Hunter Moreno
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with pop culture news influencer Kristi Cook. Cook's YouTube channel, Spill Sesh, has 808,000 subscribers. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I built a following on YouTube covering the lives of influencers, but I hid my own identity for years.
In 2018, I stumbled upon this community on YouTube that talked about influencer news and digital culture. I felt like mainstream news outlets weren't covering this. But I was invested in these influencers' lives.
I consumed YouTube content like crazy. I made videos and had a few different YouTube channels over the years. I also worked for TMZ and freelanced on the side.
I made a video about YouTuber Manny Mua, a makeup artist, who sent a copyright strike to the YouTube channel Tea Spill for using footage from his channel to critique him. I uploaded the video under a new channel I made, which I called Spill Sesh.
Launching the YouTube channel as an anonymous creator wasn't intentional.
I saw videos from other influencer news channels, like Tea Spill, that were just text on a screen. I thought to myself, I could do that. That's really where it began.
I didn't talk or show my face in my videos. Eventually, I added voice-overs.
I figured that if I stayed anonymous, people I knew couldn't find out what I was doing and make fun of it. I felt like I could be more myself that way. I felt like I could be funnier.
I honestly never thought I would be front-facing.
But being anonymous had limitations. All my videos looked the same, and there wasn't much I could do creatively with only text and audio. I also wanted to do more on-scene reporting.
I needed to be on camera to expand what I was doing and make Spill Sesh into a news outlet.
Manny Mua and I had messaged here and there on social media, and my first Spill Sesh video was about him. I thought it would be a full circle moment if I revealed my face while he did my glam.
I connected with a publicist who helped me connect with my management firm. I filmed that video with Manny in 2023 and then posted it.
I was absolutely freaking out the day I posted my face reveal.
The response at first was amazing. Everyone loved it, and there was so much positivity.
Then, the next day, people were upset that I had done the video with Manny.
It was right after the Colleen Ballinger controversy, and Manny had published a podcast episode where he and his cohost were accused of protecting her. He was also friends at the time with YouTuber James Charles, who admitted to sending sexually explicit messages to underage boys. People were upset with Manny, so viewers were upset with me.
In the moment, I thought the backlash to my face reveal was ridiculous. I had made so many videos calling people out, especially Ballinger.
Mostly, I felt sad that people thought I was acting fake or was a fraud.
Luckily, the backlash passed as time went on.
The internet was so messy back then. YouTubers and influencers were ruthless. Everyone was trying to expose one another, and it just felt like a hot fire pit. Now, everyone is a little more reserved.
But revealing my face threw me into that drama.
Before, nobody knew who I was, so if I was in the same room with someone I had just made a video about, it wouldn't be weird. We were going to parties at the Team 10 house, to Tana Mongeau's birthday parties — everyone in the industry was going everywhere. The downside to revealing my identity was that it sometimes made it awkward with other creators.
Yet, overall, revealing my identity has opened a lot of doors. It's made everything much more exciting and refreshed.
Now, it's great to tell people at events what I actually do. I used to just tell people I worked in social media. I no longer have anxiety about describing my job. I can actually network and meet people at events.
After revealing my identity, I started to get invited to more exclusive influencer events. For instance, last week, TikTok invited me to Universal Studios Hollywood. We spent a day there listening to people talk about film and TV on TikTok. I got to meet with other creators, go on a studio tour, and to the park. I'd never been to Universal, so this was a sick experience.
I've tried to keep my content relatively the same. The videos look the same, I'm just in them for the first couple of seconds.
Now that I show my face, I take a more neutral stance on the topics I cover. I started to feel like it's not my place to share an opinion on what's going on. Instead, I share both sides, what happened, and what people are saying.
I can also be more creative. It's easier for me to create content instead of trying to find different assets to make a video exciting. Overall, showing my face has definitely boosted my content because I've been able to make way more of it.
In December 2024, actor and fashion icon Julia Fox stepped out on the street with a flip-phone buckle strapped across her chest, wires on her nails, and an old Discman-turned-compact mirror hanging from her wrist.
Fox didnât start the retro-tech fashion trend. Celebrities and internet fashionistas were already wearing iPod Shuffle Minis as hair clips and wired headphones as necklaces. But Fox did make waves online, showing off the Y2K-inspired collaboration from French Canadian artist Gab Bois and refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market â and plugging the Right to Repair movement â on her Instagram.
Much of this fashion channels nostalgia over the nascent days of the digital age â both aesthetically and philosophically. Bois previously designed fine jewelry using sim cards, a camcorder clutch, and a Nintendo DS Lite makeup palette.
â[Tech] was clunkier, slower, but also more tactile and charming,â Bois says. âThere was this sense of optimism, too. Everything felt like a glimpse into the future.â
Younger millennials and Gen Z latching on â largely online â seem to be yearning for those simpler times. Digicams from mid-aughts have already made a …
YouTube is giving creators a new AI tool that can generate instrumental tracks to use in videos for free without worrying about copyright claims, TechCrunch reports. The new feature was demonstrated in a video posted on the company’s Creator Insider channel this week.
