Illustration of measles virus particle. (Getty Images/Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library)
(NEW YORK) — A coroner’s office in Pennsylvania reported a measles-related death of a 40-year-old unvaccinated woman on Sunday, which comes amid a growing outbreak in the state.
“A 40-year-old female resident of Jefferson County died on Saturday, September 12, 2026, from complications associated with measles. Out of respect for the privacy of the deceased and her family, no additional identifying information will be released,” the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said in a post on Facebook.
“This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and an unfortunate reminder that measles can be a serious and potentially life-threatening disease,” Coroner Greg Furlong said.
The person was unvaccinated against measles, Furlong confirmed to ABC News.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said they are investigating this death reported by the Jefferson County coroner in a statement provided to ABC News.
As of Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported 676 measles cases in the state, with over 100 new cases reported over the last week. Of the cases, 124 have been hospitalized, and nearly all cases are among those unvaccinated against the virus, according to data from the health department.
The number of measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania officials has been disputed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in recent weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not reported any measles deaths in 2026 on its website,last updated on Friday, while the PA Department of Health has previously reported two measles-associated deaths linked to this outbreak.
CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said in a statement that the agency has not yet been notified of this most recent death reported in Jefferson County.
“CDC was not notified by Pennsylvania officials of this death,” Schwartz said. “Despite repeated offers of assistance, Pennsylvania has not requested a CDC Epi-Aid, which would deploy epidemiologists and provide on-the-ground measles outbreak support.”
In late August, Pennsylvania’s top health official, Dr Debra Bogen, had said her staff was having “regular meetings with professional staff at the CDC” in a post on X responding to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying her department had “refused to share information” with the CDC after the first two measles-associated deaths in the state were announced.
A sign indicates the store accepts SNAP benefits on April 21, 2026, in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding could face a major shake-up at the end of September unless Congress passes a resolution to delay major changes included in H.R. 1, commonly known as the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
Starting Oct. 1, states will have to pick up 75% of the administrative costs of running the program, with the funding burden of providing benefits to participants set to shift from the federal to state level over the next few years.
State and national food assistance groups are calling on Congress to pass a resolution delaying the implementation of this cost shift, to give states more time to prepare for the bigger bill.
The federal food assistance program faced a funding lapse last fall, and experts are now warning of an uncertain future.
Nationwide, roughly 5 million Americans have lost access to SNAP since the Republican-backed budget bill became law, including more than 1.5 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Much of the decline can be attributed to changes in work requirements and administrative hurdles in applying, coupled with a major cost shift that states will have to bear if they want SNAP to remain fully funded, Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the CBPP, told ABC News.
Under the law, the upper age limit for able-bodied adults without dependents who must meet work requirements was raised from 54 to 64.
Additionally, exemptions were changed for parents and other family members responsible for a dependent, lowering the qualifying age from 18 to 14.
“The declines we’re seeing in SNAP participation so far are far deeper and far faster than the Congressional Budget Office predicted at the time the law was enacted, and it’s especially alarming that more than one and a half million children have been cut,” Rosenbaum said.
“We’re hearing increasing reports … of people struggling to put food on the table, of people facing untenable choices between, you know, paying their rent and buying groceries and other essentials, putting gas in their cars,” Rosenbaum added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the impact of the new work requirements. The administration has publicly supported the idea in the past.
“The American dream is not being on [a] food stamp program. … The American dream is not being on all these programs. That should be a hand up, not a handout,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business in January.
Alongside the new work requirements, the budget outlined a major shift in costs from the federal government to the states.
Beyond each state’s responsibility to pay 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs starting in October, states are set to pay a percentage of the benefit costs tied to its error rate in the coming years.
The error rate measures underpayments and overpayments, resulting in mandatory additional payments ranging from 5% to 15% for most states.
Impacts already seen
In Arizona, the state “took immediate action on error reduction efforts after H.R. 1 became law,” the Arizona Dept. of Economic Security said. This included expanding documentation requirements, establishing a preauthorization review process and continuous income monitoring. More than 400,000 SNAP recipients lost access to the program thereafter, according to the CBPP.
