Main character energy. Romanticizing your life. Being THAT Girl. I call nonsense, with a shout-out to the ones who’ve lived it.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a trend has risen. It’s Instagram reels filled with green juices, traveling, workouts, and just… aesthetic. Beauty everywhere. The essence of the trend is to not wait for your life to become beautiful, but instead, make what you have beautiful. Your life is like a movie, so live it like the main character.
My obsession with movies and television took roots long before the pandemic. At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I thought of myself as the main character before it became a trend. Actually, to clarify, I often thought of myself as the breakout supporting character who either wins awards or gets a spinoff. But those are the ones you remember most, anyway!
Meanwhile, the “main character” trend has taken on different manifestations in mainstream culture. With it has come the criticisms one can expect: the ones sharing their “main character” or “that girl” moments are conventionally attractive girls living in apartments most people can’t afford. To boot, it’s all about productivity. Reading books, eating healthy foods, and going on adventures with your friends.
All in all, while the inner energy of the trend is a beautiful sentiment, it’s not a realistic one for most. Not everyone has the time to make clean eating, workouts, journaling, and travel a priority. That last one is a big one for me: it’s easy to feel like the main character when you’re standing on the edge of a mountain or staring at your toes in the sand while the ocean delicately washes past your feet. It’s easy, because you’re on vacation. It’s your first vacation in months. On vacation, you don’t share the same concerns of everyday life. The rest of us can’t afford to live a glamorous life in Hawaii or Paris.
Sugar Pine 7: Doing the “Main Character” thing right
This trend took on a life of its own in the past two years ostensibly as a result of people trying to use the isolation of the pandemic to transform. However, I noticed “main character” energy in a different source prior to even the IDEA of a pandemic. That came in the form of the vlogging misadventures of “Sugar Pine 7.”
It all started in 2017 as Sourcefed, a Youtube channel originally founded by Philip DeFranco, was cancelled. Then-Sourcefed personality, Steven Suptic, was suddenly out of a job. With not much to do and with nothing but time on his hands, he started vlogging with his friends as they set of on their own to make their own successful Youtube channel. However, their content wasn’t that of “hustle” and “grind” like Youtube entrepreneurs tend to boast about a-la Gary Vaynerchuk. It also wasn’t absurd, clickbait raucousness of the peaking “Vlog Squad,” a popular Youtube channel hosted by David Dobrik.
“Sugar Pine 7” took a more realistic approach. Steven would film himself and his friends (chiefly James, a coworker from Sourcefed; Clayton James, also known as Cib; and Parker, who would later go on to step quietly away to work for a Disney XD show) hanging out, doing normal things, like checking out your friend’s new pet fish or going on a hike. Granted, things eventually did get slightly scripted, as their inside jokes and comedy bits took on a life of their own, but it felt more like exaggerated versions of themselves. The combination of Steve’s narration, the generic stock music, and the occasional heartfelt closing reflections, made the Sugar Pine 7’s videos feel like you were watching real friends, not people playing stock roles.
Burned too Bright, Gone too Soon.
“Sugar Pine 7” ended up winning a Streamy award in its’ first year, but they did not last. After a few changes and a buyout by popular streaming and gaming company “Rooster Teeth,” “Sugar Pine 7” came to a quiet end after about two years. The group agreed they creatively felt burnt out, and that some days, just hanging out felt like work. A podcast featuring the core three had started midway through the run, “Beyond the Pine,” but Steven eventually dropped off to focus on streaming on Twitch.
The podcast continues on without him, and Cib and James recently posted a video signaling a small return to the “Sugar Pine 7” vlog form. James still lives in Los Angeles, but Cib has since moved to Arizona, so it’s unlikely that the two will record vlogs together often. For the most part, the magic of “Sugar Pine 7” exists as a memory.
I think a lot about “Sugar Pine 7” because I found their videos right when I got out of college. Their chaotic humor reminded me of what it was like to hang out with my closest college friends. Several months prior, we’d all gone off in different directions geographically after graduation. Certainly, I messaged them on Facebook every day. I sent Instagram memes every time I laughed. We each flew out to visit each other at least twice a year. However, it made me sad to think that we could have that every day if we all lived in the same place again. “Sugar Pine 7” helped fill that void.
“Sugar Pine 7” captured what it meant, to me, to live your life as the main character. You don’t go to a crazy party every other night, things don’t always work out, and sometimes the people in your life disappoint you. But friends make the bad stuff better, and the good stuff great. That’s the kind of reality that’s better than fiction.