
Celebrity drama, wellness and right-wing politics: A new crop of magazines and influencers is appealing to young women
Recently, she saw one that she thought was weird. The post was about how Zegler had not only ruined the 'Snow White' remake — but that she'd also ruined the 'Hunger Games' prequel, too, mostly by 'rejecting' femininity.
Zegler, for those who don't follow online dramas, had dared to call the original 'Snow White' film's ideas about women 'extremely dated,' and this spiraled into a proxy fight about being a woman.
Gabrielle says she'd been recommended content from this particular publication before, typically articles about beauty trends. She now began to realize this was no ordinary women's magazine.
Digging around, she found posts from the publisher that used 'woke' as a pejorative, and other writing that was cruel about trans people. She felt she was being lured in with perky pop culture content, only then to be exposed to right-wing propaganda.
'I found what they posted to be hateful and trying to trick people into reading their views,' Gabrielle tells CNN.
This was Evie Magazine, a publication and website founded in 2019 by married couple Brittany and Gabriel Hugoboom. The magazine has characterized itself as a 'conservative Cosmo.' Some, pointing to its record of publishing conspiracy theories, vaccine misinformation and tradwife nostalgia, have characterized it as 'alt right.' (Evie Magazine did not respond to requests for comment.)
At first glance, though, you might not pick up on any of this at all.
On Evie's TikTok account, there's a recent post about WNBA drama and another about Dua Lipa's engagement. Articles on its website contain recipes for iced Starbucks dupes and wedding trend reports that could be found in any mainstream women's magazine. (You'd be forgiven for thinking you're reading Elle — Evie was recently sued over allegations that its logo was nearly identical.)
Evie's culture and lifestyle content, as well as past comments from its co-founder and editor-in-chief, suggests that the publication is attempting to appeal to a broader audience of young women.
It's hardly alone. Over the past few years, a new wave of right-leaning magazines and influencers has been courting female audiences by covering celebrity gossip, wellness and fashion — a landscape that includes Jayme Franklin's magazine The Conservateur, Alex Clark's popular wellness podcast 'Culture Apothecary' and Brett Cooper's eponymous YouTube show.
Like the ecosystem of right-leaning 'bro' podcasters who successfully reached disengaged men in the 2024 US presidential election, this burgeoning conservative women's media sphere is connecting with audiences on subjects that aren't overtly political.
If these outlets and influencers cultivate that relationship successfully, they could prove to be powerful, says Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama whose research focuses on social media platforms and internet culture.
Not only could they shape how young women engage with pop culture, she says, but they could also shape how they see the world.
Allison Thompkins, a 27-year-old in Missouri, recalls Evie surfacing in her TikTok feed in February. She unwittingly tapped the heart button in response to a montage of celebrities sporting natural teeth onscreen.
'Off the bat, I was like, 'Yeah, I agree with that. I think veneers are kind of a scourge, and they make everyone look the same,'' she says. 'Then I looked at who posted it and did a double take.'
Thompkins, who describes her politics as 'pretty far left,' quickly unliked the video — which, to date, has 2.8 million likes, as well as tens of thousands of comments and shares — but says she was alarmed to see Evie on her feed. She associates the publication with a worldview that is increasingly gaining support on the right: That women should return to traditional gender roles.
Last year, Evie selected homesteading influencer and mother-of-eight Hannah Neeleman, better known as Ballerina Farm, as its annual cover star. The brand also sells a 'raw milkmaid dress' that evokes a tradwife aesthetic and nods to the right-wing movement around unpasteurized milk. Then there are headlines like 'The Spiritual Economics of Staying Home With Kids' and '3 Surprisingly Common Ways Women Disrespect Their Husbands (Without Meaning To).'
Editorial choices like these reflect an emerging cultural and political shift toward conservatism in the US.
Though a majority of women 18-29 voted for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, more young women identified as conservative and Republican in 2024 than they did in 2020, per data from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. As youth researcher Rachel Janfanza writes, some of these shifts, like attitudes on gender roles, are ideological. Others, like the reemergence of 1950s silhouettes or concerns about 'toxins' in our food and environment, are reflected through aesthetics and lifestyle.
