Amid financial nervousness, authorities gridlock and political violence, it was typically laborious to stay optimistic in 2025.
However amid a seemingly never-ending stream of dangerous information, The Put up’s Way of life crew did their finest to make readers smile — and lift their eyebrows — by reporting on the weirdest and wildest happenings within the Massive Apple and past.
From AI sexbots and celibate Zoomers to the most recent developments in couture and beauty surgical procedure, our intrepid crew felt no story was too taboo to cowl.
Beneath are 10 tales that received our metropolis and nation speaking: learn on, chill out, and take respite from the doom and gloom that in any other case dominated headlines.
Sexless singles
There was no scarcity of intercourse tales in 2025 — however for a lot of ladies, there was a scarcity of intercourse.
As The Put up reported in October, Gen Z and millennial ladies are fueling America’s weird bonking recession.
Throughout the nation, youthful single gals are abstaining from intercourse like by no means earlier than — not as a result of they’re saving themselves for marriage for spiritual causes, however as a result of they’re fed up with right now’s miserable digital courting world and hookup tradition.
Mandana Zarghami, 29, advised The Put up that she purposely didn’t sleep with anybody for 4 consecutive years — and males have made her determination pretty simple.
“Hookup tradition doesn’t profit ladies in any manner — it solely advantages the person,” the Floridian declared.
“I’m not right here to guage, however on the similar time, it [hooking up] ruins the half the place, while you truly discover that individual that you simply wish to spend the remainder of your life with,” she continued, “it takes away from that particular, intimate second that you’ve with them.”
What in regards to the males?
Many younger ladies appear hard-pressed to discover a good man — and it’s seemingly as a result of they’re all nonetheless connected to their mother.
In October, The Put up profiled the rise of so-called “hub-sons”— a portmanteau of the phrases husband and sons: unemployed Gen Z and millennial mama’s boys who stay within the parental house and carry out home duties in trade at no cost hire.
“This has been my dream job since I used to be a bit child,” Luke Parkhurst, 33, advised The Put up. “My mother is at work proper now; she covers every part, and I keep house.
“I do the grocery buying, prepare dinner steak for dinner, clear the pool and make things better round the home.”
Who’s having cyber intercourse?
For a lot of younger males — and a fair proportion of girls — the intercourse recession could also be fueled by the proliferation of AI apps that supply sexting providers, rendering human contact out of date.
Elon Musk’s Grok lately allowed customers to get pleasure from X-rated conversations with their AI characters, and our intrepid reporters, Asia Grace and Ben Price, bravely volunteered to talk up the pervy pixelated personalities.
Grace received steamy with hunky chatbot Valentine, proving fiction may be simply as frisky as any real-life encounter.
“Being referred to as ‘babe,’ ‘queen’ and ‘my love,’ pet names that haven’t been directed my manner shortly, felt good,” our Way of life author Grace fessed up. “Sending a textual content with out having to play the ready sport or fearing that I’d be ghosted felt liberating.”
Price, in the meantime, started a digital dalliance with an AI character named Ani — and was left shocked by her particular kinks, together with asphyxiation.
“Spicy Ani even invented a intercourse scene based mostly on her love of ramen, describing the 2 of us in a ‘huge copper tub’ brimming with inventory — ‘slurping noodles till our lips meet within the center,’” Price wrote.
And it seems AI bots look scarily life-like
Again in July, The Put up took to Occasions Sq. to see if each locals and vacationers might inform the distinction between actual beauties and faux bots.
We confirmed every participant six completely different pictures — three snaps of real-life influencers and three of computer-generated AI fashions — and requested them to guess which was which.
The outcomes have been stunning: It seems it’s extraordinarily tough for individuals to differentiate between the real and computer-generated.
Not a single individual was capable of guess all six accurately. Many extra failed dismally, exhibiting simply how simple it’s for software program builders to trick even tech-savvy children into believing what they see on a display is actual.
Fashionistas fume over NYFW
Whereas New York Vogue Week was as soon as probably the most glamorous occasion on the Massive Apple social calendar, it’s now a shell of its former self, in accordance with our September function.
Garments are more and more an afterthought because the occasion has change into a hotbed for wannabe influencers and weird model collabs — and fashionistas are fuming.
“After I was rising up, all I wished to do was go to trend exhibits, be a mannequin or sit there. I used to be sneaking into each frigging present,” Hayley Corwick, aka Lila Delilah, of trend and buying weblog Madison Avenue Spy, was quoted as telling The Put up within the piece.
“Now, after I get invites, I don’t really feel like taking an Uber there. Even the individuals in trend aren’t going to the style exhibits anymore,” she sniffed.
Who’re probably the most trendy New Yorkers? Youngsters!
