Hi Cheeky grrrls! ☆

First and foremost issue number 1 “GUTS” is now available for purchase! Thank you to all who have contributed!!! :)

This week we're diving into the athleisure trend that’s dominating everyday style, spotlighting Nigerian-Brazilian fashion designer, Torishéju Dumi and our takes on famous viral tweets like "Young hoes cook everything on high" and “We need more complex female characters." “But you guys couldn't even handle her!” Plus, reasons why we’re DONE WITH BEING DEMURE! Let’s get into it →

I don’t know who told us to be small, but we’re clocking out.

 The internet loved a “very demure, very mindful” moment.

Polished. Composed. Cute.

 But somewhere between curated and contained, quiet started looking like currency. We build in silence, then shrink in public. We achieve, then downplay it. We whisper our goals so we don’t intimidate the room. And somehow, that restraint gets rewarded.

 Low maintenance became the gold standard. As if taking up less space makes us more deserving of praise. As if ambition needs softening to be acceptable.

And maybe bold only feels uncomfortable because we’ve been folding ourselves for too long.

 2026 energy isn’t about being loud for attention. It’s about being visible on purpose. Saying “I did that” without apology. Wearing the colour. Taking the seat. Introducing yourself without a disclaimer. It’s about louder ownership.

 We’re dressing for ourselves — in every definition of the word.

Clock it.

“ I was inspired by my upbringing with the men and women wearing wrappers, tying wrappers around them, African mothers tying wrappers on their back to carry their babies."

Torishéju Dumi, Nigerian-Brazilian fashion designer is an absolute star and working her way towards becoming a major name in fashion! What sets Dumi’s work apart from the rest is her inspiration from Nigerian and South American folklore and her culture. She released her first collection, based on these concepts titled Mami Wata, in 2023. As a special touch, the collection's garments are all made from 100% deadstock fabric, a sustainable choice. The Met Museum in New York later acquired pieces from this collection for its 2024 Sleeping Beauties exhibition in New York.

She later made her debut on the Spring/Summer 2024 runways, where she closed Paris Fashion Week with an artful, sculptural collection inspired by her Catholic upbringing, as well as her Nigerian and Brazilian familial roots.

Her debut collection was modeled by legendary fashion icons Naomi Campbell and Paloma Elsesser, who opened and closed the show. With the assistance of her mentor Gabriella Karefa Johnson who styled the show, Dumi made waves in the industry with the launch of her first line. She also graduated from the prestigious Central Saint London fashion program in 2021 and spent years interning with designers like Ann Demeulemeester and Phoebe Philo.

In addition to the runway, her work has appeared in Vogue Korea, modern weekly style and more!! Some FAMOUS ICONS SHE'S DRESSED include Zendaya, Naomi Campbell, Cynthia Erivo and Mia Goth.

Most days you leave your home and are bombarded with LuluLemon and Alo everywhere, individuals dying to mold themselves into becoming a ‘Pilates princess’. It’s almost as if everyone’s mind’s conjoined at once and decided we no longer dress to impress, but to decompress. When the world is fleeting of color, where is all the style?

The 2020s have taken a massive hit not only to our mental health but the way we choose to style ourselves. COVID-19 created a significant shift in our culture, essentially killing the 9-5 lifestyle and allowing people to enter a world of comfort. Slacks and trousers were no longer needed in the daily rotation, getting replaced by sweats and leggings as every sheltered day passed. It was the small quiet rebellion against the capitalistic hellscape that loomed above us.

Six years later, most people never went back. Leggings became an everyday piece of fashionwear and track jackets became the new blazers. Why spend your time carefully crafting an outfit that represents who you are as a person when Alo has a matching set that not only makes you look good but feel amazing? We prioritize comfort.

It can be incredibly easy to let everything go and embrace comfort, and while there isn’t anything wrong with liking comfort, understand that your own personal style is what highlights an outfit, not a brand. Your closet serves as a historical memento armoire, honor it the next time you pick out an outfit. 

My name is Sienna Lorient, and in this column, we’re gonna talk about the “young hoe” epidemic. If you’re not sure what an epidemic is, it is a rapid disease that plagues your mind, and this one in particular targets black women.

While, anyone can be a “young hoe.” I personally draw the line at a straight man.

