The Femme-O-Sphere is Coming! For Your Data.
How Evie (or Ballerina Farm) could build a powerful influence model that no one is talking about—but should be
Welcome new readers! Regulars, too! Please hit ❤️ if you find this useful or comment regardless of your opinion! Cheers!
Vexed by the fluffy Ballerina Farm piece in the NYTimes? By trad wives? By Evie’s softcore conservative content? By beauty standards?
Well, there are plenty of thought pieces on all that.
What I’m thinking about:
Evie is signalling a new model that’s all about data, money, and a new paradigm of reach, frequency and influence that Anna Wintour or Don Draper couldn’t have imagined. But Silicon Valley or Steve Bannon certainly could/did/do.
The Femme-o-Sphere: Much Bigger Than Content
First: Women’s media has long been insidious. Intoxicatingly so. It’s often a blatant extension of PR, dressed in aspirational beauty1 while telling people how to live or what to want. How to fit beauty standards? Be a modern woman? Please a man? Nothing new.2
Mainstreamers like NYT, CNN, the DNC et al., got lambasted for the last month for tunnel vision on the election. Yet women’s media, culture, fashion and beauty industries have been just as entrenched, reliably left-learning and coastal elite. There are similar perspective and blind spots, missing the forest for the barnwood.
Fronted by babes but backed by bros, the Femme-o-Sphere won’t be led by legacy. It will have the advantages of Silicon Valley and far-right media. They include deep mastery of algorithms, optimization, capital, savvy opportunism and soon, de-regulatory power. The tech stacks will be fresh, not creaking atop old legacy models. These advantages are not to be underestimated.
Evie is a bellwether, whether it achieves its potential or not.
It’s Not Journalism. It’s Business (for Starters).
Sara Peterson noted that Evie’s editorial staff has no journalism background,3 including founder/former influencer/Editor in Chief Brittany Martinez4. Eight of the top 10 podcasters have no journalism background either.5
In the influencer era, few care. According to Pew, 37% of people under 30 get their news from influencers, 20% of Americans overall.
The creator economy makes every influencer a CEO. CEOs love scalable digital platforms that harvest and profile data, and drive repeat engagement and multiple revenue streams. So do investors.
So would an Orwell villain.
Evie is prototyping such a platform, with data-mining engines embedded into desirable lifestyle products and tools that answer core consumer needs. And it’s all wrapped in timely topics, aspirational design and well-produced content geared toward an underserved audience who’s never really had a magazine of their own. They’re too young for one, too conservative for another.
And Evie is elevated, with a classic magazine editorial vibe brands like Rhode and SKIMS has been bringing back. And Elle still has!
Like it or not, Evie likely leaves her feeling lighter, lifted, seen and affirmed.
LIke it or not, women need more of that.
See: The omnipotence of Hallmark movies, romance novels and Gilmore Girls. The Gilmore Girls is more popular now than when it was on its original run and is huge with Gen Z.
Giving People What They Think They Want
As Jessica Tarlov, the liberal of Fox News has said, “People love the way Donald Trump makes them feel.” As I’ve said, Say what you will about the Trumpers, they have a damn good time. Populists party.
The Left? Not so much.
If they figure it out they way they figured out Gen Z men, oy.
Women Are Worth More Money. A Lot More.
Fueled by massive Trump energy and rich in manosphere learning, now is the time to hit go. The tech has caught up with the aspiration, and the Femme-o-Sphere will be the richer prize. Why?
Women direct the majority of spending, making us a lucrative advertising and product audience.
77% of monetized influencers are female.
Women spend more time on smartphones.
Wide gaps in women’s health and systemic support make us open to innovative solutions because something is better than nothing.
We’re intergenerationally if not epigenetically trained to seek advice, approval, conformity and eye candy.
The right wants women’s health data and isn’t pretending otherwise.
So do plenty of other companies, especially without having to build the platforrm.6
More data and more engagement = more revenue streams, profits and channels of influence.
With this in mind, forget the headlines or reels.
Make no mistake this is a cabal here to know, track and direct the behavior and thinking of modern women, and sell it all for additional revenue streams.
Here are 5 elements of Evie/Femme-o-Sphere to watch:
1. Text Evie: It’s the movie Her. Now for her!
Here’s the real tell: Evie’s content is pay-walled. Evie texting is free. 🔔🔔🔔
Real time answers? Practical advice? Parasocial support?
Many may say: yes please.
Since text marketing services debuted years ago, the channel has never lived up to its promise. Brands just text promotions, ad nauseum. No good content, no community building. Zzzz.
Evie’s AI chatbot could be the UnHoly Grail: deeply personalized, instant friendification. Via text, which already hits the brain’s pleasure centers. All with unbridled access to personal data.
Every answer = a data asset. But it doesn’t necessarily stop there. Because who really reads the terms and conditions? So who knows what they’ll mine or track?
Also: Unimaginable influence.
Chatbot influence has quickly proven scarily powerful. And Gen Z doesn’t much care if they are talking to a bot. So who knows what these chats will ask or advise women? Where the data will go?
With Peter Thiel’s ties to the company, there’s no reason to believe the AI and platforms aren’t top-notch. But what are his ties?
2. The Period Tracking App (Later, Fertility?)
The Evie/Peter Thiel connection is ostensibly his investment in Evie’s cycle-based wellness/fitness app. Once called “28 by Evie,” it’s now just 28. The alignment lives on: 28’s feed and Evie’s both drag hormonal birth control and talk up your man’s influence in your life.7
30% of American women use period tracking apps. We’ll see what data that Project 2025 or post-Dobb states reach for with any of these apps. It’s much savvier to invisibly access data via an existing app that isn’t declaring its governmental intentions. Plenty of personal data is sold already with users none the wiser. Again: who really reads the terms and conditions? Only 9% of women using period trackers have taken steps to protect their data.