In the video, the host, Lauren, shows a new tab in the Creator Music beta section on YouTube called “Music assistant” where you can enter a prompt like “give me uplifting and motivational music for a workout montage.” The tool then generates several tracks you can review and download so you can add them to your video editor. Lauren says it’s gradually rolling Music assistant out for users who have access to Creator Music.
Music assistant is one of several AI music-generating tools out there. Companies like Stability AI have a diffusion model that can make background audio for projects, and Meta’s open-source AudioCraft and MusicGen models can synthesize sounds and media using prompts, too.
YouTube has also experimented with AI music in other ways. It built a music remixer that lets you “restyle” popular songs to add to your Shorts. And its Dream Track feature, powered by Lyria from Google’s DeepMind, lets you hum songs and turn them into music tracks in the style of participating artists like T-Pain.
Adobe is building AI agents for Photoshop and Premiere Pro that can suggest ways to edit your photos or videos and then carry out the tasks for you, according to a blog written today by Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s CTO of digital media.
Adobe Photoshop’s agentic AI, or what the company calls its “creative agent,” will be presented in a new floating Actions panel that will recommend context-aware edits after analyzing your photo. For instance, it will be able to suggest removing people standing in the background or creating a greater depth of field by blurring everything behind the subject. All you need to do is click the suggestion and it will be carried out automatically.
Long-time Photoshop users are used to manually manipulating photos by tediously masking people and objects and then creating layers so changes can be made to only certain parts of the image. Adobe has already added AI features that let you extend and fill photos across a larger canvas, or delete unwanted objects or people from the background using Distraction Removal.
Adobe’s vision is that Photoshop users will be able to prompt agents with natural language, making it easier to learn the steps needed to perform a task (although the agent will still be able to do it for you). And you can continue prompting the agent to make more changes, or manually make adjustments in the layers. In one example video, someone asks the agent to clean up an image and add a text box behind a person, and the agent then lists out steps including: remove background people, auto brighten, remove distracting objects, create “subject” layer, create text layer, and organize layers.
For Premiere Pro, Adobe will build on the new Media Intelligence feature introduced last week, which analyzes videos for objects and composition so you can find the footage you need. A future agent will let you direct the agent to make a rough video cut.
“While AI can’t replace human creative inspiration, with your input it can make some educated guesses to help you get your project off the ground,” Greenfield wrote in the blog. “It can also help you learn how to perform complex tasks with a few simple keystrokes, helping you grow as an editor.” Premiere Pro’s creative agent will eventually help editors refine shot choices, adjust color, mix audio, and more. Adobe also just launched Generative Extend, which uses AI to add seconds to your clips to help fit a transition.
Adobe will introduce the technology behind the first AI agent, which will be for Photoshop, at its Max event in London on April 24th.
Photography credit: Nadia Vanderhall, Felicia Sneddon, Afolabi Mosuro.
If you're reexamining your monthly expenses in light of the market turmoil, personal finance influencers are ready to help.
President Donald Trump's new tariff policies have sent markets downward, resulting in a wave of uncertainty for business owners and everyday consumers.
So, what should you do? We asked top finance influencers to share their No. 1 pieces of advice in the current economic climate. Rather than act on impulse, the influencers said not to panic. A few of them mentioned the idea of creating a smart budget.
"Your budget is just a plan for how to pace your money for the month," said Nadia Vanderhall, a financial planner and LinkedIn influencer. "It's really about knowing what's coming in, what's going out."
Here are the key budgeting takeaways the influencers shared:
Avoid getting "caught with your pants down" by establishing a cushion in the event of a job loss, said Mal Baska, who has 31,000 followers on Instagram account Money Talk Mal.
"Ensure you have a solid cash cushion, or emergency fund, in a high-yield savings account," Baska said. "If not, budget to optimize this cushion and safety net."
YouTuber Sebastian Fung, whose AskSebby account has 312,000 subscribers, recommends having 6 to 12 months of expenses in savings, especially if you are concerned about layoffs.
"I would look into money market funds or high-yield savings accounts — that way, you're still earning interest while maintaining liquidity," he said.
If prices begin to go up, Vanderhall said to look at your last month's spending to see what expenses have increased and use that information to shape your budget for the next month.
Vanderhall said to start with real numbers: Look at your actual income and expenses by analyzing your bank and credit card statements from the last 30 to 60 days.
Break your budget down into categories such as bills, groceries, transportation, debt, savings, and "fun" money.
There are several ways to track a budget, but it's important to use a method that matches your lifestyle, Vanderhall said. That could be writing it down, using a spreadsheet, or using an app.
Tolani Eweje, who writes the Substack newsletter The Creator Success Club, said simple budgets stick.
She uses this framework:
If your income fluctuates month-to-month, base it on your last six months' average, she said.
Once you've evaluated your budget, go a step further by trying to lower your costs. Baska said you should start soon if you are worried about price increases.
"Negotiate your auto insurance, cellphone, medical bills, salary, etc.," Baska said. "Now is the time to lock in pricing before companies really get hit."
When it comes to salary, take the time to learn your state's salary history and transparency laws, said Hannah Williams, creator of Salary Transparent Street.