In this conservative women's media sphere, modern feminism is seen as anti-men, casual sex and nontraditional relationship structures are viewed as detrimental, and being a wife and a mother is considered a woman's highest purpose. These outlets and influencers implore their readers to embrace a long-lost femininity and reclaim control over their bodies through their nutritional and medical choices.
Julie Mastrine, a 33-year-old in Pennsylvania and a former contributor for Evie, experienced this political and cultural transformation personally.
During her six years in San Francisco, she says many of her peers experimented with polyamory and open relationships, practices she felt hindered them from forming healthy bonds. That was among the experiences that led Mastrine to eventually conclude that a flourishing society needed more, not fewer, constraints. Once a self-identified liberal feminist, she now identifies as a conservative.
'When I found Evie, I was like, 'Finally, there's a women's magazine that is not going to be smutty, promote hookup culture, promote certain ideals that I had found in my life were not working well,'' she says.
Mastrine says she doesn't agree with the right on everything (for one, she feels the tradwife movement doesn't account for the realities of modern life), but she's glad that a publication like Evie exists. As she and others in this sphere see it, this wave of conservative outlets and influencers is catering to an audience that isn't otherwise represented in women's media.
Jayme Franklin, 27, grew up reading glossies like Teen Vogue and Marie Claire. But around Donald Trump's election in 2016, she says she noticed that these publications started getting political. It wasn't Vogue's Hillary Clinton endorsement or glowing write-ups of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that bothered her, she says, but rather content that she found to be 'anti-men, anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-free speech, very rabidly pro-feminist.' As someone who is Catholic, anti-abortion and who believes in 'more traditional values,' she says she felt alienated.
After stints in the first Trump White House and at Fox News, Franklin launched The Conservateur in 2020, a media and lifestyle brand that she says is aimed at modern, yet traditional-minded women in liberal hotspots.
The Conservateur doesn't shy away from politics — in April, it hosted the sold-out America Is Hot Again party in DC, and the brand sells a pink 'Make America Hot Again' hat that's been spotted on Lara Trump. Even so, Franklin says the website's culture coverage is first and foremost, with plans to launch a culture-focused podcast next month.
At a time when a majority of young women are liberal (and have moved more to the left on some issues), Franklin is making a strategic play for the minority on the other end of the political spectrum.
While the top podcasts catering to men — 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' 'The Tucker Carlson Show,' 'This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von' — have a conservative bent, Franklin notes that there isn't really an equivalent for women. ('Call Her Daddy,' one of the most popular podcasts among young women, typically avoids politics, but its host Alex Cooper has been outspoken about reproductive rights and interviewed Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election.)
'We're igniting a counterculture within this female space, where there's 'Call Her Daddy,' there's Teen Vogue,' Franklin says. 'We're The Conservateur, and we will offer the exact opposite that a Cosmopolitan or an Alex Cooper is offering.'
Franklin might be following Joe Rogan's approach, but there are some notable differences between the 'bro' podcast sphere and the conservative women's media landscape. Unlike Rogan, a comedian whose politics don't neatly cohere into a particular ideology, Franklin and other young women in this niche have backgrounds in right-wing politics.
Brett Cooper, who left The Daily Wire and launched an independent YouTube channel, has amassed more than 1.5 million subscribers through videos about what's happening with Justin Bieber or the latest in the Diddy trial. Alex Clark, host of the podcast 'Culture Apothecary' and an influencer for the Charlie Kirk-founded student organization Turning Point USA, has built her following by talking about wellness topics like parenting and chemicals in food. Candace Owens, the far-right political commentator, has found new audiences through her deep dive coverage of the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni case, and has since launched a women's media brand that includes a book club and fitness app for new moms.
If these influencers are introducing young women to conservative ideas through pop culture and wellness, they don't always acknowledge it as a calculated strategy. Cooper and Owens both tell CNN they have long covered pop culture alongside politics as a matter of personal interest. Clark calls the Make America Healthy Again ideology that she promotes on her podcast 'nonpartisan,' adding 'if it has become a tool to bring women into the conservative right-wing…there is no one to blame but the Democratic Party.'
