Category: 5. Entertainment

The life of a social media creator can be high in glamour and status. The well-paid endorsement deals, the online followers and proximity to the celebrity establishment are all perks of the industry.

But one hidden cost will be familiar to anyone coping with the 21st-century economy: burnout. The Guardian has spoken to five creators with a combined audience of millions who have all experienced degrees of workplace stress or fatigue.

“There’s no off button in this job,” says Melanie Murphy, 35, who has been a social media creator since 2013. “The algorithms never stop. You can’t pause the internet because you get sick. If you vanish for two or three months completely you know the algorithms will bring your followers to new accounts who are being active.”

Dublin-based Murphy says her symptoms of burnout were “complete fatigue” and a “nerve sensation of tingling and brain fog.” A dose of Covid was then “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, she adds.

There is also a self-consciousness that comes with struggling in a nascent industry some people may not take seriously – or cannot conceive of as being hard work, given its association with glamour or the ephemeral nature of social media fame.

“It’s really hard to talk about my job impacting how bad I felt without people being like ‘shut up you’re so privileged’,” Murphy admits.

She is not alone. Five out of ten creators say they have experienced burnout as a direct result of their career as a social media creator, according to a survey of 1,000 creators in the US and the UK by Billion Dollar Boy, a London-based advertising agency that works with creators. Nearly four out of 10 (37%) have considered quitting their career due to burnout as well, according to the research.

The World Health Organization defines burnout as the consequence of “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”, with symptoms including exhaustion, reduced effectiveness at your job and a feeling of mental distance from your work.

Others spoken to by the Guardian talk of creative block and their own lack of engagement with the material that, by necessity, they have to churn out on a regular basis.

“There’s no HR department, there’s no union,” says Murphy. “If my husband got burned out, like I did, and literally couldn’t stand up off the couch, he would have someone to call. The only people I could really call were creators.”

Shortly after the birth of her second child in 2023, Murphy had what she called a “complete burnout breakdown”.

“My body was, like, ‘I’m done’.”

Perhaps ironically, Murphy says, YouTube videos were a help in her recovery. She also sought out therapy and “pulled back a bit” from work, having saved up enough money to cover a few months off. Now, after “a lot of brain retraining stuff”, she only posts two YouTube videos a month – having run at one or two a week before. She used to be “very, very active” on Instagram but now posts only “if I feel inspired to post”.

Now, Murphy and her husband, an airline pilot, “kind of match” each other in earnings which “does mentally take a bit of weight off”. Murphy’s company makes “a bit over” €100,000 (£86,000) a year. She says she has cut down heavily on unpaid work and changes to her work-life balance have probably reduced her earnings by about €20,000.

Murphy has 800,000 followers across YouTube and Instagram – her main sources of income are brand sponsorship – including from the Trainwell personal training app and online therapy company BetterHelp – and advertising revenue from YouTube, which shares a substantial cut of ad spend with creators.

Creators – people who make a living from making online content, often via brand sponsorships – lead a professional life that reflects the digital culture they are embedded in. It is fast, demanding and vulnerable to sudden changes of taste.

Becky Owen, the global chief marketing officer at Billion Dollar Boy, says the average full-time creator has to carry out a number of tasks to be successful, from planning, filming and editing content to managing relationships with brands; and, of course, engaging with followers.

Owen says the “wheels are coming off” for many creators.

“It’s prevalent. It’s not just a few,” she says, adding that there can also be an emotional toll because a lot of creators “monetise themselves” and turn their lives into content.

“Beyond getting new commercial deals, the greatest challenge creators face is managing the business side of what they do. They’re juggling countless responsibilities, trying to excel at all of them, often before they even have a chance to focus on the content itself. That’s where they really need support,” says Owen.

Allison Chen, 22, a New York-based creator who specialises in baking, cooking and lifestyle content and has a combined audience of 1.3 million across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, says the pursuit of views and engagement can be wearying. It can leave you feeling “regardless of how many views you get, there is always a higher peak to achieve”.

“Social media creators also have the same comparison and self-esteem issues that regular social media users have,” she says.

Chen says deleting social media apps has helped. Her routine involves downloading Instagram and TikTok whenever she needs to upload content – and then deleting them. “I repeat it every day,” she says.

