what's buzzing?
the buzz #1 - the rise of perfect teeth, short engagements, and the sun (on the reaping).
Hello beautiful readers! Welcome to FEMPIRE Chronicles - a passion project of mine to continue writing about the things that bring me joy, spark my curiosity, and inspire me to think and talk about the world around me. :) With this blog, I’m creating an online community to talk about current pop culture trends, new societal pressures/norms and everything in between (hellooo gossip!). I’m just a girl in a big ol’ internet-world who thinks her thoughts have validity and space!
First, a tour around! FEMPIRE Chronicles is a small but mighty page, with two current components.
Essays: long-form content highlighting poignant topics that have stuck in my brain. These include multiple perspectives from a variety of sources, so it’s not just me yapping! Some of these include sex workers stories! reframing abortion responsibility! female health advocacy! and more!
Buzzing: short-form content showcasing this week’s currents in the Hollywood sphere, delving into celebrity’s actions, tik tok trends, popular media, and everything in between. Buzzing is posted every Sunday to talk about what happened in the past week.
I must say, I’m new here! So, we are going to try and learn as we go. What happens one week may not be the same as the other, and vice versa. Join me on this wave to try to make sense of what the frick is going on, which will hopefully bring a laugh and new perspectives to you!
Inspiration for 03/30/25 - 04/06/25:
The Buzz #1:
Sydney Jo is taking over my fyp (which I have carefully curated to bring the best & trendiest topics lol!) with her ‘group chat dinner’ series. Gosh, it’s so good!!
A recap if you haven’t seen it: Hailey wants to bring her boyfriend Justin to girls night, which does not bode well with her friends. Twist & turns uncover that (spoiler alert!) Hailey had always planned to bring Justin (unlike her ‘bad day excuse’ to initially convince her friends) sending everyone into a tizzy wondering what Hailey is up to!
With the 10+ millions of views on these videos, this story dives into the multiple perspectives of friends in a conflicting situation - especially how friends tell each other no without ever really saying it. It brings up the question: when can we say enough is enough to our friends, without potentially severing that relationship and making it a ‘big deal’?
Update! As I’m writing this, Sydney posted part 4 in her long-awaited series, unveiling that Hailey thought Justin was cheating (!!), making the viewer assume that this is the reason why she pushed so hard for him to come.
A comment from an early watcher posed an interesting thought, “…if Hailey [had] just said she thought Justin was cheating, [the group] would have rallied behind her but now she just made herself look insane & everyone angry.” Should she have been honest instead of creating her string of lies? Was she holding onto the prospect of staying with Justin and didn’t want her friends to view him in a bad light, just in case? Is she still the ‘bad’ friend? Time will tell, with part 5 coming soon!
I love Impact on Instagram; they post the best short-form essays on incredibly poignant topics. I recently came across a post about veneers in Hollywood, and cannot stop thinking about it. For years, I’ve thought about the standardization of people’s teeth, especially among celebrities. Everyone needs (or is forced to need) the straightest, whitest, best teeth. The newest way to achieve this (unachievable) feat: veneers.
While I understand getting braces and using Crest white strips, veneers take the idea of ‘perfecting your teeth’ to a whole new extreme. They shave your teeth down to stumps and ~permanently~ put on thin, tooth-colored shells (not for Tana Mongeau!). Now I must emphasize the fact - teeth don’t grow back! No matter what you do, the ‘adult teeth’ humans grow between the ages of 5-12 are it. These are our teeth for our lives!!
Personally, I think veneers are the dumbest and most dangerous, trending medical procedure. To see so many Hollywood stars who have normal teeth undergo this procedure is incredibly disheartening, and pushes such terrible and unattainable ideals. Do you really have to shave down all your teeth because they are a little misaligned? Ever heard of Invisalign…!?
Almost anyone (but you! haha) has seen the new image of Glen Powell & Sydney Sweeney together at his sister’s rehersal dinner. With a newly single Sweeney, having just called off her engagement earlier this year, it’s quite telling that gossip magazines are already publicizing these images, subsequently pushing the agenda that Sweeney and Powell are together.
While many people have reported this story, one detail is often missing: Powell’s sister helped the duo on their movie, Anyone But You, getting Sweeney her own invite to the rehearsal dinner.
Officially together or not, I am rooting for these two. Imagine the babies!!
I Now Pronounce You… Engag-MARRIED!
My colleague and I recently realized how short engagements have gotten. In my life, engagements (of heterosexual relationships) used to be two or three years, without much ‘rush’ to get married. Now, engagements don’t seem to go over 1.5 years (my colleague told me this is the max!), and most couples book their venue, caterer, etc. only a mere month after the proposal.
Although I do not have a concrete why for this phenomenon, there are some factors within our current society that could be causing this.
Meet late, tradition first - many people are meeting in their late-20s to early-30s, so they tend to rush ‘traditional steps’ of a relationship to just be married faster (such as saying ‘i love you’ early, expressing they are ‘forever partners’ after six months together, moving in together before marriage, etc.).
Changing views on marriage - many people do not view marriage as a ‘forever’ contract, causing them to get to the married stage quicker, rather than dwell in the engaged stage.
Online appearances - relationships are often overshared on social media, driving couples to rush their engagement to publicly display their love quicker.
Suzanne does it again! The long-awaited Hunger Games book detailing Haymitch’s games is here, and way sadder than I could have ever imagined. Going into this book, Hunger Games’ fans knew the inevitable outcome of Haymitch’s life but I never thought there would be so much more to learn. This book has now taken over my fyp and my brain. I would highly recommend it to anyone who read the initial trilogy!
To make matters worse (or maybe better), this book was released while Tik Tok is popular. So, here are some of my favourite edits that stomp on the pieces of my broken heart. Alert: spoilers, obviously!!
Finally, to end on a laugh, I would highlyyyy recommend watching Morgan Roo’s Tik Toks (starting from the orange shirt & messy bun series to now). They are truly the best hangxiety cure and a way to acknowledge how we are all young, dumb and just having fun! Will she ever get with hot girl in her building?!
Three things that made me happy this week:
The sun is finally shining (hello spring!!)
Setting challenging goals
Dates filled with peanut butter (and topped with chocolate drizzle)