Franklin, though, does see The Conservateur as a vehicle to attract young women to the MAGA right.
'Politics is downstream from culture, as Andrew Breitbart once said,' she says. 'That was really apparent in this last election — that if you want to succeed in pushing values and politics, you need to be intimately involved in culture.'
Right-leaning women's media don't merely express political perspectives. In some instances, publications and podcasts veer into pseudoscience, conspiracies and misinformation — and it's easy for unsuspecting users to get drawn in.
Researchers for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that searching terms such as 'organic skincare' and 'nutrition' on Instagram could quickly lead a user to Clark's wellness content. Engaging with her content, in turn, led Instagram's algorithm to recommend accounts that promoted election denialism and other far-right ideas.
Another prominent example is in the right-wing campaign against birth control. While negative attitudes around birth control aren't confined to the right, they've become a hallmark of a 'crunchy' conservatism that raises skepticism around conventional medicines and vaccines and that has culminated in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s movement to Make America Healthy Again.
Evie Magazine has published numerous negative articles about the pill, IUDs and even condoms, instead promoting 'natural' birth control methods that can be less effective at preventing pregnancy. (Evie's founders also own the Peter Thiel-backed app 28, which offers fitness and nutrition recommendations based on where you are in your menstrual cycle. A representative for 28 told the Washington Post last year that the app has 'never been marketed as an alternative to hormonal birth control.')
Clark has said she's 'on a mission to get young women off this pill,' claiming it causes a host of negative health outcomes and describing it as 'poison.' Cooper has echoed similar claims, telling her viewers the pill 'chemically alters the very hormones that make a woman a woman.' When asked about medical experts' assertions that such statements are untrue, both Clark and Cooper say they are operating out of concern for women. 'I am listening to and sharing the stories of women who've experienced things that often get dismissed or ignored,' Cooper writes in an email. 'Calling that perspective 'misinformation' shuts down a much-needed conversation about how we treat women's bodies,' says Clark.
Hormonal birth control can certainly cause side effects in some users, and physicians don't always adequately communicate the risks to patients before prescribing it. But medical experts note that many influencers overexaggerate the risks and omit key context about a medication that has proven to be safe and effective for contraception and treating some medical conditions.
'People get on the internet and they just absolutely fearmonger, and they do it from a place of not caring who that could hurt or acknowledging the nuance that's required to have a really level-headed discussion about contraceptive pills,' Dr. Danielle Jones, an obstetrician-gynecologist and online educator, said in a recent Twitch stream.
Misleading messaging around birth control can have political consequences. Republican lawmakers around the US have falsely conflated emergency contraceptives and IUDs with abortion, sometimes resulting in legislative efforts that threaten contraception access. Maddox, the University of Alabama researcher, sees this rhetoric as inherently connected to political attacks on reproductive rights.
'A magazine having an article about the natural method of birth control on the surface isn't that problematic,' she says. 'But when you situate it within a moment where Roe v. Wade has been overturned, where states are implementing these absolutely draconian anti-abortion laws, where women's bodily autonomy is under threat … I think about those as speaking to these larger political projects that are actually abuses of power.'
The readerships of Evie and The Conservateur still pale in comparison to women's magazines like Bustle, Glamour or Vogue. But their hundreds of thousands of combined social media followers, and the even greater reach of influencers like Cooper and Clark, suggest that conservative views on gender, relationships and wellness are resonating among some young women.
After years of being on the fringe of mainstream women's media, conservatism is having a cultural moment.
Jess Rauchberg, an assistant professor at Seton Hall University whose research explores digital media cultures, characterizes this as a reaction to the 'girlboss of the 2010s' — a shorthand for that decade's prevailing ethos that women merely needed to advocate for themselves to reach new professional heights.
Despite the liberating ideas at their core, the girlboss trope and other aspects of 2010s culture had their limitations, adds Maddox, the University of Alabama researcher. Grinding at work didn't necessarily translate to financial security, nor was it as fulfilling as spending time with loved ones. Dating app algorithms and casual sex left some women feeling degraded and lonelier than before.