London-based Hannah Witton, 33, suffered in a similar way. She restructured her professional life to avoid burning out completely, having been a full-time creator since 2015. Witton took three months of maternity leave after giving birth to her son in 2022. Three months, she says, is the longest amount of time she has seen any creator take off after having children.

“The shortest amount of time I’ve seen someone take off [for maternity leave] is three days. I wish I could have taken longer off but I just knew it wasn’t possible.”

When she returned, Witton found she was trying to produce the same amount of YouTube and podcast content – on sex and relationship advice – within half the time, with the added financial burden of paying for a producer to help make her content.

“Something had to suffer. And the thing that was suffering was me and the content – and my relationship with the content,” she adds. “Audiences are smart, and I think they can pick up on those kinds of things.

This week Google-owned YouTube called on the UK government to take creators more seriously as a profession, in recognition of the “profound economic and cultural contributions they bring to the UK’s creative industries”.

Meanwhile, creators used to broadcasting advice to others are having to rally themselves through the hard times.

“It is possible to get through this and still earn good money while not spreading yourself too thin, which many creators do,” says Murphy.

It has puzzled philosophers, scholars and those aspiring to be cool for generations: what is it that makes someone cool? Now it appears that the alchemical code has finally been cracked.

There are six specific attributes needed to be cool, according to a study published this week by the American Psychological Association.

It found that cool people are generally perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous, according to the survey of 6,000 participants from 12 countries including the USA, Australia and South Africa.

So what does a cool person make of it?

Chris Black, the co-host of the podcast How Long Gone (which is cool) and the founder of Done to Death Projects, a brand consultancy with fashion clients including Stüssy (also very cool), says that while the traits are “relatively accurate” for him, cool is something that cannot be easily outlined. “The je ne sais quoi of the whole thing has always been what I associate with cool,” he says.

Does Black like being described as cool? “It’s become a pretty general word. I don’t think it has the sort of gravitas that it once had. There are things I don’t embody that I think make people cool. So it’s tough to think of yourself as it, no matter how much you want it.”

Philippa Snow, a writer and cultural critic whose latest book, It’s Terrible the Things I Have to Do to Be Me, explores female celebrities and the price of femininity, says trying to define cool is similar to defining charisma. “Like the famous quote about pornography, it’s tempting to say about both that you know it when you see it.”

Some suggest that sprezzatura, an Italian word first used about by Baldassare Castiglione in 1528 and defined as “a certain nonchalance, to conceal all art and make what one does or say appear to be without effort” captures the earliest essence of what cool is.

Cool as a characterisation originated from 1940s jazz culture, when the black musician Lester Young challenged racial norms by refusing to smile when performing. He also used fashion as a marker of defiance, wearing sunglasses indoors on stage. Not long after he coined the slang term “that’s cool”, his fans began to use it when referencing him.

Prof Joel Dinerstein, who has taught a course called The History of Cool at Tulane University, Louisiana, for more than 25 years, says the terms he associates with cool people are “rebellious” and “charismatic”, flagging that another key quality is self-authorisation.

For Black, whose line of work is based around finding cool people to partner with brands, someone “being comfortable with who they are and what they say” is his “real baseline for coolness”. His criteria also includes someone “being very, very good at what they do”, saying it “shows a level of dedication and self-respect that I think is deeply cool”.

While Pierre Bourdieu’s 1970s concept of cultural capital is not directly a theory on coolness, cultural and social assets both play into the notion of cool. Nowadays, social media means being cool is often less about a person and more about an aesthetic that can be carefully curated. Unlike a person, however, as soon as an item becomes mainstream, it is generally no longer deemed cool. See Labubus and Stanley cups.

Conversely, Brat – the cultural phenomenon unleashed by Charli xcx a full year ago – is still considered cool. At Glastonbury, she did something that typically a cool person would never do – describing herself as cool. “Thank you so much, you’re fucking cool as fuck. But not as cool as me, bitch!” she shouted as she wrapped up her set.

Each year, Dinerstein asks his students who they perceive as cool. This year’s answers spanned everyone from the composer Hans Zimmer to the singer Lenny Kravitz.

Snow suggests Rihanna would be considered cool by many millennials. “There’s something so delightfully don’t-care about her becoming one of the biggest musical performers in the world, and then choosing not to give us another album for over a decade. Making us wait and still commanding our attention with not only her other projects but her image itself is powerful and cool, in an almost S&M-adjacent fashion.”

