We always knew we didn’t belong in Abercrombie; being accosted by overpowering cologne while dodging deer antlers and shelling out a year’s worth of allowance on a sweatshirt never particularly appealed to us. But then again, we weren’t blonde, lead cheerleader, and built like, well, we usually say “an Abercrombie model”, so we were pretty sure A&F didn’t want our business anyway.

Turns out, we may have been right.

When speaking with Business Insider last week, Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail, claimed that A&F CEO Mike Jeffries “doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.’”

So what exactly deems a kid cool enough to earn the privilege of wearing the A&F brand? In a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries said, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids…We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

So who’s automatically excluded from this “cool” group? Girls above a size 10, apparently. Abercrombie doesn’t even list women’s XL or XXL on its size chart. According to Lewis, the only reason Abercrombie offers XL and XXL men’s sizes is likely to appeal to beefy athletes. Read more

Once upon a time, at the same time every week, one of my roommates and I had to ditch our apartment (occupied by a few fellow young women) for a guy friend’s abode so that we could watch South Park as it aired — our own TV was occupied by banter delivered at tongue-twisting-speed by The Gilmore Girls, which aired at the same time as our beloved Kyle and Cartman. So when this female fan of shows like Rescue Me, Archer, and The Following read AdAge’s article discussing the popularity of male-targeted shows among women, the first thing I thought was, “I knew it wasn’t just us!”

In fact, the highest-rated cable show among women so far this year is not FOX‘s female-targeted New Girl or Lifetime‘s Dance Moms, but AMC‘s gore-filled zombie apocalypse drama The Walking Dead. According to Nielsen, the February 10 mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead drew a 5.0 rating/11 share among women 18-49 (almost twice that of its nearest competitor). To give that number some context, shows like ABC’s Once Upon a Time and CBS’ The Good Wife are lucky when the same demographic comes in above a 1.5.

So does that mean that women are seeing past gore and violence to intricate story lines and interesting characters? It’s not that simple. Horizon Media research director Brad Adgate says gore isn’t necessarily a turnoff for women. “If there’s one genre that’s really popular with men and women, science fiction is it—anything that deals with the occult really.” To support his point, Adgate mentions long-running procedurals like CSI and Law & Order: SVU, which boast an overwhelmingly female audience.

It seems we ladies aren’t wading through the scary stuff–we are wholly engrossed in it. Girls may be sugar and spice and everything nice, but we also like to watch shows about serial killers.

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The non-profit business model is timeless: Celebrities and other well-to-do individuals identify a personal cause and encourage fans and followers to get involved–but the whole venture runs on the large donations of the fortunate few.

While Matt Pohlson and Ryan Cummins were still in business school, they attended a charity event that inspired them to change that equation altogether. The two classmates would have loved the opportunity to play basketball with Magic Johnson, but the price on the play date was a prohibitive $15,000. The incident got them thinking about a new way of running a charity venture–by expanding the playing field to include all interested parties.

Now they bring us Omaze, a project that offers fans “the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences that also support social missions.”

Omaze is no small-time operation: past partners include Lady Gaga, Modern Family, the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, Meet the Press and the cast of Glee. Here’s the kicker: the required donation for participants is only five dollars. That’s right, for five bucks the super-fan can enter to win the chance to hang out with the cast of his/her favorite show…and support a worthwhile charity in the process!

How are they able to run a successful operation on the strength of such tiny donations?

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The cast of Glee, well on the path to global domination, have turned up on a runway in a promo clip for Fashion’s Night Out, the September 8 holiday/event that encourages people to out and shop for a cause — cause retailers like taking your money. But let’s be honest, you like giving it to them. The stuff you get in return is so pretty.

Anyways, the song they’re singing is “Fashion” by David Bowie and the Glee crew is wearing some swanky duds from designers like Alexander McQueen and Dries Van Noten.

[h/t Gawker]

Reader’s Digest has launched “Your Life… The Reader’s Digest Version,” a campaign that asks readers to send in their autobiography in 150 words or less, complete with advice or a life lesson. The contest is hosted by the magazine’s Facebook page and is tied to a series of books of the same name.

Glee’s Jane Lynch, the spokesperson for the campaign, submitted the first entry, which is actually a touching summary of her life to this point, ending with: “The journey has taught me to trust in life, and to stay open to the unexpected, because life is about recognizing the path, not knowing the way.”

You can vote for her story (of course, it’s among the most popular submissions so far), but the $25,000 grand prize will likely go to someone who isn’t already hosting the Emmys.

Today was a great day for those who were nominated for an Emmy award. But it’s actually a pretty darn good day for the actors and actresses who end up on the countless lists of those who were snubbed.

Over the past hours, these overlooked actors and their shows are getting high praise from reporters nationwide, landing story after story about how great they are and how dumb the Emmy committee is.

Among today’s PR Buzz Winners are True Blood and one of its lead vampires Alexander Skarsgard (above); Glee‘s Lea Michele and Cory Monteith; zombie thriller The Walking Dead (when is that coming back BTW?!); and Nick Offerman from the comedy Parks and Recreation.

Congrats to today’s winners. It’s likely these folks will all be winners again around September 18, when entertainment reporters, digging into the corners of every Emmy angle, will rehash their lists of who should’ve been nominated.

Last week, the Parents Television Council set its sights on the cast of Glee, causing a hubbub over a GQ photo shoot that they likened to “pedophilia.” According to the New York Times, while the organization is great at causing a stink, its actual influence may be sliding.

Hurt by financial problems, the rebuke of an F.C.C. policy that was one of the PTC’s cornerstones, and internal issues, the Times says TV networks and advertisers are feeling more emboldened about pushing boundaries. For instance, despite the organization’s opposition to the CBS program $#*! My Dad Says, the show goes on with big-name advertisers like Burger King.

Even in the Glee situation, GQ has kept the issue on newsstands despite the PTC’s statement and tons of coverage of the group’s opposition.

The Parents Television Council released a statement this week denouncing a GQ photo shoot featuring three of Glee‘s stars as bordering on “pedophilia.” One of the stars, Dianna Agron, responded to the group’s outrage on her blog with both an apology and a question of her own.

“If you are hurt or these photos make you uncomfortable, it was never our intention. And if your eight-year-old has a copy of our GQ cover in hand, again I am sorry. But I would have to ask, how on earth did it get there?”

The star is contrite, but doesn’t take the criticism lying down. Is this an appropriate response? The comments are open.

[Image via PopEater.]

TMZ is reporting on the stir caused by the November issue of GQ, which features three of the stars of Glee - (from left to right) Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele.

According to the site, The Parents Television Council has released a statement that “denounced” the show’s creators for the “hyper-sexualized” photo shoot that will appear in the magazine.

“It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly written for adult men, is sexualizing the actresses who play high school-aged characters on Glee in this way,” the statement says, quoting PTC president Tim Winter. (For the record, these three actors are all over the age of 18.)

Is this a PR crisis for the show? The comments are open.

[Image via TMZ.]

According to E! Online, Glee star Lea Michele is working hard to dispel any beliefs we may have that she is an obnoxious diva. Back in May, E! reported that Michele made out with her boyfriend at the Time 100 gala and then snubbed celebrity photog Patrick McMullan (NYMag.com has a snapshot of the make-out session and the horrified onlooker.) She tweeted an apology to McMullan, but the whiff of divaness remains.

E! applauds Michele’s PR team for getting her the cover of Glamour magazine and an interview that shows how nice she really is. If you go to her house, she’ll make you baked ziti! I like her.

[Image via MTV.com]