, we can’t help but connect the dots. So let’s dive in!

Benson Boone, so sorry to that man, has become the subject of (hilarious) scrutiny and debate over whether his seemingly “Freddie Mercury-inspired” aesthetic is authentic or simply put-on. The general consensus is that with an artist like Harry Styles, this embrace of feminine energy feels true to form, whereas on Benson it comes across as empty and counterfeit. What’s the difference? Perhaps it has to do with living in and developing an aesthetic vs. trying it on for the cultural clout it provides.

Similarly, our FYP is abuzz with the investigative journalism of Mallory aka @plzdontbuythat and @sustainablefashionfriend. Brands like Odd Muse, Parke, Set Active, and Dairy Boy are being called out for marketing their products as sustainable while actually white-labeling (often polyester) products sourced from Alibaba or similar retailers. Add a trendy little label and a hefty pricetag and girl, you’ve got yourself a business. Between the questionable sourcing and the small drop sales strategy that’s just stressing everybody out… are the tides are turning for these cult followed brands? The sold-out Parke pop-up this weekend suggests otherwise. So what is it about these overpriced sweatshirts? Take it from the founder of Dairy Boy, Paige Lorenze: “People don’t want to just buy products now, they want to buy a lifestyle and something that feels bigger than clothing.”

On the other end of the aesthetic spectrum, Mary Oliver has a store now (yes, you may know her from “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”). Well, at least her estate does. This development has prompted the general consensus of “she would hate this” but also “is it wrong that I want to buy it?” Now, this is just a hunch, but we suspect the same people tempted by the “wild and precious” cap aren’t in line for the Parke pop-up… but the impulse here is all the same.

We want a Mary Oliver tote to tell the world we are the sort of person that reads poetry and values this wild and precious outlook on life. We want a Parke sweatshirt because it tells the world we belong to a sort of “it-girl” crowd. In a world where we often lack a sense of self and community, we tie ourselves to material markers to establish a sense of identity.

Somewhere along the way, we normalized copying & pasting an aesthetic choice as a substitute for genuine self-exploration & expression. Because just like all the pantsuits in the world can’t sell you on Benson Boone, that overpriced sweatshirt can’t buy you a ticket to fitting in. Nor does it get you any closer to being the girl selling it.

Consider this your sign to investigate the “why” next time you feel called to an aesthetic or trend. Is this authentic to your spirit? What do you believe you’ll achieve by acquiring that thing? Is there, perhaps, a route to that same outcome that is entirely divorced from any purchase or aesthetic choice? Give it a shot. Then circle back if you reallyyyy want that bob.

In Other News:

Role Model aka Tucker Pillsbury plus Mark Ruffalo & Natalie Portman in Lena Dunham’s Netflix rom-com ‘Good Sex’. TAKE MY MONEY and also can we get this in theaters?? Pretty please?
Hailey Bieber is on the cover of Vogue and Justin Bieber posted on Instagram saying he once told her she would never be on the cover of Vogue but she proved him wrong. We just… don’t have words.
Mikey Madison signed onto her first movie post Anora and it's about a dentist seduced by a mermaid who gets caught up in the wild world of Flordia's exotic animal trade... you know what hell yeah!
Cannes Film Festival is happening this week meaning the Pedro Pascal editors are clocking in for 40 hour weeks and we're supposed to pretend that the length of a standing ovation is a perfectly normal way to measure how good something is!
Elle Fanning was officially cast as Effie Trinket and thank god because anything else may have incited a rebellion. And with the Hunger Games fandom… well, you literally gave them the playbook.

Things We Hate Right Now:

AI taking over Duolingo. RIP to their fab marketing team—a loss for creatives everywhere.
Lorde tickets being impossible to acquire.
This trend, cause why TF ARE YOU MAKING ME CRY LIKE THAT.
The fact that my Trader Joe's still hasn't stocked the sour belts I keep seeing all over TikTok.
Wanting to lay in the sun but feeling guilty bc I also don't want skin cancer.
How when you eat a pickle (yum!) you kinda smell like pickles for the rest of the day (yuck!).