Black says youth will always be cool. “That has fucked us in some ways because we all think we should be at our peak at 23, but as you age you realise it usually takes people to their 50s to work out what they actually like.”

And perhaps, there lies a key point overlooked by researchers. Youths. Speaking to two gen Z-ers, they reveal the word “cool” as an adjective is becoming defunct in their lexicon. In its place? “Sick” and “lowkey”.

Things that are definitely not cool

• ChatGPT

• Pretending not to be “on the pen” (using weight loss jabs) when you are

• Cowboy boots

• Labubus

• Using corporate jargon outside work. For example, posting holiday photos on Instagram with the caption “highlights from Q1”

• Talking about sleep scores

• Giant adult sippy cups

• LinkedIn

• Birkin bags

• Including your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator result in your dating bio

Things that are cool

• Being a member of a library

• Good service – anywhere

• The Row’s monthly Spotify playlists

• Asking questions

• Restaurants where you don’t have to shout at each another to be heard

• Curaprox’s colourful toothbrushes

• Ordering an object to view at the V&A East Storehouse

• Not being a TV snob

• Using lamps rather than the “big light” in a room

• Being OK with ageing

Happy Fourth! Your cookout’s soundtrack may sound a little bland this season since there’s no song of the summer. Waaaah! Here’s why there’s no new bops.

While you’re here, subscribe to Defense Flash, BI’s new guide to the latest innovations in military strategy, defense tech, and more delivered right to your inbox every week.

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This week’s dispatch

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Poolside page turners

After the cookout, and the party, and the drinking, and the water play, you’ll be yearning for some quiet time. And if you’re like me, that means curling up with a good book.

There are plenty of old and new summer reads to make you forget about going back to work next week. I asked six of our editors at Business Insider what their favorite reads are. Here’s what they said:

Jamie Heller, Editor in Chief: I just finished “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray, and I mostly couldn’t put it down! In this family saga set in Ireland, Murray develops consuming characters and keeps you in suspense, all with a writing style that’s distinct but also easy to follow and enjoy. I highly recommend it!

Bartie Scott, Deputy Editor, Economy: “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett makes a great summer read with its whirlwind romance and heartwarming mother-daughter dynamics. While the material is sweet and whimsical, Patchett’s writing is high quality, and if audiobooks are more your style — or if you’re picky about narrators — it’s worth knowing that Meryl Streep reads this one.

Bryan Erickson, Executive Creative Director: I am rereading “Capote’s Women” by Laurence Leamer because much like the series, “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” once was not enough. I identify with Truman’s scarf-wearing escapism, and am slightly obsessed with the NYC that came before me.

Paige DiFiore-Wohr, Deputy Editor, Freelance: If you’re looking for a suspenseful, twist-filled story about friendship, betrayal, and redemption, “The Drowning Woman” by Robyn Harding is the book for you. The story follows a once-successful restaurant owner who’s now living out of her car as she encounters a rich socialite who’s about to change her life. Nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted. I finished this thriller in less than a day.

Tracy Connor, Standards Editor: I devoured “Pineapple Street” by Jenny Jackson by the side of a pool last summer, relishing every twist in the tale of a rich New York City family grappling with relationship, parenting, and personal problems. It’s a modern and sharper version of the delicious epics I used to sneak from my parents’ bedstand in the 1970s.

Joe Ciolli, Executive Editor, Markets and Investing: “Our Band Could Be Your Life” by Michael Azerrad is a compelling look at how independent musicians forged their careers in the pre-internet era. Thirteen chapters dive into 13 bands who developed crucial networks for the music and touring industries we know today. I don’t even like most of the bands, but it’s still the best music book I’ve ever read.

BI may earn a commission if you purchase through our links.

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The BI Today team: Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

LOS ANGELES, July 5 — Vampires, zombies and the Grim Reaper are killing it at the box office.

At a time when superheroes, sequels and reboots have grown stale among audiences, horror has emerged as an unlikely savior, entertainment industry veterans say. This year, scary movies account for 17 per cent of the North American ticket purchases, up from 11 per cent in 2024 and 4 percent a decade ago, according to Comscore data compiled exclusively for Reuters. Thanks to the box office performance of Sinners and Final Destination: Bloodlines, and new installments of popular horror films hitting later this year, including The Conjuring: Last Rites and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, cinema owners have reason to celebrate.