Conservative women's media offers one answer to these problems in its embrace of traditional ideas around gender roles. But Maddox says influencers who speak fondly of eras like the 1950s don't usually account for how people of color or the LGBTQ community fared back then.
'When promises are unmet today, the past seems appealing because the past indicates a time when promises were met,' she says. 'Of course, then the problem goes: Promises met for who?'
Conservatism's current appeal also reflects a recurring push and pull between progress and backlash, Maddox adds. Young women coming of age today might not fully understand why some of their predecessors fought so hard for ideals like sex positivity or body positivity — without that context, ideas to the contrary can seem more attractive.
In a few years, Rauchberg notes, the pendulum may very well swing back again.
'As our current political administration in the US continues to make certain decisions that are impacting women in ways that maybe they did not anticipate, we will see maybe a disavowal or a step away from what these magazines or these influencers say,' she says.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Posts claim girl called Trump 'a disgrace to this world.' Here's the real story
Claim: A video authentically shows a young girl calling U.S. President Donald Trump "a disgrace to the world." Rating: In late June 2025, a video allegedly showing a young girl calling U.S. President Donald Trump a "disgrace to the world" spread on social media. One TikTok post (archived) with the video reached over 10 million views, 2.3 million reactions and 348,000 shares. The clip was edited in the style of a "diva edit" — a flashy, stylized video format that emphasizes confidence, typically featuring empowering songs such as Beyoncé's "Diva," particularly the lyric, "Diva is a female version of a hustla." The caption read, "i just had to edit that little girl cause same girl #edit #audio #diva #divaedit #FTD." Many viewers treated the moment as genuine and praised the girl's confidence in the comments. The video also spread across other social media platforms, including X and YouTube. In short, while the video was authentic in the sense that it was not digitally manipulated or the product of artificial-intelligence (AI) software, it did not depict the real Donald Trump. Rather, it showed actor Anthony Atamanuik impersonating Trump in a 2017 segment of "The President Show," a Comedy Central television series. It did not show an actual interaction with the president. As such, we have rated this claim as miscaptioned. Atamanuik's face was not fully visible in many versions of the clip that circulated, which likely contributed to internet users mistakenly believing the footage authentically showed Trump. We previously fact-checked this video in 2017. The interaction shown in the viral clip can be seen in a YouTube video uploaded in May 2017, titled, "The President Takes on Tax Day," which originated as a skit for "The President Show." The moment appears around the 1:30 mark in the following video: The video showed the actor saying, "What a wonderful little girl. You wanna take a picture with me?" The girl responded, "You're a disgrace to the world." As she snapped a photo of him, he added, "Let's just do it and then be done, OK?" (Comedy Central YouTube channel) In an extended version of the clip shared on the official "The President Show" Facebook page, the actor added, "What a wonderful little girl. I am a disgrace to the world. I am a disgrace." On May 8, 2017, Atamanuik wrote (archived) on X (then Twitter), "I'm the guy playing Trump from the @PresidentShow and that little girl was brave, funny and smart. Also, she said that if (sic) her own volition," suggesting the moment was genuine and unscripted. He did not provide any further details. (X user @CoffeeWithTony) This was not the first Comedy Central-related rumor we investigated. For instance, in April 2018 we debunked a rumor that Comedy Central fired comedian Michelle Wolf and issued an apology after Wolf's appearance at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. - YouTube. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025. Evon, Dan. "Did a Little Girl Call President Trump a 'Disgrace to the World'?" Snopes, 8 May 2017, Mikkelson, David. "Did Comedy Central Fire Michelle Wolf and Apologize to Sarah Sanders?" Snopes, 29 Apr. 2018, The President Show. 3 Arts Entertainment, Clone Wolf Productions, Pie Baby Productions, 2017.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Richard Greenberg, Tony-Winning ‘Take Me Out' Playwright, Dies at 67
