• The writer of The Devil Wears Prada 2 has confirmed that Sydney Sweeney will not appear in the highly-anticipated sequel.
• "There were a lot of photos from the set of various people," Aline Brosh McKenna has reported of the photographs of Sweeney on TDWP2 set that fuelled the rumours of her cameo. "You saw the movie. She's not in the movie."
• The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set for release on Friday 1 May 2026.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is already the most talked-about film of 2026, with the highly-anticipated sequel set for release next week, almost 20 years after the original.

The long-awaited follow-up will see Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci reprise their beloved roles, with the film following Andy Sachs [Hathaway] as she returns to Runway magazine as the new features editor.

And reunited with editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly [Streep], creative director Nigel Kipling [Tucci] and former assistant turned executive Emily Charlton [Blunt], the team will have to fight for the magazine's survival amid the decline of print media.

Multiple new A-list faces will also be joining the sequel. And from Simone Ashley, Lucy Liu and Justin Theroux, to Pauline Chalamet and Kenneth Branagh, the TDWP2 cast list is set to be star-studded.

It was widely believed that this would also include actress Sydney Sweeney, with the 28-year-old Euphoria star reportedly spotted on the New York set of The Devil Wears Prada 2, fuelling rumours that she would be making a cameo.

However, the film's writer Aline Brosh McKenna has weighed in this week, clearing up speculation to confirm that Sweeney will not appear in the film.

"There were a lot of photos from the set of various people," McKenna recalled when asked of the on-set Sydney Sweeney photographs in a recent interview with ScreenRant.

"And then there were those memes, where it was like, 'So-and-so is in the movie. So-and-so is in the movie.' It became a running joke about who people had seen on set and were in the movie," she recalled. "It was one of the first ways actually, that I knew that we were sort of piquing people's interest because there was constant... It became like, first, people were really speculating, and then people were just being silly."

Going on to clarify whether Sweeney would actually appear in the film, McKenna responded: "Well, you saw the movie. She's not in the movie."

And when later asked if Sweeney could be a character in a potential third film, the writer reportedly added: "Don't know. I would do a hundred movies with this cast. I would do any kind of movie."

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set for release on Friday 1 May 2026.

We will continue to update this story.

Euphoria is officially back on our screens, with the highly-anticipated third season airing this month. And with the first episode premiering over the weekend, the cult series is all anyone can talk about.

Season three sees Zendaya return to the show's helm as Rue Bennett, joined by the original all-star ensemble cast. We're talking Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard), Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs), Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn), Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez), Maude Apatow (Lexi Howard) and Coleman Domingo (Ali Muhammed).

Not to mention some major new faces, including Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone, Poker Face actress Natasha Lyonne, The Piano Lesson's Danielle Deadwyler and Gossip Girl alum Anna Van Platten, to name a few.

Season three's highly-anticipated premiere comes after a four year hiatus, with fans celebrating Euphoria's long-awaited return. However, just hours after episode one's release, the show is already facing criticism.

The backlash surrounds one particular upcoming season three storyline, involving Sydney Sweeney's character Cassie Howard, which featured in a recent teaser video.

The storyline in question involves Cassie working on OnlyFans to make extra money, with the teaser footage showing the character posing sexually whilst dressed as a baby, styling her hair in pigtails with a dummy in her mouth.

The controversial plot decision has been widely criticised by fans, with multiple viewers calling out the show's creators for "crossing a line" and "sexualising children".

"There’s a line and sam levinson has severely crossed it," one X user, @miatravls, posted online. "It's a humiliation ritual or something at this point, why she even agreed on this," added another.

"Can we talk, please, about the fact that not everything that makes us uncomfortable is automatically 'profound art'?," added X user, @UnaTalPadawan. "What we see in Euphoria crosses a pretty questionable ethical line. The aesthetic that mixes childish elements with sexualisation isn’t new, but that doesn’t make it any less disturbing."

Some fans have even reported that they will not be able to watch season three as a result, with @zendayathena posting, "Not even Zendaya will get me to tune into this I'm out."

Euphoria season three is expected to drop new episodes each week, with episode two scheduled to air on Sunday 19 April, and episode three on Sunday 26 April.

These will be made available to UK viewers from 2am on Mondays, with Euphoria season three available to watch on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic, or NOW.

We will continue to update this story.

It’s been four long years since Euphoria wrapped, so with season three set to air on HBO very soon it’s understandable that things are going to look a little different this time around. Aside from the obvious fact that they’re not in East Highland High School anymore, the cast list for season 3 is missing some huge names and key characters that we grew to adore. Returning to a much-loved show can be a risk for some actors, especially as so many Euphoria stars' careers have skyrocketed since the show first aired. There’s also been the heartbreaking deaths of Angus Cloud, who played Fez, and Eric Danes, who played Nate’s father Cal Jacobs.