“We have identified horror as really one of the primary film genres that we are targeting to grow,” said Brandt Gully, owner of the Springs Cinema & Taphouse in Sandy Springs, Georgia. “It can really fill a void when you need it.”

Producers, studio executives and theater owners say horror has historically provided a safe outlet to cope with contemporary anxieties. And there is no lack of material to choose from: the aftershocks of a global pandemic, artificial intelligence paranoia, the loss of control over one’s body, and resurgent racism.

“It’s cathartic, it’s emotional, and it comes with an ending,” said film data analyst Stephen Follows, author of the Horror Movie Report, which offers detailed insights into the genre. “Horror movies give space to process things that are harder to face in everyday life.”

The often low-budget productions allow for greater risk-taking than would be possible with high-cost, high-stakes productions like Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning. The creative freedom has attracted such acclaimed directors as Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Danny Boyle and Guillermo del Toro.

“Horror movies are an accountant’s dream,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore senior media analyst. “If you’re going to make a science-fiction outer-space extravaganza, you can’t do that on the cheap. With horror films, a modest-budget movie like Weapons can bescary as hell.”

Audiences are responding. Coogler’s Sinners, an original story about Mississippi vampires starring Michael B. Jordan,was theyear’s third highest-grossing movie in the US and Canada, according to Comscore. Movie theaters are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic which broke the movie-going habit, and increased viewing in the home. Mike De Luca, co-chair and Warner Bros Motion Picture Group, which released Sinners, said horror was a genre that manages to get people out of the house.”

It’s a rising tide that lifts all boats,” he said. “You know, we’re trying to get people back in the habit of going to the theaters.”

Fear knows no geographical bounds.

Half of all horror movies released by major US distributors last year made 50 percent or more of their worldwide box office gross outside the US, according to London-based researcher Ampere Analysis.

The breakout international hit The Substance, for example, grossed over US$77 million (RM325 million) worldwide—with around 80 per cent of that from outside the US Streamers also are similarly capitalising on the appeal of the genre.

AMC’s post-apocalyptic horror drama series The Walking Dead, became one of the most popular series when it was added to Netflix in 2023, amassing 1.3 billion hours viewed, according to Netflix’s Engagement Report. Director Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein, is set to debut in November.

Date night

Horror films are ideally suited to watching in movie theaters, where the environment heightens the experience.

“What you can’t do at home is sit in a dark room with a hundred other people, not on your phone, and jump,” said Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, producer of Halloween, Paranormal Activity and other lucrative horror franchises.

“You can’t really be scared when you watch a horror movie at home.”

Big-budget movies that the industry refers to as “tent poles,” such as Captain America: Brave New World or A Minecraft Movie, remain the lifeblood of movie theaters. Over time, these blockbusters have elbowed out more moderately budgeted romantic comedies and dramas on movie screens.

Against this backdrop, horror has been quietly gaining momentum.

The genre broke the US$1 billion box office barrier in the US and Canada for the first time in 2017, Comscore reported, buoyed by the film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, It, and Jordan Peele’s exploration of racial inequality in Get Out.

Announcements of new horror films from US producers have risen each year for the last three years, including in 2023, when the Hollywood strikes significantly impacted production, according to Ampere Analysis.

The number of US horror films that went into production last year was up 21 per cent over 2023, Ampere found. “While more arthouse fare and even some tentpole superhero franchises have had mixed fortunes at the global box office in the wake of the pandemic, horror remains one of the key genres that audiences still make a point of seeing in the theatres,” wrote researcher Alice Thorpe in a report for Ampere’s clients which she shared with Reuters.

The researcher’s own consumer surveys revealed horror is the favorite genre among two-thirds of movie-goers, ages 18 to 24.

“Anytime a teenager graduates to wanting to take a date to the movies, horror gets popular really fast,” said Warner Bros’ De Luca. “It’s a great film-going experience to take a date to because you get to huddle with each other and gasp and hoop and holler.”

Freak show

Horror has been a cinematic staple from its earliest days, when Thomas Edison filmed Frankenstein on his motion picture camera, the Kinetograph, in 1910. The British Board of Film Classification introduced the “H” rating in 1932, officially designating the genre.

