Screenshot This

There’s a specific kind of girl who eschewed Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port and instead watched the superintern, Emily Weiss, spellbound. That was me. For those who really know, Weiss went on to found Glossier. It has had its highs and lows and plateaus, but Weiss came to be one of the unofficial faces of the term girlboss, even though I’m sure she’ll hate that. To me, she came to personify a particular kind of ambition that I hadn’t seen articulated but her presence was one I could look up to.

If you read this newsletter edition about content strategy and founder content strategy, you might assume I’m a proponent of founder-led content. Actually. I’m not. That piece was about how to do it thoughtfully if you’re going to do it. I had crafted that for brands who didn’t actually intend to start off with focusing on the founder, but grew into it (let me know if you want me to go more into that later). This newsletter is the question that you should be asking before all of that.

Perhaps a controversial opinion, but I love winter. Warming, comforting (and rich) foods, dressing for cooler temperatures in outerwear and scarves, hot chocolate and being cosy. And yes, it’s porridge season. I am enjoying the next few weeks in Australia before I go to England for just five days to attend a friend’s wedding. So perhaps in that context I’m feeling more pining than usual for winter, but it’s the contrasts in life that make you appreciate the other side so much more.

When I moved to Melbourne a few years ago, I assumed I already knew it from work trips. A day walking the CBD or picking up a Lune croissant on the way to the airport is barely doing Melbourne. What I learned quickly: it is so flat that I found it unnerving to spot an incoming tram 10 minutes out. That in Sydney we walked around bodies of water — in Melbourne it was the parks. And, the south and north divide is strong, despite there not even a toll route between them.

This is a classic THE EDIT newsletter edition: a round-up of what I’ve been reading, watching, listening, shopping and more. I started doing this on Instagram and then brought it over on Substack which is how I got my start, if you’ve been around way back when. Enjoy! Where have you been if you haven’t read Yesteryear?

I’ve done the scrolling so you don’t have to. And, with decades of experience of buying vintage both online and in-person, here are a couple of tips that I keep in mind. It has to be in good condition. Light marks don’t scare me — I have DIY laundry tricks and drycleaners I trust. But I’m not in the business of restoration projects. Check the label for licensing. This one catches people out.

The Edit And, what to listen, read, and shop in between. Everyone is trying to have an original point of view. Or as I often test in my own mind as the inverse: no one is saying they want to be an imitator. Each brand book says “Be authentic”. But no brand — or person — wants to be inauthentic.

Having a fashion show is reallly hard. Honestly, sometimes I don’t know why anyone does it sometimes. It’s expensive, time-consuming and for those who need sign-off from people not in the creative industry, the return-on-investment (ROI) can be debatable. (Think of the brands who have eschewed conventional shows for a influencer content farm event.) So, why do it? Well.

This newsletter is supported by Outside In. I was thrilled when they contacted me because I believe in anything that Carisa Janes does and really wanted to try her latest product. If you’d like to work with Screenshot This, email sabrinacteh@gmail.com. For fashion girls, it’s a note of pride to claim to not wear any makeup. To insist that you were born just like that, smelling that good, with your hair looking just-so as if you rolled out perfectly from your perfectly rumpled bed.

I tell people I grew up in Sydney, which is mostly true. It’s easier to explain — but what I don’t always mention is that I moved here from Papua New Guinea when I was eight. And although we all technically spoke the same language, there were codes I was still learning to read. As I grew up and worked in media, then marketing — crafting content to make customers remember, click and tick — I'm still reading them, fascinated. Recently, at a local grocery store, I was wearing a Deering T-shirt.