In 2024, HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys spoke to Variety about the prospect of Euphoria season three looking very different to previous seasons, even though it'll feature "the same core cast" (plus some new - but familiar - faces). So far, we know that Zendaya is returning as Rue, Sydney Sweeney is back as Cassie, Jacob Elordi is reprising his role as Nate, and Hunter Schafer will return to play Jules.

Storm Reid (Gia) and Barbie Ferreira (Kat) were notably absent from the list, though Reid revealed in November 2024 that she wouldn't be back, and Ferreira also said she left the series for good in 2022, stating that it was a mutual decision to end Kat’s story. Despite fans' hopes that they may make a surprise appearance, it's looking unlikely.

H2: Who is returning to Euphoria season three?

Zendaya as Rue Bennett

Zendaya was Emmy-nominated not once but twice for her portrayal of Rue, winning the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in both 2020 and 2022. Given that she is also listed as an executive producer on the show, it makes it impossible to imagine Euphoria without her. Luckily, she’s back for season 3 and by the looks of the trailers, Rue is still very much at the centre of the chaos.

Speaking about Rue's upcoming storylines, Zendaya touched upon the five year 'time jump', joking that there is 'only so much high school drama you can deal with'. Speaking on Entertainment Weekly’s The Award podcast, she said: "It will be fascinating to see and understand these characters outside of the context of high school and how all the stuff that we saw when they were kids and they were in high school affects the adulthood they have, and who they become in a much bigger world. I’ll be interested to see what happens too."

Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn

Hunter Schafer will be returning to her role as Jules in season 3, where it's been teased she'll be exploring two new storylines: life as a 'sugar baby', and navigating her studies art school.

Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard

If you thought Sydney’s character Cassie was controversial in the first two seasons, she’s 'even worse' in season three, apparently. Speaking to Jimmy Fallon, Sydney explained that 'Cassie is crazy' this time around, and teased that she is 'unhinged'. However, Sydney did add that she's ultimately on a path to 'self discovery'. Plus, Cassie is planning her wedding to Nate and she also appears to be an adult content creator these days.

Jacob Elordi as Nate Jacobs

Jacob Elordi has been booked and busy in recent years, starring in the likes of Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein to name a few. But he did have time to return to Euphoria as Nate, promising that his character is 'nicer' than before.

Even though fans will be pleased to see Nate return, Jacob himself seemed a little wary about coming back after a long break. In an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow for Variety’s Actors on Actors, he expressed a little doubt saying: "Whether it works or not, I don’t know. There’s a chance that what we've done — what I’ve done — is not good. I'm not sure."

In the trailer, we see Nate and Cassie plan their wedding - but he seems less than thrilled about Cassie’s new choice of career. In the trailer, he's heard seething: "I work all day and my bride-to-be is spread eagled on the internet."

Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez

Breathe a big sigh of relief, as Maddy and her flawless outfits are back for season three. Hurrah! Arguably the most ‘successful’ four years later, Maddy is working in Hollywood as a respected talent agent. The rest of her storyline has been kept a secret, but she is seen with Rue in the trailer - and by the looks of things, there’s going to be a bad-girl-post-grad character arc in store.

Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs

Beloved actor Eric Danes passed away in February 2026, a year after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Despite his diagnosis, he returned to filming for season three and will appear as Cal Jacobs even though he doesn't appear in the trailer.

Euphoria creator Sam Levinson paid tribute to Eric following his passing writing in a statement: "Working with him was an honor. Being his friend was a gift. Eric's family is in our prayers. May his memory be for a blessing."

Who else is returning for Euphoria season 3?

More names have since been announced for a return, including:

• Alanna Ubach (Suze)
• Daeg Faerch (Mitch)
• Dominic Fike (Elliot)
• Melvin Bonez Estes (Bruce)
• Nika King (Rue's mom, Leslie)
• Paula Marshall (Marsha)
• Sophia Rose Wilson (BB)
• Zak Steiner (Aaron)

Which celebrities are joining Euphoria as guest stars?

Actually, quite a few. According to reports, these familiar faces are set to make their Euphoria debuts:

• Singer Rosalía
• Former NFL player Marshawn Lynch
• Actor Kadeem Hardison
• YouTuber Trisha Paytas
• Actor Natasha Lyonne
• Actor Danielle Deadwyler
• Filmmaker Eli Roth

Who isn't returning for the last season?

As for the actors who won't be reprising their roles, here are the stars that aren't returning:

• Barbie Ferreira (Kat Hernandez)
• Storm Reid (Gia Bennett)
• Austin Abrams (Ethan Lewis)
• Algee Smith (Chris McKay)

Loyal fans of HBO's electric coming-of-age series Euphoria have been patiently waiting for season three. The second series wrapped in 2022, making it four long years with a Euphoria-shaped hole in our lives - and fans were increasingly worried that another season may never happen. Not only was the series' return impacted by rumoured rewrites and the Hollywood Strikes, but the heartbreaking and unexpected death of actor Angus Cloud (Fez) shocked fans in 2023, and the main cast have propelled into stardom since wrapping season two; Jacob Elordi recently played Heathcliff opposite Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Frankenstein, while Zendaya has been busy with Dune, Spider-Man and Challengers.