But it didn’t always get Hollywood’s respect.

“In the first half of the 20th century, it was seen as a freak-show,” said Follows. Perceptions began to change with the critical and commercial success of films like Psycho, The Exorcist and The Shining. Director Steven Spielberg ushered in the summer blockbuster in 1975 with Jaws, a re-invention of the classic monster movie.

In recent years, horror movies have become part of the Oscar conversation.

Peele collected an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 2018 for Get Out. Demi Moore received her first Oscar nomination earlier this year for her portrayal of an aging Hollywood star who will go to any lengths to stay beautiful in The Substance.

Not every horror movie connects with audiences.

M3GAN 2.0, a sequel to the 2022 low-budget film about a killer robotic doll that grossed US$180 million worldwide,brought in a modest US$10.2 million in the US and Canada in its opening weekend, according to Comscore.

Theatre chains will have no shortage of horror movies to exhibit this summer. Seven films are slated to be released before Labour Day weekend, including Columbia Pictures’ nostalgic reboot of the 1997 film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, which reaches screens on July 18, and Weapons, which opens on August 8.

“The best types of these movies are ones that elicit an audible and visceral reaction … ‘Don’t go in there!’” said Screen Gems President Ashley Brucks, who has worked on such films as Sony’s upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer as well as A Quiet Place and Scream.

“You are either squirming or laughing or screaming and just really having fun with it.” — Reuters

Silhouetted against sunsets, half-buried in sand or standing poignantly under the moonlight – Crosby Beach’s celebrated iron men sculptures have inspired visitors for two decades.

Sir Antony Gormley’s Another Place, featuring 100 iron figures modelled on the artist’s own body, has become synonymous with the Sefton coast near Liverpool.

Marking the work’s 20th anniversary this week, Sir Antony said: “I think it’s about life and death, love and loss, and without people reacting to it, it’s nothing.”

Here are a selection of striking images of the artwork from over the years.

Rare artefacts from the Titanic shipwreck including the sheet music from the ship’s band leader Wallace Hartley who died in the sinking are to go on display in Manchester.

The RMS Titanic sank in April 1912 after it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York killing more than 1,500 people.

The Titanic Exhibition Manchester will open from 31 July to 24 August at Manchester Central.

It will feature items such as the largest surviving fragment of the Aft Grand Staircase and the personal belongings of passengers and crew, including those from Mr Hartley, from Colne, Lancashire, who is said to have played on as the ship went down.

The Titanic vessel, which was built by Liverpool-based White Star Line and was registered in Liverpool, sank within hours of hitting an iceberg and now lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic Ocean.

It remains one of the most famous shipwrecks in history that had its story turned into an Oscar-winning film.

The exhibition tells the story of the ship from its construction in Belfast, through to its maiden voyage and tragic sinking.

It examines the legacy left behind, including its impact on film and television.

Dik Barton, the first British man to dive to the Titanic, is also attending the exhibition.

He has done 22 dives to the wreck and is holding three lectures a day revealing new details about the site and what it’s like to dive 2.5 miles (4km) to the Titanic.

From Lana Del Rey to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, the UK has already hosted a series of gigantic outdoor gigs this year. Having already played six Wembley Stadium shows on their Music of the Spheres tour in 2022, Coldplay are bringing it back for 10 more later this summer, plus two more in Hull. And now, here come Oasis, playing a total of 17 stadium concerts in Cardiff, Manchester, London and Edinburgh.

These are the kind of figures that get the music industry very excited. Last year, according to UK Music, 23.5m concertgoers spent a total of £10bn in the UK, supporting 72,000 jobs. “Artists are delivering spectacular performances, and there’s nothing like the feeling of being at a live show,” says Denis Desmond, UK and Ireland chair of the massive promoter Live Nation. “We’re seeing a real and sustained boom in outdoor shows, festivals and stadium concerts”.

Certainly, it looks that way. The Guardian has calculated that in London alone this summer, there are at least 100 single-day outdoor shows with a capacity of 15,000 or more, ranging from events in local parks to stadium shows. Festivals and arena shows have always been popular in the UK, but there have never been so many big outdoor gigs.

