The Beautiful and the Ambitious

Reading Glossy and Exit Interview

In early 2016, Emily Weiss detailed on Into the Gloss the “months of prep” she underwent before getting married in the Bahamas. Like a shift in barometric pressure, the distant beating of wings, you could sense the gathering wave of umbrage. Weiss had failed to read the room, likely too busy overhauling “my limbs, skin, wanted hair, unwanted hair, nails, muscles, digestive tract, lashes and brows,” not to mention running Glossier, the beauty brand she founded in 2014. Jia Tolentino, a writer whose attunement to the zeitgeist no one could fault, formulated the socially correct response at Jezebel: “This pre-wedding beauty diary… feels extremely relatable to me, a person who frequently mistakes her vape for eyeliner and is currently trying to drink enough water to stay alive.” 200+ Jezebel commenters elaborated on reactions of “ugh” and “sad” to Weiss’s post, which had been presented (with almost touching naivety) as service journalism.