Streaming
After the docuseriesLuLaRichexposed the MLMs tactics, an expert confirms former members suspicions.
I first learned of the leggings cult in the small hours of a 2017 winter morning.
A grainy selfie showed her holding up a Kate Spade purse, beaming through fire-engine red lips.
Shed hashtagged the photo #BecauseOfLuLaRoe.
It was like someone had hijacked her brain, likeInvasion of the Body Snatchers.
Or… like a cult.
Do you know whats up with Ms. Davis?
And wtf is LuLaRoe?
I texted a former classmate, who still lived in our hometown.
Its an MLM, my friend responded.
Basically a leggings cult.
U see it yet?Anthony Nippy Ames, co-host of the podcastA Little Bit Culty, DMed me.
He was referencingLuLaRich, Amazon Primes docuseries about the notorious company and itsfounders, DeAnne and Mark Stidham.
Same shit [as NXIVM].
They recruit participants through the use of false and misleading information.
Moreover, they psychologically manipulate their distributors through thought control.
At LuLaRoe, many die-hards came to call their co-founders DeAnne and Mark Mom and Dad.
If anything was positive in your life, it was always because of LuLaRoe, an ex-member says onLuLaRich.
To wear, live, and breathe all things LuLaRoe.
Disobey, and expect everlasting misery.
This demographic has been the industrys target since the dawn of modern direct sales in the 1940s.
Enter: MLMs, whose advertising has always riffed on whatever female empowerment buzzwords were trendy at the time.
For MLM sellers, the group becomes their new site of community, ritual, and purpose.
To this degree, the direct sales industry is a strategic and consistent assault on the American spirit itself.
So what if your shipment of leggings showed up defective?
If you werereallya #bossbabe, youd make it work and sell them anyway.
The MLM has put measures in place to ensure that leaving isnt easy.
At this point, youve likely developed deeply emotional, codependent bonds with other members.
You text with them all day.
Youre in secret Facebook groups together.
And theyre all counting on you to make money.
If you give up now, theyll tell you, youll disappoint your family and your family.
You wont be a #bossbabe anymore.
If youre happy and confident you might sell anything.