So, ahead of its release, here’s everything you need to know about Euphoria season 3 - from the release date, plot and cast, to what the actors have to say about returning to their roles four years down the line. The world has missed the outfit escapism and intoxicating plot-lines, and now the teenagers-turned-adults will yet again deal with love, friendship, addiction, grief and heartbreak.

When will Euphoria season 3 be released?

Casey Bloys, the head of HBO, confirmed in December 2025 that Euphoria’s third season will return in spring 2026. We now have an official date: Sunday 12th April 2026, with the finale airing on Sunday 31st May. Set those Sunday alarms - it'll land at 9 p.m. ET/2am GMT.

We also know that season three will have eight episodes in total, following the format of seasons one and two. It has also been teased that singers Rosalía and Chappell Roan have joined the cast in guest roles, and there will be some new characters too.

Is there a Euphoria Season 3 trailer?

Yes! In January 2026, the first trailer dropped and it promises more chaos than ever before. It teases the return of Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer and Jacob Elordi as their characters navigate life after high school. Rue (Zendaya) looks to be in trouble with drug dealers, while Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is now an adult content creator, married to Nate (Jacob Elordi). It also appears that Jules (Hunter Schafer) is in art school, dipping her toe in the world of sugar babies.

The trailer sees the group living as young adults, around five years after high school ends. Rue opens with the line: “A few years after high school, I don’t know if life was exactly what I wished.” We then see her being confronted by the notorious drug dealer from season two, Laurie (played by Martha Kelly) while she’s at work. “Hello Rue, you owe me money”, she remarks. The explosive trailer left fans commenting that we’ve now 'moved from high school drama to Grand Theft Auto'.

Who is returning to the cast of Euphoria for season three?

So, who do we know is definitely returning for the third season? Here's the main cast list:

• Zendaya as Rue Bennett
• Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn
• Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard
• Jacod Elordi and Nate Jacobs
• Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs
• Alexa Demie as Maddy Perez
• Maude Apatow as Lexi Howard
• Chloe Cherry as Faye
• Dominic Fike as Elliot
• Martha Kelly as Laurie

As for who isn’t returning, Barbie Ferreira - who was praised for her portrayal of body-positive icon Kat Hernandez - revealed that she wouldn’t be returning. In 2022, she wrote on Instagram: "After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I’m having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye." Storm Reid, who played Gia Bennett, confirmed in 2024 that she also wouldn’t be returning.

Actor Eric Dane, who played Nate's father Cal, sadly passed away in February 2026 following a battle with ALS. Last month, People confirmed that he had filmed his scenes for Euphoria season three, and will star in the show's upcoming season.

When did Euphoria season three start filming?

HBO announced that season three would commence filming in January 2025, but this was then pushed back a month following delays. In 2024, Vanity Fair had reported that creator Sam Levison’s first scripts faced pushback from HBO, and executive producer Zendaya.

What have the cast said about filming new episodes of Euphoria?

Aside from filming delays, the cast of Euphoria had a pretty different filming experience this time around, with Jacob Elordi admitting that none of the cast really know what happens as the filming happened so separately. "I don’t really know what anyone else is doing. It’s all quite separate," he told Variety last summer.

Sydney Sweeney, whose character Cassie is planning to marry Nate in the upcoming season, said the same. She told Variety in October last year: "I know bits and pieces of storylines when they interact with mine. I’m going to get to watch it with everyone else. It’s been a while but it’s the same crew and it feels like I was going home to my family. I was 20 when I did the pilot. It feels very comfortable."

Are there plans to make a fourth season of Euphoria?

Well, we’re pretty focused on season three for now - but a season four hasn’t been completely ruled out. However, considering the delays around season three and the fact that the cast have carved out flourishing Hollywood careers since Euphoria started, it's looking unlikely. HBO’s Head of Drama Francesca Orsi also told Deadline in 2025: "We’ve talked about it, I don’t think anything is over until it’s over, but it’s been discussed that this is the end."

So we’re not getting our hopes up just yet.

Where to watch Euphoria

Euphoria season 3 will be released on Max (formerly HBO Max), Sky Atlantic and NOW TV on Sunday 12th April 2026 at 9 p.m. ET/2am GMT. Episodes air weekly.

In a move that is almost embarrassingly 2025, the Oxford English Dictionary has declared ‘rage bait’ its word of the year. We could have had, oh, I don’t know, ‘hope’, or ‘repair’, but no — we got rage bait, a term that captures the emotional manipulation underpinning modern life and is, as such, perfectly fitting for being crowned “word of the year.”

So, what is rage bait?

At its simplest, rage bait describes the kind of content increasingly filling your feeds — the sort that seems deliberately designed to spark outrage: Kim Kardashian’s face shapewear, say (see also: the provocative campus collection, pube thongs, nipple bras… you get the picture), or that Sydney Sweeney ad. Posts that are so inflammatory that they spread like wildfire before you’ve even had time to question their validity fall under the category of rage bait. AI slop (surely a contender for next year’s Oxford Word of the Year) feels rage bait-adjacent, too.