28’s marketing vibe is extremely 90s. Lots of hot women in swimwear on the beach. So much Cindy Crawford Shape Your Body and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue inspo.
As per all indicators I cataloged here, Gen Z loves the 90s! (1990s or 1890s, your choice, gals.
Thiel’s fund Recharge Capital lists women’s health and Fertility/IVF as core to their investment thesis. It also incubated a fertility app called Rhea. Since Rhea addresses IVF, maybe that’s good news politically for women in the next administration. 🤞🏻
Reminder: Thiel was J.D. Vance’s boss and was way ahead of the curve, suggesting women getting the right to vote was bad for democracy (2009).
3. The Parallel Economy, But Make It Cute
With the impressive numbers of Ballerina Farm (10.5M on instagram, with surprisingly solid engagement given that high number), they could build an equally impressive media stack.
Or better, cheaper and faster: Draft off Evie’s. Sell that stack! Share that data and customer base! Own those wallets. And minds.
Evie can hold events at Ballerina Farm’s new education center.
Fold in strategic partnerships with other like-minded brands or private label. Costco’s Kirkland is bigger than Nike or Coke!
Build new brands based on what your data tells you are most wanted. Validate on your own platform, no fees or wasted recruits. Contract influencers for your parallel community, with bargaining power across brands.
Many influencers are making it clear they’re ready to go where the action is (Bible sales are booming, y’all!)
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4. Skip the Old Retailer Model Entirely
It’s not said enough: Magnolia and Pioneer Woman walked so Ballerina could jeté. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
Legacy Model: Woman builds rep on traditional media (TV, blogs, twitter or instagram8). Sells physical products on their own site: Beauty products, diet stuff, candles, pans, clothes. Then go omnichannel with a retailer. It’s all so slow, so expensive, so low data or margin, so limited in mindshare and heavy on costs.
While some dread seeing “Ballerina Farm mugs sold in Target in 5 years,”it would be more like 18 months. And that model is pretty mid now. Big box retailers are working hard to become, well, media platforms.
Future Femme-o-Sphere media platforms won’t need retailers if Tiktok Shop is any indication.
Do it via wild merch drops like Trump has mastered and the dopamine seeking just keeps flowing.
Maybe AI will build something very customized based on YOUR chat history, content, profile. Fast.
Who needs retail partners you have data feeds?
5. Diabolically Personalized, Monetized & Targeted
With a completely integrated platform of content, social channels, personal chatbot advisor, health trackers and who knows what else all fed into AI = “own hearts, minds and wallets”9 like never before. Even if they just optimize what’s publicly in development now:
unbelievably targeted advertising platform
tracking and surveillance
politician’s playground
sell data and insight to any company targeting women for R&D and biz validation
whisper campaigns to shape public opinion and PR
copy-paste the backend platform and deploy with other audiences (older, Latina, etc)
AI will be able to conjure exactly the content, look and feel desired for untapped markets no one’s even thought of yet.
ugh. I’ve got to go lie down now.
from Evie
Who Could Do This On the Other Side?
The tech platform isn’t hard to whiteboard. So couldn’t “liberal” media do it, too?
Of course. But then, the last election???? 🤷🏼♀️
Alex Cooper is the obvious choice to make a run — or mentor others—at such an attempt.
Conventionally gorgeous, loaded, savvy as hell, able to read the room and guide it. Barstool experience. She’s already proven she’s willing to take on the haters and risk her audience.
And despite my “physical product and retail may be unnecessary” point - Nestle put in the work to put her brand into Target come Jan 1. It’s a woman-focused hydrator to answer the sagging Prime. You know she’s only doing appearances and press.
Anyone? Better suggestions? I’d love a Latina Tiktoker, Gen Z’s update to Brene Brown, an Issa Rae protege, a Gilmore Girl type, someone to mind-meld the suburban centrist and a young Jesus wife to round out a cohort. All would try, some would succeed. Who am I missing for that mass appeal?
Parting notes:
- In a Real Housewives world, will GOING FULL CRONE ever be a thing ?
- 40% of births in the US are Medicaid funded.
- Do you think “Wrapped” takes will still be a content trend next December?
Disney settled a gender pay suit for $43.3M
LaRonda Rasmussen first filed after finding that 6 male peers were making substantially more than she, including one making $200,000 more per year.
Men at Disney made $150M more over an eight-year period than their female counterparts. The suit went class action, with 9000 women joining. Black women make it happen again.
Unconventional “beauty” as a standard is also a standard. Subculture norms are also norms. We really need to let people be conventionally vain, unconventionally unvain or any and all points in between.
I grew up devouring beauty magazines, still love women’s media though it can be frustrating.
Me neither. As someone who’s worked in branding, marketing, advertising and startups, I tend to see the consumer, business and cultural perspectives first, hence the title of this Substack. Many Millennial/Gen X thought leaders originated from magazine editorial or book publishing.
Original investor was Brittany’s dad Ron Martinez, grandson of Mexican migrant workers as I learned in this Prager U video. It encapsulates every thought piece I’ve seen on “how the Latino male vote was won.” He owns Gemtech, a firearms silencer brand and gun related brands Crossfire Elite and JK Armaments.
Steve Bannon started in M&A at Goldman Sachs.
Many a stalled digital or content startup ends up trying to monetize its audience data.
FWIW I also came acros an Oura ring competitor called Evie but none of my rabbit hole following could identify for certain whether they are affiliated. However, the ring’s parent company had an undisclosed private investment of $24.1M earlier this year.
Instagram is 14 years old, folks.
Classic marketing speak here