Pajamagate. What is it, how did it start and why on earth do people care so much about pajamas?
If you’re like us your TikTok for you page has been flooded with videos of people talking about Christmas pajamas and possible lawsuits. While it may seem crazy that someone would sue over pajamas, this is just further proof that nothing is too crazy for the internet. Here’s a breakdown of all of this pajama drama and why the internet is going to war over some Christmas PJs.
How It Started
On Nov. 10, 2024, Cecily and Samantha Bauchmann, two sister-in-law lifestyle and family content creators, launched their new brand ‘4 The Mems’ selling family holiday pajamas. Once the brand launched it immediately received negative backlash from fans and the internet regarding the pricing.
The pajama set prices ranged from $98 for the women’s set to $58 for a children’s set. Fans quickly pointed out that while the brand was marketed as being for “everyone,” the pricing made the products unaffordable for them, especially taking into account that most of Cecily and Samantha’s following is middle-class families.
While quality comes with a price, fans also pointed out that the pajama sets were not particularly high-quality material that would warrant such high pricing with the pajamas being 93% rayon and 7% spandex.
After receiving this backlash from fans, the two girls took to TikTok and posted an apology video stating that they had lowered the prices of the pajamas to make them more affordable with the women’s pajama set price lowered to $75. The girls also claimed that they were not making any profit from the brand launch, a claim that the internet was quick to call a lie.
Many people online were still unhappy with this apology, claiming that the girls failed to address the main issue which was the tone-deaf nature of their pricing, and instead got defensive. But wait— it gets worse.
The Lawsuit Threats
On Nov. 14, 2024, another TikTok content creator Gabrielle Egan (@gabbieegan) posted a video showing that she had ordered a pajama set from ‘4 The Mems’ to see what the quality was really like. She claimed the reason for her order was that she herself had looked into launching a pajama line and had done research on which fabrics to use, and had ultimately decided that the fabric being used was not worth that price but wanted to have their pajamas to see for herself.
On Nov. 15 Gabby posted another TikTok video showing that her order had been cancelled. The set was still available on the website so Gabby assumed that the brand had canceled her order on their side after seeing her video stating she was posting a review.
The same day Samantha posted a comment that stated they canceled an order because they were informed that the order was placed with “intent to post a negative review regardless of the quality of the product.” She then claimed that it was “defamation and malicious intent” to review the pajamas negatively in this way.
Gabby then posted another TikTok showing a DM that she had received from Samantha. The message stated that the reason they canceled her order was because they were informed that Gabby had posted on Reddit that she intended to give a negative review of the PJs regardless of quality.
Samantha then stated again that this “shows malicious intent to harm” and was a crime. She also added in a passive-aggressive “I didn’t even know who you were until this” and stated that the girls were just trying to protect themselves.
Fans were quick to point out that even if that had been Gabby’s intention when purchasing the pajama set, it is not a crime to leave a bad review. In fact, Cecily and Samantha were the ones committing a crime by canceling her order since Gabby is protected under the Consumer Review Fairness Act.
New Characters Enter The Scene
Other influencers began to feed into the narrative as well, specifically Avery Woods, another family lifestyle content creator. Cecily had recently appeared as a guest on Avery’s podcast, “Cheers,” where the two girls appeared to be friends.
However, amidst Cecily receiving backlash from the internet about the pricing of her PJ sets Cecily liked a comment left on one of her TikTok videos saying that Avery had released a collaboration with a brand selling sweat sets for the same price but received no backlash for it while Cecily was receiving tons of hate.
Avery then addressed this on her podcast saying that Cecily liking the comment confused her because she had thought that she and Cecily were friends before her liking that shady comment towards her. The podcast episode received a lot of attention and caused Cecily to receive more backlash in the process.
Where Are We Now?
Pajamagate continues to unfold and new characters begin to enter the scene sharing their opinions on the drama. At the end of the day, it really is just a pajama set. An expensive, drama-filled pajama set— but just a pajama set nonetheless. Internet drama is truly never that deep, but it sure is entertaining.
Let us know your thoughts on pajamagate by mentioning @VALLEYmag on X!