The identical month the town’s model hounds mourned the loss of life of cool at New York Vogue Week, dad and mom have been spending up a storm to make sure their offspring have been wanting stylish for the beginning of the varsity yr, The Put up reported.
It seems that tots stands out as the metropolis’s best-dressed demographic.
“The [national] common back-to-school spending per baby is $774,” stated researchers for CouponBirds, an internet reductions hub, earlier than noting that Massive Apple mothers and dads are spending roughly $1,348 per baby.
Nevertheless, different moneyed mamas have been forking out much more.
Nurka Lucevic, a Queens mom of 4, has shelled out $2,500 — an quantity she likens to “a mortgage cost” — on selection garments, name-brand baggage and Stanley Cups for her crew, who vary in age from 2 to 12.
So, what was scorching for adults?
Whereas Massive Apple kiddies have been toting designer backpacks, The Put up reported again in February that Gen Z and millennial model buffs have been hightailing it to the Celine retailer in Soho to get their palms on the $1,200 flared denims worn by rapper Kendrick Lamar throughout his Tremendous Bowl LIX halftime present.
“Y2K model is again,” David Thielebeule, males’s trend director for Bloomingdale’s, declared. “Kendrick’s flared denim and varsity jacket nailed the vibe.”
Celine quickly offered out of the flowery, throwback flares, prompting some style-minded buyers to go looking out dupes of the denims.
Rodrigo Calderón, 25, advised The Put up that he’d snagged a number of pairs of similar-looking pants for beneath $100 from native thrift shops.
“Flared denims are a timeless and iconic selection,” he declared. “I’m glad Kendrick Lamar put them on the spot once more.”
Extra polarizing pants got here again into model, too
As The Put up reported in August, Capri pants — these truncated trousers final seen on Carrie Bradshaw through the authentic run of “Intercourse and the Metropolis” — have been sported by a brand new wave of celebrities, together with Kendall Jenner, Anne Hathaway and Emily Ratajkowski this yr.
Stylist Julie Matos, 48, who owns three pairs, has cherished them since she was a child.
“I bear in mind happening a buying journey with the Woman Scouts after I was younger and shopping for my first pair at Macy’s,” the Chinatown resident recalled to The Put up.
Nevertheless, others have been extra essential of the calf-length leggings.
“They give the impression of being fantastic on Audrey Hepburn … however I hate the thought of them on myself with the fury of a thousand suns,” Elisa Mala, a millennial journey author who lives in Staten Island and didn’t wish to give her age, lately advised The Put up.
“And I hate [Capri] leggings with the fury of 1,001 suns!” she added.
Jaw-dropping filler
The Put up’s Way of life crew additionally conquered the sweetness beat, reporting on the most popular beauty developments in 2025, together with filler for males.
One fulfilled filler aficionado advised The Put up he spent 4 figures on the injections to make his mug look extra masculine.
“I received jawline, chin and cheek filler,” Queens native Antonio DeVita, 31, a digital marketer, dished on his $7,200 facial enhancement. “It was a little bit of an influence transfer — now, after I stroll into a company setting, I really feel extra assured.”
Many males are getting the trio of therapies to attempt to appear like Hollywood hunks and different wealthy, highly effective males.
Lara Devgan, a Park Avenue board-certified plastic surgeon, stated, “Should you take a look at American presidents or Fortune 500 CEOs, you’ll see that one of many options most males have in widespread is a powerful jawline.”
Devgan advised The Put up she’s seen particular developments amongst formidable males throughout the generations.
“Males within the vary of 30 to 40 are on the ascent of their careers, within the peak of their income-earning years, they usually’re trying to improve the masculine appears they’ve had of their 20s,” stated the knowledgeable. “Males of their 40s, 50s and older should not solely attempting to remain aggressive within the workforce but in addition attempting to make their exterior look nearly as good [or young] as they really feel on the within.”
Alarming ‘Ozempic’ our bodies
Earlier this month, reporter Allison Lax gave us the thin on slimmed-down celebs, a few of whom have been utilizing weight-loss pictures to realize a aim weight.
“‘Ozempic physique’” is the brand new ‘heroin stylish’ on the earth of movie star — and the truth that it’s trickling all the way down to the plenty ought to concern everybody,” Lax declared, arguing that it wasn’t “physique shaming” to be anxious about their weight.
Whether or not or not they’re mainlining GLP-1s, Hollywood stars are shrinking. Celebs like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are doubtlessly selling unhealthy beliefs of what a physique ought to appear like, an “offended and betrayed” Lax declared, writing: “The thinness is alarming, and it might have catastrophic penalties for the way youthful generations view their our bodies — and take care of their well being.”
