On Manifestation TikTok — whether your technique of choice is Lucky Girl Syndrome, Delusional Eras, or reality shifting — anything is possible as long as you (literally) set your mind to it. @michellem_sc reports trib.al/KcNjuNQ This isn’t a pandemic trend; it’s a signal of a post-lockdown reality. And it’s perhaps one of our most popular subcultures. With roots in New Age thinking and The Secret revivalism, it involves every possible flavor of controlling your own reality trib.al/LUvt9Vz

It’s been a romantic day with your boyfriend. After he fixed your TV, you walked around the city: the Guggenheim, the waterfront, the Met. You'd like to end the day with cuddles, but you can’t — because your boyfriend is an AI bot. @sangeetaskurtz reports trib.al/ueF3Cjp When the AI companion app Replika launched, it was marketed primarily toward isolated, horny men — the stereotypical audience for an AI sexbot. But half the app’s users are women, who have flocked there for the promise of safe relationships they control trib.al/ueF3Cjp

#HowNotToFckUpYourFace: For @thisisvalmonroe, it’s hard to look at TikTok trends and not feel … well, out of touch. Partly because many are no longer relevant or physically possible. Partly because … well, you’ll see: trib.al/C8ZxFmK On moon masking: You might as well swipe yourself with decomposing rubbish, says facial plastic surgeon and ENT Michelle Yagoda, M.D. Bottom line: A menstrual-blood face mask risks infection without any benefit to skin quality. Rating: Unacceptable trib.al/Y0dJWSx

#AskABeautyEditor: Recently, TikTok was awash with allegations that clean beauty brand Kosas’s concealer and other products grew mold or caused reactions. So: are “clean” beauty brands less stringent on stability? @jenn_edit investigates trib.al/AJuSCRC The U.S. doesn’t set standards for the use of preservatives in makeup or require expiration dates on cosmetics. Instead, TikTok has become a de facto (and highly unreliable) database for reporting concerns trib.al/Oltxgmk

In Korea, a growing movement of women is saying no: No to heterosexual marriage; no to childbirth; no to dating; no to heterosexual sexual relationships. They are choosing to stop fighting the patriarchy and instead leave it behind. @annalouiesuss reports trib.al/LY5Tgyu The movement is commonly called “4B,” shorthand for the four nos above, four Korean words that all start with bi-, or “no”: bihon, bichulsan,, biyeonae, bisekseu. It is both an ideological stance and a lifestyle trib.al/F3b5gAC

Presenting our Fall Fashion issue cover star: Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

She’s left the Firm behind. Harry’s found a polo team in Santa Barbara. The kids are doing great. Now she's ready for her own next act. @AllisonPDavis reports: thecut.io/3wBQut0 “Do you want to know a secret?” Meghan asks The Cut. For our Fall Fashion issue, the Duchess opens up about her new freedom, her new podcast, and her charming new California life. thecut.io/3cvnb4C

📷: @CampbellAddy

Hiiiii we’re at the ✨ @vmas ✨ and so is … @lizzo, looking ETHEREAL

How did Tinder become @AllisonPDavis’s longest running relationship? thecut.io/3PSGIKC “I first downloaded Tinder in the spring of 2013, seven months after it launched,” she writes. “I’d heard about it as a concept (Grindr for straights) but felt exempt from needing it.” thecut.io/3PSGIKC

Our new issue looks at a decade of swiping on Tinder—and how it’s transformed dating 💗 Including:

🍆 A survey of 1,000+ online daters
🍑 A history of Tinder’s cultural moments
💦 And more 😏

Here, @AllisonPDavis on the app's enduring allure: thecut.io/3oLWuLo We asked 1,232 current and former swipers about their habits, their horror stories, and what they’ve learned: thecut.io/3bgVzQg

In November 2019, detectives from the Rexburg, Idaho, police department showed up on Lori Vallow’s doorstep, asking about the whereabouts of her 7-year-old son, JJ thecut.io/3OpZ6JC The next day, the police returned to Vallow’s home. But it was empty. Sometime in the night, she had disappeared with her new husband, Chad Daybell thecut.io/39FnWH0

At one U.S. high school, a list titled “PEOPLE TO LOOK OUT FOR” appeared on the wall of the girls’ bathroom — @lizweil reports on what happened next thecut.io/3OayGMq The list was one part of the student body’s effort to change how their school responded to reports of sexual harrassment, abuse, and sexual assault thecut.io/3Ozjpol

Our March cover star is @abbydphillip ⭐ In conversation with @GayleKing, the journalist and #InsidePolitics host talks about her upcoming book, covering the Trump administration as a Black reporter, and the lesson of 2020 thecut.io/3vMJ3x6 @abbydphillip @GayleKing .@abbydphillip: “I think that the lesson of 2020 has been that more people need to be involved. We can encourage and empower other people to speak confidently and knowledgeably about race in this country” thecut.io/3vMJ3x6

Take a stroll through Chinatown, and you can’t help but notice certain fashionable seniors nonchalantly strolling the streets in head-to-toe looks. But who are they? Andria Lo and Valerie Luu set out to answer that question thecut.io/3d4ZFrB Buck Chew, 96, San Francisco: Before he moved to the United States in 1983, Mr. Chew worked as an accountant and abacus master in Macau, though he considers himself a poet and calligrapher thecut.io/3d4ZFrB

Our January cover star is @SarahEMcBride ⭐ The new Delaware state senator is making history in her hometown. @UnhappyFem writes thecut.io/3pRdYVp Every street in Wilmington seems to dredge up memories for @SarahEMcBride, who was elected to represent Delaware’s First District in November, sealing her place as the highest-­ranking openly transgender elected official in U.S. history thecut.io/3pRdYVp

“Caroline first took an interest in me after I wrote an essay about growing up in New Haven. Yale was an obsession of hers; she’d been rejected and never got over it. The fact that I was a Yale townie won me an invitation to her West Village apartment” thecut.io/34yy9gS “A year after Caroline and I met, the world was introduced to Caroline Calloway the influencer” thecut.io/34yy9gS

“Incels” — lonely, angry, misogynist men — are going under the knife to reshape their face, and their dating prospects, Alice Hines reports thecut.io/2EBrPtK Incels are convinced that their lives will improve significantly if they can somehow become “Chads,” who are believed to be “alpha” men thecut.io/2EBrPtK