Mariella’s experience is wide: she has written, researched, edited and produced content that covers everything from fashion to feminism, travel to tech, and women to weed. Having worked in the fashion space for over ten years, she now focuses her energy on positive change, whether consulting and strategising for her femtech-inclined clients or reporting on women’s health. She has been published in the likes of Bustle, DAZED MEDIA, The Spaces, and 

, while also creating content for Appear Here, On, MATCHES, and Ounass. You can also find culture/consumer insight articles with her byline on LS:N Global, Canvas8 and BEAUTYMATTER —for the US, UK, and Middle Eastern markets. 

Following years of pandemic-era leniency, institutional authorities are coming down hard on individual freedoms. Despite nine in ten office workers saying they don’t want to return to old ways of working, 70% of companies globally are mandating a return to the workplace. Meanwhile, reselling old clothes and concert tickets burgeoned into profitable side hustles for millions across the world, only for governments to start taxing sellers on their profits. Even online, where people had grown accustomed to a borderless existence, they’re having to grapple with new safety regulations that restrict what they can see online and where they can see it.

As the global cost of living crisis continues to determine people’s behaviours across everything from their careers to their shopping habits and personal relationships, people are growing hyper-aware of the capitalist systems upholding the status quo. With that awareness comes disappointment and cynicism – according to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, 59% of people trust businesses to integrate innovation into society, compared to just 50% who say the same for governments. No longer feeling supported by social structures, people increasingly believe it’s up to individuals to take care of themselves within a broken world order. As this belief takes hold in society, people’s relationships with power, authority, and morality are shifting.

People are getting strategic in all aspects of their lives to carve out new modes of freedom and individual gain. Having to exist within the larger-than-life systems, people can’t ignore the status quo – they need food on the table and have bills to pay – but they’re gradually realising they can subvert it. From using ‘algospeak’ to evade Big Tech’s censorship to secretly working two jobs or using AI to get ahead, people are finding innovative ways to make systems work for them – and not the other way around. They’re channelling their disillusion into subversion, finding power in defiance and agency in loopholes. This has given rise to anti-heroes, fraudsters, and tricksters becoming new role models for those seeking to inject a sense of irreverent joy and playfulness into a challenging reality.

The hacking mindset is rising across sectors. People are ready to hack their bodies, from quick-fix body modifications in beauty to influencers and digital platforms offering unlicensed, unregulated medication and treatments, including abortion pills, marijuana, and Wegovy imitators. They’re hacking their pleasures and entertainment by settling on luxury dupes and pirated content and escaping the renting trap by becoming permanent sofa surfers, setting up modern communes, or living with their parents.

Gaming the system is emerging as a way to have your cake and eat it too. As people learn to idolise professional scammers, don office punk attire, and default to digital piracy, breaking the rules is on trend. When self-determination feels precarious, people seek ways to get back into the driver's seat of their own lives. And you know what they say – if you can't beat 'em, hack 'em.

Life Hackers

Once a signifier of luxury or novelty, custom products and services are now within reach of the everyday consumer, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence, algorithm-led platforms, and the COVID-era digitisation boom. Today, everyone wants to be the main character of their brand experience. 

Personal Worlds

Robert Holland is the founder of Tempo, a California-based cannabis company that hit shelves in 2020. The LGBTQ-founded, Los Angeles-based brand makes the only precision-dosed savoury edible in the California cannabis market: Tempo Crackers. In 2024, Tempo expanded its offerings to include a line of all-in-one disposable vaporisers using Punch’s premium extracts. It offers affordable cannabis products in a selection of flavours and effect profiles.

Brandon Dorsky is a cannabis industry entrepreneur and lawyer with over 15 years of experience. He's also the CEO of Fruit Slabs, a regular speaker at cannabis industry events, and was named 'Hollywood's Favorite Cannabis Lawyer' by the Industry Lawyer in 2020. Dorsky is a co-creator of the graphic novel series 

 and part owner of Los Angeles' famous Yeastie Boys bagel trucks.

United States

Travel and Leisure

Leafy

NCSL

Pew Research Center

Gallup

Interview with Robert Holland conducted by the author

Thrillist

Gies Business

Forbes

Flowhub

PR Newswire

MJBizDaily Diversity Report

MJBizDaily

Interview with Brandon Dorsky conducted by the author

USA Today

BDSA

Current Addiction Reports

Bloom

Stewart Farms

Headset

McKinsey & Company

With cannabis undergoing a cultural renaissance and legal transformation, Mesobis is emerging as a standout brand, blending Latin American heritage with modern wellness. It infuses traditional flavors into hemp-derived gummies, leveraging demand for culturally authentic, accessible cannabis products.