"Not knowing your market rate and legal protections leaves you vulnerable to being underpaid and taken advantage of by employers looking to save on their bottom line," Williams said.
If you're more of a spreadsheet person, you can build your own budget sheet using Google Sheets or Excel, said Bola Sokunbi, the creator of Clever Girl Finance with 356,000 followers on Instagram.
"But if you're more into apps, the best one is the one you'll actually use," Sokunbi said.
She recommends browsing the top-reviewed budgeting apps in your phone's app store and testing a few out until you find one that fits your lifestyle.
The finance influencers recommended several apps, including Lunch Money, Monarch Money, Copilot Money, Origin Financial, and tMoney.
"Setting realistic budget parameters and spending categories is key to success and sustainability," Baska said.
Instead of evaluating your finances at the end of each month, Fung recommends doing it weekly so that you can adjust as needed.
That way if you spent too much money eating out, you can plan to cook the following week, Fung said. That's especially true if prices are changing quickly, which could happen if tariffs have an impact.
But if you want to cut down on your going-out budget, figure out how to still have fun.
"Find other ways to keep yourself occupied," Sokunbi said. "All those subscriptions that we all pay for, it's time to use them. Use your Netflix, your Hulu, and your Apple TV subscriptions. Leverage your library app. There are so many things that you can use to occupy your time."
Earlier this week, when it seemed as though TikTokâs fate in the US would actually be decided by April 5th, everyone â from Amazon to the founder of OnlyFans â was coming out of the woodwork to buy it.
As it turns out, none of them had a chance. And now, thanks to President Donald Trumpâs tariff war, no one may get to buy TikTok.
People familiar with the matter tell me that, despite all of the bids for the app, the White House was only seriously considering an Oracle-led consortium, which included many of ByteDanceâs biggest investors who were set to roll their stakes into a new, US entity.
The proposal, which would have licensed the appâs algorithm from China and shuffled some shareholder money around to make TikTok look more independent from ByteDance, was set to be announced before President Trump went nuclear on tariffs. As others have reported and Iâve independently confirmed, his tariff announcement on Wednesday torched any immediate chance of the TikTok proposal being blessed by the Chinese government.
On Friday, less than an hour after Trump said he was pushing back the clock on banning TikTok by another 75 days to finish working out a deal, ByteDance …
First things first, some exciting news: The Vergecast has been nominated for a Webby Award! This one means a lot to us, especially because itâs an award you get to vote on. Weâd be so grateful if youâd go vote for us once, or 40 times, or however many times the site will allow. (Also, honestly, you should listen to some of the other nominees; all four are great shows. Just donât vote for them.)
Now, as for this episode. This is a seriously Vergecast-y week, actually, in the sense that two of the yearâs biggest news stories â the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Trump administrationâs disastrous economic policy â are both unfolding simultaneously, and stand to affect one another in unusually direct ways. So in this episode, thatâs what we talk about: the gadget weâre all eagerly awaiting, and the policy chaos that could change the way it works.
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First, we talk Switch. Nintendoâs Direct announcement this week brought a lot of new information about the companyâs new console, and a peek at some of its most anticipated games. Nilay, David, and The Vergeâs Richard Lawler dig into wha …
When you set up a new camera, or even go to take a picture on some smartphones, youâre presented with a key choice: JPG or RAW?
JPGs are ready to post just about anywhere, while RAWs yield an unfinished file filled with extra data that allows for much richer post-processing. That option for a RAW file (and even the generic name, RAW) has been standardized across the camera industry â but despite that, the camera world has never actually settled on one standardized RAW format.
Most cameras capture RAW files in proprietary formats, like Canonâs CR3, Nikonâs NEF, and Sonyâs ARW. The result is a world of compatibility issues. Photo editing software needs to specifically support not just each manufacturerâs file type but also make changes for each new camera that shoots it. That creates pain for app developers and early camera adopters who want to know that their preferred software will just work.
Adobe tried to solve this problem years ago with a universal RAW format, DNG (Digital Negative), which it open-sourced for anyone to use. A handful of camera manufacturers have since adopted DNG as their RAW format. But the largest names in the space still use their own proprie …
TikTok is shutting down Notes, its photos-sharing app that rivaled Instagram. In a notification to users, the TikTok Notes team says the app will stop working starting May 8th, and “all related features will no longer be available.”
TikTok first rolled out Notes in April of last year, which lets users share photos alongside a caption, as well as scroll through a “For You” feed with recommended content. The app was initially rolled out in limited testing to Australia and Canada.
The decision to close the app “was not made lightly,” according to TikTok’s message. It also suggests that users try out Lemon8, another social platform owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance.
Lemon8 lets users share both photos and videos, and has a focus on lifestyle topics, like beauty, food, fashion, travel, and pets. Though TikTok started nudging users toward the app in the days leading up to its brief shutdown in the US, Lemon8 was also taken offline by the ban.
“We’re excited to bring the feedback from TikTok Notes to Lemon8 as we continue building a dedicated space for our community to share and experience photo content, designed to complement and enhance the TikTok experience,” a TikTok spokesperson said to TechCrunch.
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