Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

A Yogi Influencer’s New Yoga App Is Getting Ripped Apart By Fans Who Feel Ripped Off

This week's newsletter: Why fans of Jessica Olie are more than disappointed with her new premium app (I check it out for myself), and influencers of all kind are pivoting to TikTok.

Jessica Olie, a yogi influencer who posts bendy and nakey Instagram photos next to Rupi Kaur quotes to her 657,000 followers, has released a new app for meditation and yoga.

Unfortunately, the reception from her followers has been less than namaste.

The app, called Align With Olie, became available about two weeks ago. It currently holds an average of 2.1 stars out of 5 in the App Store. According to some unhappy customers, the guided yoga routines are pretty basic for the premium price (starting at $20/month).

“Having a large social media following and taking a couple trainings DOES NOT make someone a good teacher,” one user wrote. “The instruction is horrible. It’s very very obvious to anyone who practices regularly that Jessica has hardly taught. For the high price I expected so much more. Super disappointed. Do not buy!!”

Others claimed the app crashed and that there was no sound in some videos.

“I’ll stick to YouTube,” another added. “This app should be free.”

I reached out to Jessica on Wednesday about these complaints and have not yet heard back. This is the part of the reporting/newsletter where I remind readers she’s the same person I wrote about in August last year, when she did respond to me and tried to explain away why her “weekly giveaway” promotion was not, in fact, weekly.

I also downloaded the app to see for myself, and paid the $20 — which I will thankfully be reimbursed. I’m a touch-and-go yoga person. I will feel a burst of inspiration to get into it once a year and commit to practicing regularly before I fall off because yoga is very difficult and sweaty and requires lots of limberness. It’s a fun game I play with myself. Anyway, I was genuinely excited to see how Jessica could inspire me to implement it into my life.

Every other day, the app seems to offer yoga practices and stretching techniques, with nice mantras and places for you to log your thoughts and progress.

It does seem like the things noted in initial reviews have been fixed by her developers. The app never closed or lagged on me, but there were crucial functions that simply didn’t work. For example, a button you needed to press to complete building your routine didn’t do anything when I pressed it repeatedly.

There were several typos throughout the app, but this was pretty minor and easily fixable. My grammar heads out there, have fun spotting them for yourselves:

I understand why fans are upset and feel ripped off. But herein lies the magic of an influential person who’s perhaps more famous for their persona than for their ~craft~. This is Jessica’s yoga app — and she’s banking on fans buying into her. The yoga is secondary.

For $20 a month, and their special rate of $155 a year, you can probably join a decent yoga studio near you. Or pay for any number of other yoga apps available nowadays.Regardless, to the disgruntled buyers, some of whom emailed me directly about this: I hear you. I see you. My mind’s eye sees you. This is Jessica’s very expensive yoga world, and we can opt to live in it or not.


How do u TikTok, fellow kids:

I recently turned 30, and one of the hardest pills to swallow is that I am truly too old for some things now. I know, I know, it’s all relative, and if I want to wear a bandage dress or a really short crop top (I don’t) no one should stop me! But in actuality, I don’t want to desperately cling to my twenties — so I have to accept that some new trends are for the youths.

One such thing is TikTok. I love watching TikTok videos. It’s a truly delightful platform filled with pure, hilarious content (I’m sure it won’t stay that way). The user base is mostly Gen Z’ers, with some exceptions. However, I have enough self-awareness to know if I tried to copy the videos and get in on the joke, it would just look sad.

I have noticed that as TikTok becomes more mainstream, many influencers and bloggers have attempted to make the jump to this new platform. This makes total sense. Many influencers have been curating their online businesses since the early days of blogging, and they have only survived because they have been able to seamlessly jump from platform to platform as their audience’s attention has diverted. They have gone from blogs to Facebook pages to Instagram and newsletters.

Now they are trying to pivot to TikTok. Unfortunately, TikTok’s current culture is so entrenched in Gen Z memes and inside jokes, it’s hard for us Olds to acclimate. Still, some are trying, with cringeworthy results. I won’t call anyone out, because I’m not a bully. But this is my face watching lifestyle influencers try the latest dance challenge:

I’m not going to tell anyone not to do something that sparks joy. But I suspect a few of these influencers are pivoting to TikTok not because they truly love it but because conventional wisdom has taught them they have to continue to platform-hop to remain relevant.

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case anymore. The media industry, including both influencers and outlets like BuzzFeed News, is starting to focus less on trying to be everything to everyone, and focusing more on trying to cultivate a unique and close bond with its specific audience. You can see this shift in the rise of newsletters (like this one!) and membership programs that emphasize a sense of community within a media outlet. I can’t take credit for this observation, I heard it at a conference, but to me it seems to track.

So I would encourage influencers to focus instead on being themselves. Love TikTok and making silly videos? Great! But if you’re only doing it because of FOMO on a new platform, you may actually be shooting yourself in the foot. Readers can tell when you aren’t being genuine, and they are looking for authenticity and community more than anything else in this new landscape.

OK, bye, gonna go reflect on my wasted youth,

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×