Communication scholar Angèle Christin describes rage bait as “the negative, vengeful cousin of clickbait.” She adds that whereas traditional clickbait tries to spark curiosity (“You’ll never believe what happened next!”), rage bait goes further — “it engages negative emotions, often provoking you to make harsh comments.” You only need to open your social media app of choice to see this in practice.

And yet, you’d be forgiven for wondering why anyone would want to actively incite such fury. The answer lies in the power that rage bait gives its creators. Take Donald Trump, for example, a man famously unafraid of controversy. Earlier this year, I started a roll call of everything he had done since becoming president — ending DEI programmes, stating only two genders should be recognised: male and female, and expressing unwavering support for the death penalty, to name but a few — but ultimately found that tracking executive orders was a full-time job in itself. And yet I couldn’t help myself from obsessively following the updates and inevitably heading to the comments after just to really wind myself up.

Academics call this the confrontation effect: when users engage more with ideology-inconsistent content online than with content the agree with. A study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found that people (like me, and perhaps you?) are more likely to interact with political posts that challenge their views rather than align with them. Reporting on the phenomenon of rage bait, the authors write: “Individuals are strongly driven to voice their outrage toward those with whom they disagree.”

It’s not just politicians who can rile up the masses. In fact, 2025 has seen its fair share of rage-baiters across the political and cultural spectrum. The extended Kar-Jenner clan have long peddled in rage bait-y behaviour. Weighing in on SKIMS’ “The Ultimate Bush” thong hoopla, social scholar MJ Corey of the Instagram account @kardashian_kolloquium and author of the upcoming Dekonstructing the Kardashians: A New Media Manifesto dubbed the affair a way to “stir up a little light, campy body-humour controversy.” Corey also notes — in reference to another Kar-Jenner maelstrom — that “the influencer economy has completely revolutionized media and pop culture, and people with big followings who have made themselves famous for being #viral hold more cultural power than many people want to admit.”

That desire to go viral above all else can act as rage bait’s catalyst. In the ever-more competitive fight for eyeballs, we’re seeing creators embark on increasingly provocative stunts to boost engagement. Take adult entertainer Bonnie Blue, for example. Her appeal fits the same psychological patterns identified in research on divisive public figures: she uses highly polarising, identity-charged messaging that creates a strong in-group of supporters who interpret her bluntness as authenticity. Her style also mirrors what studies describe as “outrage-based influence”: direct, confrontational communication that thrives in algorithmic environments. In today’s media landscape (especially on social platforms), controversial and emotionally charged content (like having sex with 1,000 men in 12 hours) is amplified because it drives engagement: shares, comments, reactions. Neutral or nuanced discussion often doesn’t. This phenomenon has been described as part of the Outrage Industrial Complex.

In short, divisive figures both depend on and benefit from media structures that magnify outrage and reinforce group-specific worldviews. And still, even against that backdrop, the fact that “rage bait” has risen to the top of our collective vocabulary hints at a deeper societal question: in 2025, are we expecting to be manipulated — and, moreover, are we too obliging?

We know by now that outrage is profitable: it keeps us clicking, commenting, spiralling, and — most importantly — returning. Social media’s attention economy has evolved into a finely tuned machine that rewards spectacle over substance. Rage bait becoming ubiquitous reflects this shift: we are naming the tools being used on us — and yet (and yet) still falling for them.

The word of the year isn’t just a lighthearted commentary on the internet’s worst impulses; it marks the point where provoking hatred has become a mainstream content strategy. And when outrage becomes part and parcel of our daily digital consumption, the emotional baseline changes. Cynicism becomes instinctive, compassion fatigue sets in, and public discourse hardens into an ongoing, tiresome battle.

But constant outrage has a dulling effect. It makes real issues like climate change, inequality, and democratic backsliding harder to distinguish from made up ones. Anger being turned into entertainment gives us a glow of self-righteousness, a sense of belonging to the “right” side. It also allows us to perform morality instead of practising it. We can see this in the way so many of us are not only exhausted but disengaged, and yet (again, and yet!) somehow more reactive than ever.

Acknowledging rage bait feels like a sad recognition that we’re being manipulated — by politicians, creators, media outlets, and often by one another. But this realisation also, in a way, feels oddly hopeful: the more aware we become of rage bait, the less effective it becomes.

I can’t help but think of the sayings my family cycled through when I was getting bullied at school, things like “Rise above it” and “Ignore them and they’ll get bored.” Except now the bullies are billionaire tech bros bumping rage bait to the top of our feeds to piss us off and keep us on the platforms longer. The sayings are still as unsatisfying as I remember (“What do you mean ‘words will never hurt me’? Of course words hurt,” I find my inner child yelling), but maybe mother’s wisdom prevails. Maybe, for the sake of our own sanity, the best thing we can do is resist the temptation to engage in rage bait. We might not be able to control the algorithms or the opportunists who thrive on inflaming tensions. But we can control our own participation in the cycle; we don’t have to take the bait.