Industry insiders put the shift down to customer demand. That’s undoubtedly part of it – there are many people who enjoy standing in the sun with thousands of others listening to a selection of acts, but have no desire for it to involve camping in the middle of nowhere. One senior figure in the live industry says the changing nature of the music industry has driven the shift, too – social media and streaming mean many artists are popular enough to play to bigger audiences earlier in their careers, and outdoor shows provide the perfect opportunity.

It’s not just consumer-led, though. Local councils have been actively courting promoters to put on shows in parks, to raise money for local services; stadium operators have been trying to attract more shows (the Rugby Football Union wants to put on more shows each year at Twickenham, up from the three it is currently allowed, to nine next year, 12 in 2027 and 15 in 2028).

Either way, this current glut of shows is so immense that there are those wondering if it can be sustained. All summer, there have been stories of cheap last-minute tickets available on secondary ticketing sites, and Facebook-disseminated offers to shift unsold seats. And while the demand for Oasis tickets might have been enormous, not everyone can be Oasis. At the time of writing, there are seated tickets available in all areas for Catfish and the Bottlemen’s show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the start of August (and plenty for their Cardiff Principality Stadium concert, too). Nor will you have any trouble getting into Post Malone’s two shows at Tottenham. Even at shows billed as sold out, venues don’t appear full – there were many pockets of empty seats when Dua Lipa played the first of two shows at Wembley Stadium.

That’s not necessarily bad news for the artists, who are paid a guaranteed fee, but it is very bad news for promoters, because shows at this scale tend only to break even when 90% of tickets have been sold. And that is where some industry figures sound a note of caution. “I think we’re all surprised at the amount of large-scale events London can sustain,” one says. “Will it continue at this same growth and to the same scale? Only time will tell.” Another says brusquely: “There are certainly a lot this year, and they’re not all doing well.”

Artists, too, are uncertain: the Guardian knows of acts who turned down slots high on stadium show bills this summer, because they were concerned about the reputational damage of playing to a crowd sparse enough to be mocked on social media.

It’s perhaps a measure of industry uncertainty that so few people within live music were willing to talk on the record about this year’s boom, and certainly not to confront the issue of whether sellouts or sparsely attended washouts are likely to shape next summer’s bookings. Desmond, though, remains optimistic. To him, these shows are a chance to build memories: “We’re seeing generations come together – fans who saw the Beatles or the Rolling Stones in the 60s are now attending shows with their children and grandchildren. A connection that only live music can create.”

Nevertheless, whether those younger generations will need the older ones to pay for the incredible cost of a ticket, and whether the live music sector can continue to operate at the scale that it is, remain points of debate in the industry.

Long summer days call for, you guessed it, summer shorts. While classic denim cut-offs have long been a seasonal staple, we’ve been noticing more innovation in the category as of late. On the runways at Chloé, for example, models sauntered out in bloomers and frilly crochet, while at Paco Rabanne, striped boxer-like styles mingled with boyish separates.

The key here is a departure from youthful pairs, with thoughtful styling that reflects a more considered mood. At times preppy, at times boho, other times polished—shorts this season have a truly elevated appeal. Here are eight fresh ways we’ll be wearing them all summer, and perhaps, you now, too.

Vogue’s Favorite Summer Shorts

Featured in this article

The Romantic Eyelet

Dôen Arbre broderie anglaise cotton shorts

See More

The Sweet Stripe

The Frankie Shop Lui striped cotton-poplin shorts

See More

The Lightweight Linen

Suzie Kondi Hera Bloomers linen-chambray shorts

See More

The Mini Denim Short

A peach mini short form Chloé takes on a Birkin-like attitude with a knit henley, basket bag, and gladiators.

The Pleated Bermuda Short

Lean into the elegant appeal of pleated Bermuda shorts by pairing them with a classic belt and button up.

The Jort

Knee-length denim shorts and a linen halter make for a high-low ensemble that works day or night.

The Lace Trim

Double down on the eyelet trend with trimmed shorts and a breezy tank. Bonus points for adding Miu Miu’s lace bandana.

The Sporty Short

Part sporty, part preppy–pair a pink and white polo with Adidas’s pinstripe satin shorts. Suede loafers and a paracord bracelet add balance to keep things interesting and fashion-forward.

The Knit Short

Stripes are undoubtedly the print of the summer, and we love them here in the form of a cute knit set with flip-flops and a woven basket bag.

