Wednesday 10 December

A viral Timothée Chalamet superfan turned out to be 59. The backlash shows an ageist double standard in fan culture

Welcome to Lessons in Lifestyle...

The mask has officially come off. The woman behind the viral fan account for the Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet is not a 17-year-old girl tapping away on her iPhone, but a 59-year-old full-time healthcare industry worker from California. Simone Cromer, who founded the Twitter account Club Chalamet in 2018, has become a micro-celebrity in niche corners of the internet – oddly adored and often mocked for her dramatic and extensive rants about Chalamet’s career and personal life. 

In her first profile interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Cromer spoke about the backlash she has received, namely the claims that she has an unhealthy romantic interest in Chalamet or that she is too old to be a true part of the fandom. Why Cromer has become so divisive is down to several factors. Her age – that she is 30 years older than Chalamet – is at the root of this amusement and befuddlement. But then there’s the posts. Read more here.

In other news – Australia has officially pulled the plug on social media for under-16s, meaning that children will not be allowed to access apps including Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat are included, as well as Amazon-owned live streaming service Twitch. Lydia Spencer-Elliott speaks to teenagers about how they really feel about the ban – and whether it will actually have the desired benefit.

Elsewhere this week, Helen Coffey looks the fascinating rise of the latest Gen Z working trend: microshifting – the act of splicing the working day up around your personal life as you see fit. Flexible working has become an increasingly common criteria when people are hunting for new jobs in the remote work era, but will it help people maintain good boundaries? Find the full piece here.

In this week’s newsletter, you can expect:

Until next time!

As new stats reveal that Gen Z are leaving the UK in droves, Helen Coffey digs into the hot new locations to set up shop, and whether the expat reality lives up to the dream

Do you think Secret Santa is a tired tradition that needs to go? 

Secret Santa, the festive tradition of anonymously gifting your co-workers cheap and stupid objects, is falling out of favour. According to a recent survey, a fifth of people admitted to throwing their gifts from colleagues straight into the bin.

But the question is: do you think Secret Santa needs to go?

Vote in our poll and share your views in the comments here.

Last week, we asked you whether you thought luxury advent calendars – you know, the ones offering sex toys, period pants or beauty products for every day of December – have gotten out of control. As it turns out, 64 per cent of you agreed that they had become unnecessarily excessive. 

Thanks for voting!