It’s been a bad week to be on the internet. Kim Kardashian’s Skims has launched a new line of shapewear… for your face. Sydney Sweeney fronted a controversial campaign for American Eagle, igniting debate about race and Western beauty standards. Then there’s Bonnie Blue’s latest documentary and the dark underbelly of sex as spectacle. Oh, and to add to the Black Mirror-ness of it all, Gwyneth Paltrow cosplayed as the new CEO of Astronomer, Donald Trump Jr shared an AI-generated image of Donald Trump in double denim parodying the aforementioned ad, and the White House released a deportation video captioned, “When ICE books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation… Nothing beats it!” overlaid with the infamous Jess Glynne track.

So, what does all this tell us—aside from the fact we’re all going to hell in a handbasket? Though face shapewear, a woefully tone-deaf advert (if we’re being generous), and OnlyFans might seem unrelated, in many ways, they all point to the alarming direction social media is headed (hint: backwards).

Everywhere I look, signs point to the digital world—which once promised progress, self-expression, and democratised voices—paradoxically becoming an engine for reviving regressive beauty standards and reactionary politics. Far from liberating us from outdated norms, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are now complicit in amplifying hyper-conservative aesthetics and ideologies that roll back decades of social progress.

This is all the more worrying when you consider that Gen Z is set to spend 25 years of their life on their phones. A new study, focused on phone use in education, revealed that usage was dominated by social media, messaging, and streaming. This aligns with research commissioned by Heineken, showing the average adult spends 5 hours and 48 minutes a day on their phones—that’s 88 days a year. By now, we’re well aware of the mental toll of doomscrolling and comparing our lives to the curated perfection of those we follow, but what’s emerging is far more insidious. Social media is fuelling a rise in real-world regressive politics and outdated beauty ideals.

There’s always the risk of looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but at one time, social media felt like a haven for body positivity and the rejection of narrow beauty ideals. Increasingly, however, the most viral beauty trends promote an uncanny return to ’90s thinness, Eurocentric features, and surgically enhanced femininity—often under the guise of “natural” beauty.

We’ve seen this in the rise of the “clean girl,” the “trad wife,” and the “hyper-feminine baddie” aesthetics, which glamourise highly curated looks that depend on wealth, whiteness, and conformity. Platforms reward visual content that fits an algorithmic mould of desirability. We should be worried about who is determining this matrix.

Glassy skin, tiny waists, big eyes, and symmetrical features dominate our feeds not because they are more common, but because they are more clickable. Beauty today is narrow, hierarchical, and increasingly retrograde. Sydney Sweeney is currently in the eye of this storm, not least because she conforms to these beauty standards. Of course, the fact that she’s been embraced by America’s right-wing is through no fault of her own. She’s simply the latest in a long line of All-American sweethearts. I assume this is in large part what attracted American Eagle to her, but it’s also what made the advert so disastrous.

For anyone lucky enough to have missed the media maelstrom: in American Eagle’s latest campaign, the camera zooms into Sweeney’s cleavage, bursting out of her denim two-piece, overlaid with a breathy audio: “My body’s composition is determined by my jeans (or is it genes)?” In another ad—no longer on social media—she reclines on a vintage Mustang, reciting inherited traits: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour.” She continues: “My jeans are blue.” Defenders say it’s a hackneyed play on words; denouncers call it a dog whistle for white supremacists. The online discourse is deafening, so I won’t add fuel to that particular fire. Yet what seems undeniably true is that the return to so-called “traditional” beauty standards is now the dominant aesthetic.

Further proof? Another launch that sent the internet into a tailspin: Kim Kardashian’s Skims face shapewear, which the official press release describes as “a must-have addition to your nightly routine.” The backlash was swift: “SKIMS: Making women feel bad about themselves since 2018,” read one comment. “What in The Handmaid’s Tale am I looking at?” asked Michelle Elman. Alex Light, a body confidence coach, likened the “Ultimate Facewear” to post-surgical compression garments as well as the Scold’s bridle—a medieval torture device used to punish and humiliate (primarily) women deemed as “scolds” (women who spoke too much). The Kardashians do not act flippantly; they will go down in history as some of the most prolific and profitable marketers of all time (schools literally teach their methods). So I cannot imagine a world in which this product launch is anything but calculated.

It seems even in sleep, women are expected to self-optimise—the shapewear claims to sculpt your jaw while you sleep, though Harley Street Skin Clinic’s medical doctor Dr Nikita Desai says that at best, face wraps of this kind offer “temporary changes...and may help with de-puffing your face”. Desai also theorises that the design has taken inspiration from TikTok’s ‘morning shed’ trend, which promotes the idea “the uglier you sleep, the prettier you wake up.”

