Have you heard? Valkyrae introduces Squeex’s NYU scholarship while Indonesia adds to teen social media bans.

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

This week, streamers teamed up to kick off a scholarship, trick shot stars made a big hire, and the wave of teen social media bans arrived in Southeast Asia.

Creator commotion

Valkyrae visited NYU with Squeex to announce a scholarship named for him. Students learned “why you should drop out” at an NYU Game Center guest lecture organized by Valkyrae and delivered by her fellow variety streamer. Squeex’s scholarship will include professional development funding, travel stipends, and more.

Caleb Hammer’s app hit 600,000 downloads in just 13 minutes. The budgeting guru launched DollarWise to help his fans make progress on their spending habits. The app’s first-day sales were big enough to cause a brief outage. “I didn’t expect that,” Hammer remarked.

Paris Hilton is launching a new YouTube series. Through her company 11:11 Media, Hilton is doubling down on YouTube with a documentary series that spotlights female entrepreneurs who are rebuilding their businesses in the wake of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Back to Business will premiere on March 9.

The biz

Indonesia is the latest country to announce social media restrictions for kids and teens. The world’s fourth-most populous nation will bar access to top platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Roblox as part of a sweeping federal action. Indonesian content shows up frequently in our rankings of YouTube’s most-watched channels, making this the most impactful social media ban among the laws that have been passed so far.

Creatorland and w3.io’s Dealsync filters out email spam — and finds more than 11,000 legitimate offers. Creatorland, a business social network that supports thousands of creators, reported on the early success of the AI-powered Dealsync tool, which it launched alongside w3.io. The first 500 users were able to ignore more than 500,000 junk messages, making it easier to locate legitimate emails.

Vanity Fair is launching its own slate of paywalled newsletters. A decade ago, legacy publications like Vanity Fair produced their own YouTube shows. Now, the Conde Nast brand is shifting some resources to newsletters by launching four new digital periodicals at the same time.

Movers and shakers

Dude Perfect has hired its first Chief Content Officer. The Frisco, Texas-based creator group has chosen Kevin Sabbe as the head of an expanding content empire. Sabbe, whose experience includes a stint at the bygone multi-channel network Maker Studios, will guide Dude Perfect as the trick shot crew expands its brand of Creator TV.

TikTok’s global head of business marketing and commercial partnerships is moving on. Nearly six years after she arrived at TikTok, Sofia Hernandez is ready for a “deliberate exhale.” That’s how Hernandez described her decision to step away from one of the app’s top ecommerce roles. I don’t blame her — there’s enough evidence to suggest that working at TikTok can be a stressful gig.

Billy Parks is leaving Slow Ventures. Parks spent nearly two years at Slow, where the former Fullscreen SVP was part of an effort to invest in creator businesses. Parks described his Slow gig as “a front‑row seat to how creators are reshaping media, consumer behavior, and company building itself.”

The ad world

YouTube’s legal action against Barb draws industry condemnation. A TV-style measurement system in the U.K. earned a cease-and-desist from YouTube due to alleged API misuse. “It does seem odd that YouTube has spent so much effort trying to convince advertisers that they are TV, and so gain the benefits of that reputation, but the moment there’s some TV-like scrutiny they go legal to avoid it,”  aid Lindsey Clay, the CEO of U.K. TV body Thinkbox.

Open World will scale up its creator campaigns by acquiring Drope.me. The strategic brand consultancy, which was founded two years ago by management firm Loaded, is going big. By integrating Drope.me into its campaigns, Open World will improve its ability to work with large groups of creators across multiple platforms.

Gen Z founder Cami Tellez is getting into the creator marketing game. After making a splash in the underwear world with her bygone brand Parade, Tellez has secured $4 million of funding for a creator marketing platform called Devotion. Alongside co-founder (and former TikTok exec) Jon Kroopf, Tellez plans to work with large brands on influencer-driven campaigns.

The internet is a strange place

Overcooked 2 was a curious choice for Twitch Rivals’ International Women’s Day event. Critics questioned whether a game set in kitchens is apppropriate for a celebration of female liberation. Twitch defended its pick by explaining that its asked its partners at the Women’s Guild which game to play, and Overcooked 2 won the vote.

Teenage creators are getting equity from a Gen Alpha-focused brand. Tbe kids are really into skincare these days, and Evereden is giving them what they want. Its youth-focused strategy has it staking the creators who help it reach its target audience.

West African farmers are marketing crops on TikTok. Thank goodness they’re not putting their produce on OnlyFans.