“Which meant that the number of people visiting food banks increased by about the same amount,” Terri Shoemaker, executive vice president of the Arizona Food Bank Network, said, crediting the state’s changes in SNAP for the substantial drop in participation.
“We know that [the Arizona Department of Economic Security] is trying to get its arms around accuracy and reporting, but at the same time, we also know that there are people who were impacted by those changes who shouldn’t have been,” Shoemaker said.
When the changes began in Arizona, Shoemaker said, communities rallied to donate food to people who had lost access to SNAP. Still, she added, the response is not sustainable.
“For every one meal that Arizona food banks provide for families, SNAP usually provides about five,” Shoemaker said. “Nationally, that statistic is more like one [meal from food banks] for every nine [meals from SNAP]. But if you think about that and food banks trying to fill that gap, it’s just a scale and scope that is so vast that food banks are going to have a hard time keeping up.”
In neighboring New Mexico, the impact can also be seen.
“Find out where your food bank distributes food and check out the length of a line,” said Jill Dixon, the executive director of the Food Depot — a collection of food banks covering northern New Mexico. “We have one in front of our building on the first and third Thursday of every month. That line usually extends over a mile and a half by the time it opens at 7 a.m.”
The Food Depot distributed more than 8 million meals across much of New Mexico in 2025.
“These are people. They’re not lines. It’s not boxes of food. It’s not anonymous. It’s deeply personal, and it’s right at the center of our community,” Dixon said.
“We’re going to see some hard times ahead,” she added. “Long term, we really have a reckoning of how we’re going to go about making sure that people are fed in a moment when it is incredibly hard to make ends meet.”
Predominantly Republican states hit
In predominantly Republican states, the impact is similar. Louisiana has seen the second largest per-capita decline, with 21% of the state’s SNAP recipients no longer having access to SNAP according to the CBPP.
Food Bank of North Central Arkansas CEO Jeff Quick said his state is facing a burden too large to bear without major changes. “We will never be able to food bank our way out of food insecurity,” Quick said.
“At best, I think we may be unprepared or unable to cover the cost to continue SNAP in Arkansas, and again, if that worst-case scenario were to happen, it could have an estimated $1.2 billion negative economic impact on our state,” he added.
Quick also said work requirements have hit harder in Arkansas, adding that a worker earning the state’s $11-an-hour minimum wage may still be ineligible for SNAP benefits.
“We don’t want to see anyone go hungry, and regardless of who you are or how you vote or how you legislate, we’re all on the same path,” Quick said. “We got to put great minds together around common causes to find solutions to hunger.”
The White House did not comment on whether the administration supports delaying the cost shift.
What’s next?
Food bank organizations at the state and national levels are asking Congress to pass a resolution delaying the cost shift and allowing states more time to lower their error rates before taking on the additional costs.
“States need more time,” Rosenbaum said. “They need more time to work to lower their error rate and improve their payment accuracy in a way that doesn’t limit access to benefits.”
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman released a version of the farm bill that would delay the cost shift of SNAP, though it has not advanced through the opposite chamber.
Lawmakers return to Washington from August recess on Sept. 14.
Packages of Taylor Farms salad greens are displayed at a Safeway store on July 16, 2026, in Kings Beach, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that the cyclospora outbreak that plagued thousands of people across the country during the summer months has ended.
The outbreak, which was eventually tied to iceberg lettuce distributed by Taylor Farms, sickened almost 13,000 people in 21 states. Two people died and at least 570 people were hospitalized due to cyclospora illness.
The FDA announced in July that it was investigating cyclospora illnesses linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia after several cases of cyclospora had been reported in late June.
The CDC said Friday more than 1,000 cases were reported in a single day at the height of the outbreak, before the contaminated lettuce was recalled by Taylor Farms on July 17. The illness notably made headlines for causing “explosive diarrhea.”
Citing a decline in infections linked to the outbreak — fewer than two per day in August — and all contaminated Taylor Farms products being taken out of circulation, the CDC said it considers this specific outbreak over. It notes the best-by dates for all products linked to the outbreak have passed and are no longer available in stores or restaurants.
The FDA will continue to investigate the cause of the contamination, which has not yet been identified.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex takes part in a session of Pickleball, one of the two new sports for the Invictus Games, during the Invictus “1 Year To Go” event, July 10, 2026, in Birmingham, England. (Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry is set to make his first public appearances in the United Kingdom since moving back with his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their two children.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, is scheduled to attend two events late next week for the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style competition for wounded service members that Harry founded more than a decade ago.
Then, on Sept. 21, Harry is confirmed to attend and speak at the WellChild Awards, an event in London for seriously ill children that both he and Meghan have attended on multiple occasions in the past.
From there, Harry will participate in the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, set to be held Sept. 22-23 in New York.
Harry was among the “featured participants” named in a lineup released Thursday by the organization, founded by former President Bill Clinton.
Neither Harry nor Meghan have made any public appearances since moving to the U.K. from California with their kids, Archie and Lilibet, in late August.
Earlier this week, Tower Bridge Studios, a podcast and film studio in London, shared a photo of Harry at its studio, captioning the photo on Instagram, “Thank you Prince Harry for choosing Tower Bridge Studios! It was an absolute pleasure to have you in our studios and signing our wall[.] we look forward to welcoming you back again.”
The studio later removed the photo of Harry from its Instagram page.
It is not known publicly where the Sussexes are living in the U.K. nor where Archie and Lilibet are enrolled in school. The family plans to stay for an “extended period of time” in the U.K., where Archie and Lilibet will attend school, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The upcoming public engagements on Harry’s calendar appear to be consistent with the type of work he has done since he and Meghan stepped away from their senior royal roles six years ago.
At that time, it was agreed that they would no longer use their Royal Highness titles, would no longer represent the monarch and would no longer receive public funds for royal duties, freeing them to earn money on their own.
According to a letter released on Sept. 8 by the head of the Royal Household, Harry and Meghan will remain “private citizens” and not be working royals while living in the U.K. The letter was sent under the direction of Harry’s father, the king.
Harry and Meghan were “surprised” by the letter, their spokesperson told ABC News on Sept. 9. The couple has not commented further.
Buckingham Palace has also not commented on the couple’s move beyond that letter.
A 15-year-old boy is rescued from a capsized boat off Alaska, Sept. 7, 2026. (Carlos Escartin)
(NEW YORK) — A 15-year-old boy survived atop a fishing vessel after it capsized in frigid waters off the coast of Alaska, while his two crew members died, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard pilot who spotted the lone survivor sitting atop the overturned boat in the Bering Sea called the rescue an “emotional roller coaster” in an interview with ABC News on Thursday.
“We are beyond excited and beyond grateful that we found him, and at the same time, we are overwhelmingly remorseful that we didn’t find the other two in time,” Lt. Cmdr. Jonathon Resch told ABC News correspondent Trevor Ault.
The 18-foot fishing vessel had departed Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island on Friday and was due back early Sunday, according to the Coast Guard. It was reported overdue Sunday night, prompting the search and rescue effort.
Due to weather conditions, the Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircrew wasn’t able to begin the search until Monday, according to the Coast Guard.
Resch spotted the teen sitting on top of the skiff Monday morning approximately 4 miles from St. Lawrence Island, calling it “nothing short of miraculous.”
“People don’t survive those scenarios,” he said. “People don’t flip boats and survive nights. They don’t do it in warm water, let alone in water that’s, you know, 40 degrees.”
The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue with a nearby good Samaritan vessel, Northwest Explorer.
The aircrew dropped flares and life rafts in the water to increase the visibility of the teen’s overturned boat while waiting for the Northwest Explorer to arrive, Resch said.
“That’s another miracle in itself,” Resch said of the boat rescue.
Video of the rescue showed the teen kneeling on the overturned skiff as he’s reeled in with a heaving line and then brought aboard the Northwest Explorer fishing vessel.
The 15-year-old survivor had symptoms of hypothermia, the Coast Guard said. The two deceased boaters were recovered from the water and transported along with the survivor to Nome.
The Coast Guard has not released the names of the deceased boaters or the survivor.
“Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and communities affected by the tragic loss of these two mariners,” Rear Adm. Bob Little, the commander of the Arctic District, said in a statement. “We are grateful for the incredible efforts of the motor vessel Northwest Explorer, Federal, State, Village first responders and mission partners who assisted in the effort that resulted in a life saved.”
An illustration of Legionella pneumophila bacteria, the cause of Legionnaires’ disease. (Roger Harris/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New York City is experiencing another cluster of Legionnaires’ disease just weeks after a cluster exposure in Manhattan was declared over.
So far, five cases and one death have been recorded, the New York City Health Department said on Thursday. Health officials said they are waiting for results for other potential cases.
Cases have been detected in the 10451 and 10456 ZIP codes, which includes parts of Melrose and Morrisania in the South Bronx.
The health department said it is actively investigating the cluster and that testing is underway for samples collected among cooling towers in the area.
Health officials are advising clinicians to be on the lookout for possible cases and to conduct testing if the disease is suspected.
An outbreak earlier this summer on the Upper East Side saw more than 90 cases and 11 deaths, which health officials found was linked to bacteria in some buildings’ cooling towers.
“I understand that New Yorkers may have heightened concerns following the recent Upper East Side cluster,” Dr. Alister F. Martin, NYC health commissioner, said in a press release. “We are taking immediate action. Water ecologists have sampled cooling towers in the affected area. Any cooling tower that tests positive will be directed to undergo full cleaning and disinfection immediately.”
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by inhaling the Legionella bacteria in small droplets of water mixed in the air or contaminated water accidentally going into the lungs.
The bacteria are found naturally in freshwater but amounts generally don’t lead to disease. The bacteria typically grow best in warm water and in warm to hot temperatures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease does not generally spread from person to person, but infections can occur if the bacteria get into a building’s water supply, including in shower heads, sink faucets, hot water tanks, heaters, cooling towers and other plumbing systems.
Legionnaires’ disease has increased in prevalence over the last decade, reaching a peak of 2.71 cases per 100,000 in 2018, the CDC said. Cases dropped during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and then rebounded in 2021.
Although most people recover from Legionnaires’ disease with antibiotics, certain patients — including those who are immunocompromised or who suffer from chronic lung diseases — can develop complications that can be fatal.
About one in 10 people who develop Legionnaires’ disease will die from complications, according to the CDC. Among those who develop Legionnaires’ disease during a stay in a healthcare facility, about 1 out of every 4 people will die, the federal health agency added.
Health officials said any New Yorkers who live or work in the affected area, or visited since late August, should contact a healthcare provider immediately if they develop symptoms, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath or muscle aches.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks in Arlington, Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump defended his proposal to give Americans a $5,000 “dividend” — which some dismissed as a stunt or bribe — seeming to suggest it as a “reward” for voters who he says endured the Biden administration.
The comments came in response to ABC News pressing him on why he would need to offer such a payment if his economic policies are working.
Trump was asked on the tarmac on his way back to Washington, D.C. — after he closed out night two of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas — whether the proposed payment amounted to an incentive for voters to turn out in the midterm elections.
The proposed payment to all American adults — which some estimated would cost $1.3 trillion — was conditioned on Republicans retaining control of both houses of Congress in the midterms and the money being spent in the U.S.
The White House issued a press release on Thursday that suggests the checks could come from commitments the Trump administration has received from companies to invest in the private sector. It’s unclear how those investments, which have not yet materialized, would be made into dividend checks for Americans.
“The U.S. is still $40 trillion in debt, if your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?” ABC News asked the president directly.
Trump rejected the premise that the payment was intended to encourage voter turnout.
“I think what you’re going to do — I didn’t do it for turning out the vote, I did it as a reward for people having to put up with five years-four years of horrible situation caused by Biden,” Trump said.
Trump then pointed to what he described as problems with the Biden administration’s economic and immigration policies.
“I mean, they had to put up with the four years, and they carried on for at least a half an additional year with horrible, just a horrible thing that Biden did to our country,” Trump said. “And that’s not only just from an economic standpoint. You look at the border, you look at the crime, and now we’ve got it under control.”
“But what, what a period of time,” Trump continued. “It’s almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden’s policy.”
Trump has said the proposed $5,000 payments would be funded through what he has described as “tremendous growth.”
“We have tremendous growth. We have growth like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said. “We have trillions of dollars coming in, and that will end up being not a very big problem at all.”
Many members of Congress have expressed opposition to Trump’s plan, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slamming the move.
“Trump’s presidency is so failed and broken, he is resorting to trying to bribe the American people for their votes,” Schumer wrote in a social media post.
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, who serves as the vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus, joked in a social media post that “If Democrats flip the House and Senate everyone will get a $10,000 dividend, and a pony, and free ice cream for life.”
Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said he fears the payments would cause more inflation and accused Trump of trying to buy votes.
“Frankly, I’m insulted by the notion that my vote this November could be bought for 5k,” Massie wrote in a post on X.
Just last year, the president declared that every American would get a $2,000 rebate check paid for by tariff revenue.
“A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” he wrote on his social media platform in November 2025. That has not happened yet.
Even the most generous accounting, such as Penn Wharton’s Budget Model, estimates the tariffs brought in roughly $300 billion. And that’s not counting the money the Treasury has had to pay back to American companies after the Supreme Court ruled Trump’s tariff regime illegal. As a result of those debts, the government is currently paying out more in tariff revenue than it is collecting.
ABC News’ Justin Fishel and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic says it blocked several possible attempts to use its AI technology for research that could potentially support the development of biological weapons, according to a new report from the company.
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, said it disrupted dozens of instances of potentially malicious use of its AI models since December 2025, including several examples of what the company described as “biological misuse.”
The report details five case studies involving the use of Anthropic’s models in ways the company said “could support biological weapons development.”
In one instance, Anthropic said a researcher outside the United States accessed Claude from a region where the AI assistant is not supported and used the model while researching highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu. According to the company, the research focused in part on the virus’ adaptation to mammals.
Anthropic said the research was “clearly dual use in nature,” noting that understanding how the virus adapts could help scientists identify naturally emerging variants with pandemic potential but could also produce information that could potentially be used to make a virus more dangerous.
Anthropic said it banned accounts associated with the cases but stressed that it could not determine whether the researchers intended to cause harm.
“We do not assert that they intended harm,” the company said in the report.
This is not the first time Anthropic has released a report detailing potential misuse of AI. The company has issued three prior threat assessments detailing malicious uses of AI.
The latest report was released days after former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon spoke publicly about his concerns over increasingly powerful AI systems.
“If you extrapolate into the future, the level of capabilities of these AIs,” Coxon told CNN. “They could cause extreme havoc, for example, hacking critical infrastructure, building extinction-level bioweapons.”
Coxon’s comments come as a growing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for increased government oversight and new safety regulations for AI development.
Customers shop at a grocery store on Sept. 10, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Inflation held steady in August but price increases remained elevated as the Iran war continued to push up fuel prices months after it began. The reading matched economists’ expectations.
Prices rose 3.4% in August compared to a year earlier, maintaining the same level from the prior month, federal government data released on Friday morning showed.
Inflation stands more than a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
Gas prices jumped nearly 4% in August from July, accounting for about a third of the overall price jump last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Shelter prices — which include home-owner payments and rental charges — also sped up in August from July.
Groceries provided a bright spot in the report, however. The price of groceries stayed flat in August from July, putting annual inflation for groceries at 2.2%. That figure for grocery inflation stands well below the annual pace of overall price increases.
The fresh data arrived days after oil prices topped $100 a barrel and gas prices notched their highest level for any Labor Day on record.
The economy has shown signs of additional strain in recent days, including a bond selloff that threatens to raise borrowing costs for mortgages and credit cards.
Central bankers are sure to closely examine the inflation report as they weigh a potential interest rate hike at their meeting next week. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has vowed to cool off persistently elevated price increases.
Despite a stubborn bout of inflation, the economy remains fairly robust by some measures.
A blockbuster jobs report last week showed employers added 162,000 workers in August, demonstrating continued resilience for the nation’s labor market. The economy grew over three months ending in June, defying fear of a downturn triggered by the Iran war.
Inflation, however, continues to weigh on shoppers, while raising the likelihood of Fed intervention that may slow the economy.
Attacks on oil tankers in the Middle East pushed global crude prices above $105 a barrel as of Thursday, which amounted to a rise of about 50% since the Iran war broke out in late February.
The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. stands at $4.29, putting it more than $1.30 higher than before the war, AAA data showed.
Record-high diesel prices have raised transport costs for many everyday products, including groceries, clothes and furniture.
The price woes have divided central bankers eager to contain inflation but reluctant to cool off the labor market.
The Fed opted to hold interest rates steady at its most recent meeting in July. Three of the 12 members on the Fed’s policymaking board, however, voted in favor of a rate hike, marking the largest number of dissenters casting ballots in the same direction since 2016.
Financial markets peg the odds of a quarter-point rate hike next week at 71%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, a measure of investor sentiment.
Warsh, who took the helm of the central bank in May, said late last month that it should prioritize fighting inflation.
“Inflation is running above our 2% target so the Fed’s predominant focus right now should be on prices,” Warsh said in remarks last week at the Fed’s annual summer gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“If the Fed gets inflation wrong and judges the economy wrong, who gets the worst of it? Not the financial high-fliers. Hard-working Americans are the ones left to deal with inflation that is too high or jobs that suddenly appear less secure,” Warsh added.
(NEW YORK) — If you’re a millennial, you may remember the beauty and lifestyle influencers of the 2000s and 2010s. Back then, influencers were maximalists, competing to out-consume one another with walk-in closets filled with designer bags and shoes, and entire rooms dedicated to their makeup collections.
But in 2020, the economy began rapidly changing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the culture around influencers has followed suit.
According to recent Pew Research Center polling, only 24% of Americans rate the economy as excellent or good, and 66% are worried about the price of food and consumer goods. As their economic realities change and everyday necessities become harder to afford, people are moving away from content centered on over-consumption at a luxury price point.
A new generation of influencers is adapting to this perceived economic downturn and the growing number of viewers with a lot less cash to spare.
One of these creators is trend analyst and fashion expert Mandy Lee. She has amassed over 900,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok with content focused on trend predictions, runway reviews and her own funky, luxe style. In 2024, Lee designed the 75 Hard Style challenge based on a popular diet and fitness program. She challenges her audience to create 75 unique outfits over 75 days without purchasing anything new.
Over 70,000 people have participated in the challenge since its launch, according to Lee’s Instagram. It has inspired Lee’s followers to get creative with their wardrobes, while making them more mindful shoppers.
Influencers in the beauty space are also helping their followers find ways to get glam on a budget.
Shelby Ann Bell, an Atlanta-based bridal makeup artist, has built a platform of over 2.5 million followers on TikTok by posting viral makeup routines using affordable products. Bell’s techniques have inspired her followers on a budget to save money by using products easily found at the drugstore.
Growing up in Aiken, South Carolina, Bell became interested in makeup at a young age, but she did not have the budget for expensive beauty products.
“I really can resonate with the person who is sitting on the other side of the screen, and feeling like times are tough, and they just want to escape, feel confident, or feel beautiful,” she told ABC News. “Being able to do that at an affordable price point or on a budget is really important to me.”
Another popular creator encouraging her followers to save is Pooja Jain. With a master’s degree in biomedical and bioengineering and experience in pharmaceutical sciences, she uses her background to help TikTok followers find beauty and skincare routines on a budget.
Jain finds affordable substitutes by studying ingredient lists in luxury beauty products, identifying cheaper products with similar key ingredients and explaining in layman’s terms what each ingredient’s purpose is.
Her audience has grown exponentially over the past year, as skincare and makeup lovers seek ways to cut back on unnecessary spending by replacing high end products with affordable alternatives.
These are just a few examples of a growing trend. A new generation of influencers are gaining large platforms by meeting their audiences where they’re at financially. And as the economy continues to change, this will surely not be the last era of influencers to help audiences on a budget.