Skims’ shapewear doesn’t exist in isolation, it is part of a wider cultural shift that normalises weight-loss injections and promotes an AI-driven vision of homogeneous womanhood, argues Light.

Just as beauty ideals regress, so too do politics. This has played out in the “trad wife” phenomenon, where influencers like Hannah Neeleman, better known as Ballerina Farm, and Estee Williams, with huge social followings, espouse submissive roles, homemaking, and—in some cases—anti-feminist values. These creators often cloak their ideas in soft aesthetics and visions of domestic bliss, making the return to patriarchal norms feel less like oppression and more like personal choice. At the other end of this spectrum, Bonnie Blue also subscribes to this form of “choice feminism.”

The “choice feminism” narrative—the idea that any decision made by a woman is inherently feminist—blurs the line between agency and internalised oppression. Wearing face trainers, enjoying promiscuous sex, or embracing traditional gender roles isn’t inherently anti-feminist, but when these choices are made in environments where conformity is the price of visibility, they’re less about liberation and more about metrics.

This blend of nostalgia and performance is potent. Social media romanticises eras marked by rigid gender roles and systemic inequality, reframing them as times of simplicity and “natural order.” Users, especially younger ones, are often drawn to these aesthetics not for their historical accuracy but for the illusion of stability and meaning they provide in an age of uncertainty. That, to me, is worrying.

Of course, this isn’t the whole story. Many creators are using the same platforms to challenge these trends—amplifying inclusive beauty, dismantling gender norms, and pushing back against the romanticisation of oppressive pasts. Recognising the politics behind the aesthetics is the first step. Without it, we risk social media not only continuing to shape how we look but also what we believe. We’re all at the mercy of the algorithm, and in its current iteration, platforms that once promised a better vision of the future are turning into portals to the past.

Sydney Sweeney is one of the most talked-about women in the world. And from her White Lotus stardom to the release of Anyone But You (and those subsequent Glen Powell dating rumours), she has been front and centre in 2024.

However, the 27-year-old actress has got the world talking the most in recent years for her candid declarations, never being afraid to speak her truth. And from her transparency over her Euphoria salary to her statement on fame causing her family to "lose everything", she never fails to make headlines.

This week, it was Sweeney's words on fake Hollywood feminism that made news, as the actress called out phoney female empowerment in the industry.

"This entire industry, all people say is 'women empowering other women'," Sweeney explained in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, adding: "None of it's happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other [stuff] that they say behind everyone’s back."

This is something that Sweeney herself has experienced, publicly responding to producer Carol Baum claiming that she "can't act and isn't pretty" earlier this year.

"It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down," Sweeney explained of Baum's comments in her interview with Vanity Fair. "Especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard - hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have - and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done."

"I've read that our entire lives, we were raised - and it’s a generational problem - to believe only one woman can be at the top," she went on to explain of her thoughts on the issue. "There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything. So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, let’s all lift each other up.

"I'm still trying to figure it out," she continued. "I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?"

We will continue to update this story.

Sydney Sweeney has seen huge Hollywood success since her breakout role on Euphoria. The actor received two Emmy nominations in 2022 - one for her performance as Cassie in the teen drama, and another for her supporting role in The White Lotus - and she has gone on to star in a number of feature films, including Anyone But You and Immaculate.

However, earlier this week she faced some fierce criticism from producer Carol Baum, who discussed the rising star during a film screening in New York. Baum - who has worked on films like Dead Ringers and Father of the Bride, as well as hit 90s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer - was in conversation with film critic Janet Maslin and spoke about Sydney's talent and appearance in front of a live audience.

As per Variety, Baum reportedly said: "There's an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don't get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney's movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody's talking about her."

She then added that she had spoken about Sydney during one of her lectures at the University of Southern California, saying: "I said to my class, 'Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?' Nobody had an answer. But then the question was asked, 'Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?'"

Baum's comments quickly made headlines, and now Sydney has responded via one of her representatives. A spokesperson for the Euphoria actor told Sky News: "How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. If that's what she's learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that's shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum's character."

A number of Sydney's co-stars and colleagues rushed to her defence in the wake of the interview, including Immaculate producer Teddy Schwarzman who called Sydney 'one of the most talented' actors he has worked with.

Since the comments went viral, Baum reportedly told TMZ that she 'regrets' the way she spoke about the star.

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If you're a fan of Sydney Sweeney and/or rom-coms and/or celebrity gossip, you'll have heard that fans were quick to pass around rumours that Sydney and her costar Glen Powell were dating, back when they were filming Anyone But You in Australia.

While Sydney and Glen weren't and aren't an item, the White Lotus actress didn't mind the rumours too much — in fact, she played into them a little bit. Why, you might ask? Well, let her explain.

"It’s a rom-com. That’s what people want!" she told Variety in a recent cover interview, and we won't lie, it does make a lot of sense. If you can't beat 'em, etc., etc.

"Glen and I don’t really care," she continued. "We have so much fun together, and we respect each other so much; he’s such a hard worker, and I’m a hard worker. We’re excited for the press tour, and I literally just left ADR with him. We talk all the time like, 'That’s really funny.'"