The Linen Bloomers

Emphasize the girlish innocence of bloomer shorts by adding a ruffled blouse and raffia Mary Janes.

The Silk Short

Aflalo’s long-line printed shorts join with a tube top and kitten heels for a cute girl’s night out ensemble.

Shop More Shorts:

While accepting the President’s Award during the opening night of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Friday, actor Peter Sarsgaard spoke out on the current political division in the U.S., stating: “As my country retreats from its global responsibilities and tries to go it alone, it is also being divided into factions from within, factions of politics, gender, sexuality, race, Jews split over the war. But when there’s a common enemy, there is no going it alone. Enemies are the forces that divide us, that individuate us. We all know who they are.”

Asked by Variety why he decided to go political with his acceptance speech, the Golden Globe nominee says, “To me, it is not political at all to say we’re being divided into smaller and smaller groups.”

“This is the way authoritarianism works, right?” adds the actor. “They’re making you feel bigger and that person feels smaller. You are worried about your job, your status, being deported, all that sort of stuff, so if you’re safe, you are holding onto the life raft. Maybe you’re a little sad about the other person who’s drowning, but you hold on.”

Closing his acceptance speech, the American actor quoted Czech statesman and playwright Vaclav Havel, saying that “one half of a room cannot remain forever warm while the other half is cold.” Commenting on why he chose the quote, Sarsgaard says, once again, that he feels it is not a “political” sentiment. “That’s just humanitarian.”

“I don’t know that you could tell who I voted for,” he continues, bringing up the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “I mean, you could probably tell I didn’t vote for Trump, right? But I wouldn’t say that Biden was my person either. I consider myself a humanitarian. Politics are not that interesting to me.”

The actor adds that what “impressed” him about the Czech statesman growing up was “a willingness to sacrifice yourself personally for a greater good,” something he doesn’t believe the left “or even the anti-Trump group” in the U.S. possesses. “The left in my country that has been vocal is typically wealthy and satisfied. The hippies got rich and we’re just happy chilling out and not doing much. They don’t want to lose their stuff, they don’t want to go to jail. Havel chose jail over exile. No one that I know would do that.”

“While a lot of people in my country were struggling, the left was cruising by, drinking their cappuccinos,” he goes on. “It’s time to suffer, you know? My daughters are going to be willing to do that, even though they grew up in a nice, cushy environment. Their futures are on the line and they know that.”

While the actor doesn’t feel hopeful about his generation, he nurtures hope for the younger ones. “The middle and left are talking about leaving the country and handing over everything for [their] personal comfort. The United States has a huge responsibility. We have nuclear weapons, a massive economy that controls so much of the world… It’s worth fighting for. Where are you going to run to? The planet’s not that big. I don’t know what it means to fight, but I do know it means to put down your cappuccino,” he concludes, taking a sip of his coffee.

Sarsgaard, who was raised Catholic, also spoke about the religious sentiment of “love your enemy,” particularly during troubled times sociopolitically. “I was extremely Catholic, I was an altar boy and Jesuits were my heroes in high school. I didn’t have pedophile Jesuits around me. For me, Catholicism was a great experience. Love your enemy is a complicated term; it doesn’t mean everything they’re doing is ok, it’s more like being interested in them, don’t discount them. And that’s what an actor does. I don’t just play ideal people.” 

Elsewhere in the conversation, the actor reminisced on coming up in the scene in the 90s and working on films like “Boys Don’t Cry” alongside Chloë Sevigny and Hillary Swank. 

“There was no movie star in that movie,” he emphasizes. “It used to be like that, where you could go to watch a movie and you might not recognize every actor in it. Now I don’t know how a young actor comes up and gets into anything interesting in the States. The government doesn’t give any money to the movies, and even less now to the arts. I’ve been doing a lot of movies that are not shooting in the States, not because I don’t want to, but because it certainly has dried up.”

On working with his wife, filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard says he is “probably tougher” on her than any director he’s worked with. The actor starred in Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut “The Lost Daughter” and her upcoming sophomore effort, “The Bride.” “She says I’m very tough with her, but that’s just because I can, I guess [laughs]. But I respect her and would do anything for my wife, not just because she’s my wife but because she’s so talented. I really believe in her talent.”