This post contains spoilers for You season 2. Enter at your own risk.
Every episode of You season 2 on Netflix is basically a roller coaster ride. But the final episodes really packed in the twists and turns. In the final hours, viewers learned that Joe/Will’s latest Los Angeles obsession, the appropriately-named Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), is actually just as murderous as Joe himself—willing to slit the throats of people she sees as a threat to those she cares about.
In the closing scenes, we see Joe (Penn Badgley) and a visibly pregnant Love moving into a nice house where he soon wanders out to the backyard and spots his next door neighbor sitting by the pool reading. “This is just the beginning, because this is where I had to be. Exactly where I had to be to meet you. There you were with your books and your sunshine. So close, but worlds away. I will figure out a way: a way to get to you. See you soon, neighbor,” he narrates. Yep, Joe’s found a new obsession.
Netflix
Fans theorized that the woman is actually Joe’s mother, who we met in flashbacks throughout the latest season. “Why are some people confused about the last scene? that woman/neighbor was definitely joe’s mom. the hands were a dead give away… #YouNetflix,” one tweeted. And, honestly, it sounded like a solid theory.
But Badgley just debunked it in a new interview. “She’s definitely not his mom,” he told Bustle. “I can say that.” Welp, we guess that’s that.
However, it does raise the question of who this woman really is. She could be someone from Joe’s past—are we totally, 100% sure that Beck is actually dead? The show brought back Candace, so we know they’re not afraid to look to Joe’s life before we met him. Or she could simply be a new character who has no idea what sort of creepy killers have moved in next door.
The third season of You hasn’t been officially confirmed yet by Netflix, but all signs are pointing to yes on that front.
We know it’s only been a minute since Labor Day. You might still be working out your fall aesthetic. But it’s never too early to start thinking about your Halloween costume.
If you’re stuck about what to wear, Pinterest is always a good place to mine for ideas. And they’ve already rounded up the most popular Halloween costumes for women in 2019, based on searches from July 2018 to July 2019.
Aside from specific Halloween costume ideas, Pinterest identified a few larger trends, like how inclusive options are becoming more sought-after. (Searches for “Plus size halloween costumes for women” have gone up 90%, while those for “wheelchair Halloween costumes” have gone up by 26%.) Couples costumes are more popular than BFF costumes, according to search volume on the platform. And if you’re in California, Florida, New York, or one of eight other states, odds are you’ll run into a Powerpuff Girl on October 31.
If you’re having trouble narrowing down what you want to be this year, take a look at the top 10 trending Halloween costumes for women in 2019, according to Pinterest.
When it comes to nail ideas, we’re never in short supply of inspiration, mostly thanks to a never-ending deluge of Instagram posts. But some designs are—shall we say—less wearable than others. And when we go to our favorite salons for a refresh, we really just want something we can wear for a week without reaching for the acetone. If you’re looking to upgrade from a single-shade appointment to nail art this season, why not take a look at what everyone else is loving? We checked out nail salons across the country, from Seattle to Boston, and unearthed nine designs their clients repeatedly request. The common denominators? Something unique (think custom and hand-painted) or something with high impact and low time commitment (sign us up for that one, always). From confetti toppings to swirling floral tips, these are the most popular nail trends right now.
Tattoos are without a doubt one of the most personal ways to express yourself. But because they’re literally permanent, there’s often a lot of pressure and indecisiveness around what you chose to go with. Whether you sort through the Instagram explore page, look at seemingly endless pages of tattoo ideas from your local shops, or take a shot searching with good old Google—finding inspiration can be (and usually is) extremely overwhelming. Thankfully, should you be on the search right now, you’ve come to the right place.
Featuring pet portraits in Austin, palm trees in Miami, and matching sets in New York City, we present to you the most popular tattoos trending right now across the U.S. Inspiration drought? Handled.
It was dark, windowless, and cold—almost morguelike. But the cousins and I didn’t care. The chill kept our grandparents upstairs, which meant no witnesses to interrupt our “crimes.” A few hours of euphoric destruction, and then we would pile the carcasses in a plastic weekender bag we shoved behind a rolled-up carpet until the next time, leaving errant limbs to roll around like loose pennies at the bottom.