She added, "They want it. It’s fun to give it to ’em."

Meanwhile, director Will Gluck said of the romance rumour "frenzy," "Sydney is brilliant at a lot of things, including how to deal with social media; she didn’t emotionally internalise it. It was crazy, but after a while it became normal."

Sydney is actually engaged to her partner Jonathan Davino, whom she's been dating since around 2018. Reports of their engagement came out in 2022, when Sydney was spotted out and about with a diamond engagement ring on *that* finger.

As for Glen, he reportedly broke up with his girlfriend Gigi Paris earlier this year.

"Gigi and Glen had broken up several times," a source told People in April. "They had been on the rocks since Top Gun came out. Gigi was never happy with the long distance filming and when she came to Australia [where Powell was filming Anyone But You] they both decided to break up for good."

Sydney Sweeney has quickly become one to watch in Hollywood. The actor was catapulted into the limelight after starring in Euphoria as Cassie Howard, and will be starring in Marvel's Madame Web next year. 

The 25 year old was also widely praised for her performance in The White Lotus, where she earned a Primetime Emmy nomination last year in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category. 

However, Sydney - who stars in the upcoming movie Reality, based on the life of former American intelligence specialist Reality Winner - has admitted that she had to 'fight' for the role of Olivia in the popular TV show. 

In an interview with Variety, she discussed how playing Cassie in Euphoria had some insiders doubting whether or not she would be the right fit, due to the fact that she was 'seen' as the popular on-screen character. 

She said: "It’s the ones I have to fight for that usually are the ones that I want that are different, like Reality. I had to audition for it. I had to put myself on tape and send in my audition just like everybody else.

"It was the same for The White Lotus. They didn’t think that I was right for [it] because I did Euphoria."

However, she was determined to land the part, adding: "So I put myself on tape, I auditioned for The White Lotus just like everybody else and had a call back like everybody else. 

"I could get offered roles that are similar to the ones that I’ve played, but the ones that are different, the ones that surprise people that I do, are the ones that I usually have to fight for."

Reality is set for UK release on 2nd June 2023. 

Since Euphoria landed on our television screens in 2019, it has catapulted the cast into the limelight. While Zendaya already had a stellar acting career behind her with credits including Spider-Man and The Greatest Showman, her performance in the series earned her her first ever Emmy award, while the likes of Jacob Elordi, Alexa Demi and Hunter Schafer became instant red carpet fixtures. 

One of the show's biggest stars, Sydney Sweeney, quickly became a fan favourite for her excellent portrayal of teen Cassie Howard, and she has since gone on to star in The White Lotus. 

However, the 25 year old actor has been candid about how her nude scenes in Euphoria have impacted her over the years, and how women face a different reaction to onscreen sex scenes than their male counterparts. 

Last year, she told The Independent that she finds it frustrating that nudity overshadowed her work on the show, saying: "When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it's completely different... [there's] stigma against actresses who get naked on screen."

Now, Sydney has opened up about how being sexualised online has impacted not only her, but her family too. 

Talking to The Sun about her character Cassie's experience with revenge porn and slut-shaming, she said: "I had boobs before other girls and I felt ostracised for it."

She also explained that her family had been targeted online by those sharing nude images of her while playing Cassie. 

She added: "It got to the point where they were tagging my family. My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair. You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualised person at school and then an audience that does the same thing."

However, Sydney is determined not to let that stop her doing what she loves. 

She continued: "I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more."

'They don't pay actors like they used to'

Conversations around salaries, no matter the industry, often remains hush hush.

However, Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney has opened up about her pay on the hit HBO programme, which sees her play Cassie Howard.

The 24-year-old actress is said to be worth a whopping $4 million, and reportedly earned a hefty $350,000 to return for the second series of the programme, while World Celebs has claimed the star was paid $25,000 per episode in the first instalment, which means she took home $200,000.

However, Sydney has hinted her salary is not enough, as she has to pay out her team, which leaves little for her to play with and difficult for her to take a hiatus from her career if she wanted to.

Speaking to Hollywood Reporter, she said: "If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don't have income to cover that.

"I don't have someone supporting me. They don't pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals.

"The established stars still get paid, but I have to give five percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, three percent or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month and that's more than my mortgage.

Sydney is set to star in the Spider-Man franchise in a Madame Web spin-off, although her role has yet to be disclosed.

However, The White Lotus star has insisted she has to take on other projects and partnerships to get by.

Sydney, who stars in campaigns for major fashion and beauty brands including Armani and Miu Miu, added: "If I just acted, I wouldn’t be able to afford my life in L.A. I take deals because I have to."

The award-winning star has revealed when she started off in the entertainment business her sole motivation was to try to bring her parents together after they split up. At 13 years old Sydney and her family were forced out of their LA home into a motel because of the extreme cost of living, before they moved back to Washington.

