When you, like me, lived via the aughts, you will always remember 2006. The yr was prolific for minting cultural icons: it is when Taylor Swift launched her debut album, “The Satan Wears Prada” hit theaters, The Actual Housewives dropped its first season, everybody was watching “Excessive Faculty Musical” for the primary time, and sure, Popsugar was born. (It is also after I went all-in on tanning beds and chunky highlights — two issues I am glad to depart firmly prior to now.)
As we rejoice our twentieth anniversary as a media model, I have been considering so much recently about what it will need to have been prefer to launch a web site again then, on the peak of the movie star weblog period. Regardless of a lot good occurring on the earth of leisure, the cultural commentary on-line was brutal: physique shaming headlines, invasive paparazzi photographs, brutal takedowns by strangers on the web. That additionally created a chance: Popsugar emerged as the brilliant spot.
“I needed it to be a secure house,” founding editor Lisa Sugar lately informed me. Lisa began the corporate in 2006 (nicely, technically, she began running a blog in 2005, however PS formally turned integrated the next yr) along with her husband Brian and a few mates as a spot to rejoice all of the issues she liked in popular culture. Shortly, the positioning turned embedded within the cultural second that outlined millennial fandom. By the point Lisa employed me to run the wonder division eight years in the past, Popsugar had a worldwide viewers and protection that spanned health, trend, magnificence, health, meals, and parenting.
When you go searching immediately, the influence of the early aughts is all over the place. Twenty years later, and we’re getting reboots, reunions, and returns of the 2000s trend and wonder traits everyone knows and love. Many icons have advanced within the years since, together with Popsugar. So to mark the milestone, we’re taking you again to the last decade that is outlined and endured towards all odds. When actuality TV, mall trend, and movie star blogs (ahem) formed what individuals talked about. And importantly, we’re exploring what the comeback of all of the above says about society now.
I hope you will be a part of us in reliving the magic with every of our cowl tales — that includes Tahj Mowry, Monique Coleman, Daniella Monet, and Sabrina Bryan — and dive into the feel-good impact of all of your favourite moments making a grand return in 2026.
I additionally hope you will take pleasure in my dialog under with Lisa Sugar, the one who dreamt up this particular little nook of the web, as she displays on the way it all got here to be.
Kelsey Castañon: Take me again to 2006. What was the media panorama like then, and what did you need Popsugar to be?
Lisa Sugar: In 2006, media web sites weren’t a factor on the web. There was Gawker and Perez Hilton, mainly loads of actually snarky stuff. When it got here to the established manufacturers, there was simply nothing on-line. Folks journal was a touchdown web page to getting subscriptions. On the similar time, blogs have been beginning to pop up and there have been group boards the place you possibly can discover movie star avenue fashion photographs that may later find yourself in print. However the paparazzi was ruthless, the feedback have been horrible. When Popsugar first began it got here from that movie star fan angle — simply eager to rejoice and assist them from a constructive place.
Our unique imaginative and prescient was to recreate a newsstand on-line, multi functional place. I labored in promoting and received entry to all of the magazines at no cost — I liked Glamour, Fortunate, all of them. It was simply so gradual; you bought them month-to-month. Even with the weeklies, by the point you bought the difficulty on Friday the photographs have been per week previous. I noticed we might ship the information a lot sooner. I’d evaluate TV pilots and new motion pictures and books earlier than they dropped. I knew I needed to combine buying early on, as a result of then I might share the wonder merchandise I liked as a lot as I needed.
KC: What’s one movie star story or popular culture second that modified every part?
LS: There have been two large moments that put Popsugar on the map. The primary was when Renée Zellweger received married to Kenny Chesney. When the information broke I received entry to the one picture and revealed it three days earlier than every other media outlet. Visitors simply took off, and it additionally introduced in individuals who needed to associate with and spend money on us, like NBC. The opposite is after I received early entry to the Self-importance Truthful [issue] that includes Jennifer Aniston’s first interview post-Brad Pitt. I used to be capable of cowl the highlights, and the response was simply enormous.
KC: Inform me about these early days of beginning the model. When do you know it was one thing particular?
LS: Within the first yr we in all probability had a dozen workers. I used to be 29. I simply had a child. I used to be like, “Do individuals need a child within the workplace? That is bizarre.” However we have been all simply constructing this factor, and we turned shut like household.
We have been additionally rising like loopy. Inside 9 months we had one million individuals come to the positioning, and so they’re coming again a number of instances a day. Then inside that first yr we began launching different verticals. Expensive Sugar was our recommendation column, Fab Sugar was for trend, Bella was magnificence, Match was health. Ultimately we had 11, and every website had an avatar impressed by a star. In fact nobody knew they have been impressed by celebrities, however that is how we [the editors] considered them; we had Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson, JLo, Kerry Washington. . .
KC: This was all earlier than social media existed. How do you know what verticals individuals would reply to?
LS: All of the locations you go now, the group boards like Reddit, they did not exist. So we constructed them. We have been noticing within the remark part on popsugar.com that individuals have been changing into mates and standing up for one another. We set the precedent: we do not speak crap right here within the feedback. Go some other place for that.
Ultimately we seen individuals began having conversations within the feedback, like “What are you studying?” or “What are you cooking?” so we listened to that. We launched Yum Sugar. After which inside all these websites, we then launched group boards, and folks went fucking loopy. All the wonder evaluations went nuts, which was an enormous class for us. Then we launched recipes. In a single day we had 20,000 individuals submitting recipes. The boards informed us what individuals needed. We have been forward of our time again then, individuals weren’t doing that form of stuff then, however group — that is nonetheless every part.