Some of the happiest childhood memories I have were made in that basement. It was where we mounted drawn-out melodramas. Gave bad haircuts! Applied vulgar tattoos in Sharpie! And sure, it was home to the occasional decapitation.
What I mean is: God, we loved our Barbie dolls.
Like more than 90 percent of American women, I grew up with Barbies. Tons of them. I had a pilot Barbie and a waitress Barbie. I had a swimsuit Barbie, a disco Barbie, and several Barbies that I stripped naked to liberate them from their too-stiff organza gowns. (Truth: I wanted to see their boobs.) I also had a Barbie Dreamhouse—even in 2019, 30 are sold per hour—and a pink convertible that Ken “fell” out of when Barbie floored it. (Truth: He was pushed. I pushed him.)
I can’t remember “the first” Barbie or even the one I liked best. But somehow the collection just expanded, with new Barbies added to the group to make the others jealous like proto-contestants on Bachelor in Paradise. The Barbies in my grandparents’ basement were the most abused, but even the ones I had at home endured hideous bobs and occasional pratfalls.
It doesn’t take a therapist to explain what I understood at six: This world wasn’t built for me. With Barbies, I could act out.
The standard Barbie is 11 and a half inches tall, but her reach is enormous. She has more “brand awareness” than Kim Kardashian and the queen of England. (Mattel ranks it at 99 percent worldwide.) Over 58 million of her are purchased each year, and she’s available in 150 countries.
Six decades after her invention, she’s still the number-one fashion doll in the United States and, since Mattel introduced new skin tones and hair textures in 2015 in response to a 20 percent drop in sales between 2012 and 2014, the most diverse. In 2016 the brand also unveiled three new body types—petite, tall, and curvy. Last month it announced it’ll add to the collection: Barbie in a wheelchair, the first with a prosthetic limb, some with a new, braided hair texture, and an entire fourth shape, with a smaller bust, less defined waist, and more defined arms.
New Barbies in 2019 include a wheelchair-bound doll and doll in a fourth new shape, featured second from the left.
Mattel
For a doll who was once programmed to complain that “math class is tough” on command, it’s all quite impressive. But then she didn’t have to do a lot to exceed expectations. Like most women born in 1959, she was underestimated from the start.
Barbie made her first appearance at the New York Toy Fair that March. At the time, she was an unprecedented experiment. But Ruth Handler was sure she would sell. Handler was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland. At 43, she was an executive vice president at Mattel, the behemoth brand she had founded with her husband Elliot Handler and his friend Harold Matson in 1944.
From the moment Mattel was established, Handler decided to be essential to the business, both because she had brilliant ideas and because she couldn’t bear to remain at home. In an interview, Handler said she loved motherhood. But the conventions of it? Well, those repelled her. Or as she put it: “Knowing how to cook and keeping a good house? Oh shit, it was awful.” For all Barbie’s foibles—and the Sleepover Barbie released in 1965 that came with a scale set to 110 pounds and a diet book plastered with the words “Don’t Eat!” is but one example—it’s no surprise that when Handler created Barbie, she made her an independent woman and a wage earner. Fine, she was a teen swimsuit model at first, but then a flight attendant, a teacher, and an astronaut. An afterthought, her husband Ken wasn’t introduced until 1961. And like all of her accessories, he was sold separately.
There are a thousand reasons to love Target, but few top the list more than the retailer’s beauty aisles. Ever since the store gave its beauty section a makeover—which looks far more like a Sephora now than it does a drugstore—it’s become even harder to avoid picking up a new lipstick or face mask while just “popping in” to grab whatever you actually needed.
Not only that, Target seriously upped its beauty offerings in 2018. Its skin care selection has been especially impressive with the addition of top K-beauty brands alongside Target exclusives like Pixi by Petra and Kristin Ess hair care—and we’ve got the intel to prove it. Ahead, to help inform what to throw in your shopping cart the next time you’re on a Target run, are the store’s most popular beauty products of 2018.