But to break through the cracks of this young hoe trend, black women and girls have long been subjected to hypersexualized stereotypes rooted in slavery and colonialism.

Walk with me.

The trend on TikTok shows young girls (typically black) referencing a dating behavior, appearance, or perceived “fast” behavior.
It began with “young hoes cook everything on high,” which is not true because I be in the whippin in the kitchen, and it is still standing. But now the trend has turned to “me bouncing my t*tties to every song because I’m a young hoe” on platforms like TikTok and X.

Harriet is rolling in her graveeeeee!

It gets to a point where this justifies exploitation. It allows people from outside of the black community to feel comfortable referring to us as young hoes. It strips away our innocence and protection, almost as if we’re less deserving. When a modern trend repeats similar language, even jokingly, it echoes those historical narratives. It keeps alive an idea that Black girls are defined primarily by sexuality rather than complexity, intelligence, or humanity.

And I understand the “Oh — it’s just a joke,” “It’s just fun for black girls online.” But intent does not erase impact. If a trend reinforces long-standing harmful narratives about a specific group, it deserves thoughtful examination. Somewhere along the way, young Black girls are handed a stereotype before they are handed a full understanding of themselves, and for generations, young Black women have inherited stereotypes before they inherited history.

Allow me to leave you with: Black women are students, creatives, leaders, athletes, entrepreneurs, daughters, sisters, and reducing them to one sexualized identity erases complexity.

Thank you <3

I remember reading ‘it’ for the first time. And what is the ‘it’ in question I hear you ask:  

‘Carrie Bradshaw is a fabulous narcissist’ 

The sentence is one I think about often. I find myself debating whether it is, at its core, a ‘true’ statement, or merely a symptom of our current societal need to overcorrect our opinions and perform personality diagnoses on the characters we see on TV. Whatever the answer may be, with And Just Like That coming to an end last week, so too ends the presence of Carrie Bradshaw on our screens. 

Ms. Bradshaw has birthed many daughters, the most obvious comparison for most being Hannah Horvath from Girls. But for me, there is only one true heir to Carrie Bradshaw - someone whose perseverance is as admirable as her wardrobe. And I say ‘daughter’ only because this show premiered after Sex and the City. Okay, enough teasing… 

It is Joan Carol Clayton 

If you have not watched Girlfriends before, it is essential viewing. The show ran from 2000 to 2008, and if you have read any post-mortem on the series, you have probably come across something along the lines of: ‘the show explores the complexities of female friendships’. Although this phrasing can feel overused, an arguable default way to describe any female fronted series, in the case of Girlfriends, it is not just a tagline – the friendships are MESSY. 

The similarities between Joan and Carrie are almost too obvious. Both serve as the implied protagonists of their shows, have morphed relationships to status symbols (Carrie and her quest to ‘capture’ Big, and Joan’s relationship to marriage) , and both endure ridiculous arcs in season six of their respective series. Most interestingly, though, where the two characters truly converge among the new cohort of viewers that are discovering these shows for the first time through streaming, is in the fact that Joan and Carrie are often crowned the ‘villains’ of their respective shows. 

It is with absolute ease that I can say I find these women exhausting and ridiculous to watch. Their ability to adjust their capacity for self-awareness and astuteness, whenever it happened to suit their point of view, never fails to astound me. Yet what remains true is that we need characters like this on our screens. To watch their neurotic spiraling, to dissect Carrie’s inability to hear ‘no’, and Joan’s constant desire for control – all of it encourages us to take a step back, and reflect (even for a moment) on our own behaviour, or perhaps more easily the behavior we see around us.  

Joan and Carrie's behavior have sprouted ecosystems of conversation. Personally, their behavior has sparked endless debates between my friends and me. On a wider scale, it has fuelled countless articles, think pieces, podcasts etc. So, for all their ridiculousness, including their self-administered chaos, I must admit I am grateful. Not only did they look great while behaving, at times, nonsensically, but without them, television would be much more boring.The fashion world isn’t slowing down, and neither are we. Crochet is officially back, not just for beach coverups but in polished daywear too. We’re also seeing a major spike in tonal dressing — think head-to-toe beige, slate, or olive for a look that’s effortless and elevated.