She openly said: "I thought that if I made enough money, I’d be able to buy my parents’ house back and that I’d be able to put my parents back together. But when I turned 18, I only had $800 to my name. My parents weren’t back together and there was nothing I could do to help.”

You may have seen a snippet when she played Cassie in Euphoria

Euphoria has been top of the headlines in recent months, with fans falling head over heels for the characters, as well as the IRL actors.

Eagle-eyed viewers may have been impressed by Cassie Howard - played by Sydney Sweeney - extensive 4am beauty routine on the HBO drama, and it turns out the regime is based on Sydney's actual skincare routine.

The 24-year-old actor shared her simplistic skincare regime, and the products she swears by to hydrate her combination skin, which she has admitted is prone to acne breakouts.

In a video with Allure, Sydney walked viewers through each step in her regimen, and it turns out ice rollers, 111 Skin eye masks and Laneige beauty products, are her absolute essentials.

She said: "Usually in the morning I take a shower and wash my face using the Laneige Cream Skin Milk Oil Cleanser. I like to make sure that I use something gentle since I’m just waking up and this is perfect for my skin type. Either do it in the shower or on my dry face. I have combination skin and I’m prone to cystic acne. So if my skin is not clean I will break out. You always want to be super gentle with your skin, and someone taught me, when I was in high school, to pat dry your face instead of scrub dry."

She continued: "Every morning, no matter what I always use eye masks because I need to wake up. I bring these 111 Skin Rose Gold Illuminating mask everywhere, I’m always showing up on set with eye masks on.

"While I have these on I ice roll. If you see me ever driving like this it’s because it’s an early call time. So I bring this everywhere I go. It’s just an ice roller off Amazon and I live by it, as it just wakes me up and I feel like it makes my skin feel good and takes away any puffiness. I just literally roll. I could do this for a really long time. I make sure I get both sides of my face and my jaw line. I just leave in my freezer, I have multiple in my freezer, just in case I leave one on set, and I put one on set in my trailer in my refrigerator.

"You might have seen Cassie doe this on her crazy 4am beauty routine, and it’s because those products actually are my products that I brought from home and I went crazy with them. This is the actual ice roller I used on the show."

If the ice roller hasn't quite worked to wake Sydney up, she will dunk her face into a bowl of ice, which is a beauty trend Bella Hadid has also trialled.

She continued: "If I’m feeling really really tired, I dump my face into a bowl of ice and try and hold it there for a couple of seconds, and then I wake up."

Sydney was not always a huge fan of skincare, or a rigid beauty buff, but she has since changed her ways.

"Skincare has definitely got more important to me, as I’ve learned the importance of skincare. Growing up I definitely wasn’t kind to my skin, or knew the importance of it, and as time has gone on I’ve learned so much more", she added.

When the prep has been complete Sydney turns to three skincare products to complete her routine, which takes her a maximum of six minutes.

She shared: "Then I start my skincare routine. I use SkinCeuticals the H.A. Intensifier serum, and I use in the morning. I always make sure that I don’t touch the dropper because of bacteria. I feel like the serum just makes sure I don’t dry out because I do have combination skin, so it really helps my skin drink up a lot of moisture. Hydration is key for my skin. I travel a lot so I have to make sure I am giving my face and my skin proper food and hydration.

"Then I go onto my favourite moisturiser, it’s the Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Cream moisturiser. I’m not joking when I say it makes my skin feel fluffy and soft and alive. I was currently filming in a very dry state and this was my saviour, and I actually got a lot of people hooked on this cream because of how dry it was and this saved us all. I really lather it everywhere on my skin, and don’t forget your neck, that’s what my mama taught me. When I was little my eyelids used to get dry, I don’t know why. So ever since I put moisturizer on my eyelids."

Once Sydney has hydrated her skin, she turns to sunscreen, which is an essential for everyone to wear.

She revealed: "I used to hate sunscreen, I just could not stand the feel of it and I would break out everywhere, until I found a sunscreen that works for my skin and doesn’t break me put. I use the EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF46 doesn’t break me out and it works. This saved me when I was in Italy one summer because I was remembering to put sunscreen on my face and not my body, and my entire body burnt."

Sydney has become increasingly more conscious of the impact of sun damage on her skin, including her hands, so much so she regularly wears a hand sunscreen.

Speaking about the unusual beauty trend, she said: "This is new to me. I’ve been using it for a year now but I get my nails done a bit , and they are exposed to UV lights because of gel manicures, and I live in California so there’s lots of sun. So I use Supergoop’s hand sunscreen and I put this on my hands, because your hands are also skincare. I never thought about sunscreen for my hands, but someone had it and I was like ‘What is that?’ And she told me it was hand sunscreen. Then she explained the benefits and our hands show a lot of our age growing as sun damage, chemicals and everything we touch. So I’ve bought a couple of them and I’ve been putting sunscreen on my hands ever since."

Sydney's six-step routine totals around £175.97, for those looking to take a leaf out of Sydney's beauty book and splurge on their skincare routine.