Richard Greenberg, the Tony Award-winning writer of 'Take Me Out,' has died. He was 67 years old. Greenberg's death was announced on social media by collaborators and colleagues such as Denis O'Hare and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who won Tonys for their work in the original 2003 production of 'Take Me Out' and its 2022 revival, as well as director Robert Falls. More from Variety Jesse Williams and 'Take Me Out' Co-Stars Discuss Need for Hot Water in Infamous Shower Scenes Jesse Williams on Baring All Again in 'Take Me Out,' That Leaked Footage and Why He Doesn't Watch 'Grey's Anatomy' 'Take Me Out' Returning to Broadway in October With Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson 'For over 30 years, it's been one of life's great pleasures to know Rich and his writing. Dazzling, humane, wildly funny,' Falls wrote. 'He was also one of the smartest people I've ever met. But he wore that brilliance lightly—often cloaked in hilarity, or tossed off in the driest, most devastating line at dinner. His kindness was real. His loss is enormous.' Greenberg's plays were known for their wit and sophistication, and covered a wide range of topics, from a pro baseball team reacting to the presence of a gay player in the locker room in 'Take Me Out' to an Upper West Side family grappling with the consequences of their bad choices in 'The Assembled Parties.' Greenberg's work, which includes 'Three Days of Rain,' 'Our Mother's Brief Affair' and 'The American Plan,' was frequently produced on and off Broadway, as well as at top regional theaters. He also wrote a disastrous 2013 adaptation of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' as well as penned a well-received adaptation of August Strindberg's 'Dance of Death' that brought Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren to Broadway. In addition to winning the Tony for best new play for 'Take Me Out' in 2003, Greenberg was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for that show and for 'Three Days of Rain.' Falls wrote on social media that Greenberg was working with him on a new adaptation of Philip Barry's 'Holiday' that was supposed to premiere next year at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Best of Variety Oscars 2026: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Wagner Moura and More Among Early Contenders to Watch New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
"This Country Is An Embarrassment" — People Can't Help But Be Frustrated With Donald Trump's Planning To Host A UFC Fight At The White House
Donald Trump revealed his plan to honor America's 250th birthday next year with a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House, and he's so serious. Related: "So every one of our national parks, battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250. And I even think we're going to have a UFC fight," Trump said. "Does anybody watch UFC?" "We're going to have a UFC fight — think of this — on the grounds of the White House," Trump said on July 3 at the Des Moines, Iowa State Fairgrounds. "We got a lot of land there." Trump's visit to the fairgrounds was more or less a celebration of Congress passing the "big, beautiful bill," a legislation predicted to add an estimated $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. However, the primary focus of the president's remarks wasn't policy, or even politics; it was throwing a yearlong "big, beautiful" celebration for America's birthday in 2026. Related: "We're going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20, 25,000 people and we're going to do that as part of 250 also," he added. "We're going to have some incredible events. Some professional events, some amateur events, but the UFC fight's going to be a big deal, too." According to NBC News, a spokesperson for UFC confirmed the event will happen, although further details have not been provided. Karoline Leavitt said the president was "dead serious" about the plans, per Associated Press. It's no secret that Trump is buddy-buddy with UFC President Dana White, who's appeared at several campaign rallies and took the stage at Trump's election night victory party. Related: His remarks have gone viral, and people have mocked and criticized what this means for the United States to have our 47th president touting a mixed martial arts sporting event on the White House lawn. Here's what people are saying: One person said, "this shit is like a really bad SNL skit that's run too long." Another person said, "this country is an embarrassment. we just increased national debt by trillions now the White House is sponsored by UFC." Someone else didn't hold back claiming they'ree "turning the White House into a redneck amusement park. Next they'll construct a NASCAR circuit around MAGAWORLD!" Related: Lots of people made the obvious comparison to Mike Judge's 2006 movie Idiocracy, which featured an outlandish plot that seemed implausible to critics until recent events. Other folks are saying UFC fights at the White House are giving Gladiator fights from the Roman Empire. And finally, people are throwing out ridiculous suggestions of who should be on the fight card for the 2026 bout. Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News: