So, sure, Raya is less superficial than its acceptance would imply. however certainly Mr. Gendelman would admit that attractiveness and notoriety play some role in its standards for admission. consider, I talked about, my nonexistent Uncle Tony — a hypothetical bad-searching ancient man with out a public profile and no Instagram following to communicate of. If he applied to Raya, he'd be an computerized rejection, appropriate?
Mr. Gendelman shook his head.
"Is Tony decently pleasing? Is he passionate?" he requested. "I'm no longer kidding — we're attracted to curating digital dinner events, so to speak, and that comes in all forms."
After we met, Mr. Gendelman gave me my very own Raya account, so that I may see the neighborhood's diversity for myself. He made me promise not to identify any members I met there, a circumst ance I permitted due to the fact that many of the famous ones have already been outed.
After agreeing to abide by way of the suggestions, I opened the app and created my profile using a number of cautiously chosen photos and an think about Dragons music I pulled randomly from iTunes. (Raya makes use of full-display slide shows set to track, in lieu of static profile photographs.)
inside the first day of use, I spotted an A-list musician, a number of tv information anchors, a family-name comic, two N.F.L. players and a excessive-rating tech govt. I saw loads of nonfamous americans too — school college students, designers, apparently the total editorial group of workers of Condé Nast. all and sundry turned into both very pleasing or the form of person to whom very attractive americans can be drawn.
there's whatever exciting, and a little embarrassing, about this rarefie d air. to move on Raya is to enter a strange and welcoming world crammed with thirsty elites, a spot the place fame is measured in Instagram followers and humble-bragging is a high artwork ("I direct things," reads the profile of 1 a success filmmaker; a familiar television actress describes herself simplest as a "carb fanatic"), and the place the ordinary B.M.I. looks to hover within the high young adults.
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