‘Snap Pack’ Leader Andrew Warren Explains Why He Cyberbullied A NYMag Reporter
It’s been a while since New York City had a fresh pack of socialites.
And now, largely thanks to designer of Just Drew and Michael Warren, Andrew Warren, a fresh pack of moneyed and pedigreed NYC kids including Kyra Kennedy, Gaia Matisse, and Tiffany Trump (yes, of those Kennedys, those Matisses, and those Trumps) is making headlines.
And unlike many of the old-money socialites of the past, this crew isn’t press-shy. In fact, this week, Andrew and his friends became embroiled in some media drama straight out of Gossip Girl.
It all started on Sunday, when the New York Times published a story branding Andrew and company the “Snap Pack.” That story took the piss out of them only a little bit, but was a pretty straightforward account of a night in their lives.
But then, Allie Jones of New York magazine wrote a post about the story and all hell broke loose. Basically, she referred to Tiffany as Trump’s “least favorite daughter,” and Andrew and Kyra were not stoked about that.
So they decided to leave some nasty comments on her own Instagram page. And then Allie shot back by writing another blog post: “I’m Being Cyberbullied on Instagram by a Kennedy.”
Now, Page Six is reporting that Kyra is grounded from all social media by her dad after the fiasco. Since Andrew and I have mutual friends and actually met IRL last week, I asked him to tell his side of the cyber-bullying story. Here’s what he had to say.
Why did you choose to respond to the New York magazine writer? Did you feel that she’d unfairly portrayed you?
I didn’t do that for myself. I don’t care if people write bad things about me. A lot of bad things have been written about me, and I’ve never attacked a writer like that, but I was really angry because she said something mean about Tiffany [Trump] in her article, who’s my best friend. Tiffany wasn’t even mentioned in the Times article! Tiffany hasn’t made any remarks at all, and when the writer attacked her, calling her “Donald Trump’s least favorite daughter.” It was just so unfair. Tiffany’s not going to stand up for herself, so I had to, because she’s just the sweetest, best person, and I can’t stand people being mean to her. I’m going to stand up for my friends if things like this happen, so I don’t feel bad about it. That writer is a gross person.
But why not choose to contact the writer directly?
Because even if I had said something to her directly, it’s not like she would have retracted her statement. You know that, you’re a writer. Nobody’s going to do that. And I had even written exactly why I commented on her Instagram like that, but she didn’t choose to include that in her article. I’ll send you the screenshot! [posted below] I read all the comments, and people have been mostly siding with me about it so like, people can call it cyber-bullying or whatever, but that writer cyber-bullied first.
Has this made you wary of the outlets that you speak to?
Yeah, I’m so done. I’m not going to do articles with my friends anymore. I work too hard for things like this to happen.
Were you happy with the Times story in general?
I think the Times was really great, and the writer is a really nice person, and the whole thing was fair, because she does shows the side that we have fun, or whatever, but also that I work hard. Take the DuJour article I did with my friends. We shot my clothing for 12 hours, and they ended up spinning the story about “rich kids of Instagram.” That’s usually what happens, is that I’m approached do a story which is supposed to be about my line, but ends up being about how I use social media. And that’s fine, but I’m done being associated with “rich kids of Instagram.”
Why is that?
I work as hard, if not harder than, everyone else. I have to go through the same problems as any other brand to get investors, and I have to work very hard to be taken seriously.
Did you see the Fat Jewish Instagram post likening Tiffany to the “Ice Age” sloth character?
Yeah. Imagine if you were Donald Trump’s daughter at this moment. I’m proud to be best friends with her, and she shouldn’t have to be judged by anyone. She can’t even do any press right now, but she fought really hard to be in my fashion show last year, as a favor to me. She’s such an amazing person. My mom loves her. In most cases, I feel like I win and I can take people down. But with someone like Fat Jewish, what can I do? But if I see him, I’ll be really nasty to him. I care about my friends a lot. I love them, and I will do anything for them.
I can’t imagine what kind of things she’s going through right now. It’s pretty shocking that she’s not the one having public meltdowns right now. I would.
She’s going to Penn and taking law and business classes and getting straight A’s and not having one public meltdown. She is such a strong person.
But is it frustrating to be associated with the same people all the time?
Of course! And I don’t want to be brought down by anybody. I love Tiffany, and she’s my best friend, but there are definitely others that I have no interest in being associated with. I’m my own individual person, and I’m trying to focus on that. People look at photographs and assume a lot about my group of friends, but it’s stupid. We’re not all friends, we’re just at the same dinner parties. Someone’s obviously going to take a group photo, and then we get labeled the “Snap Pack,” but that doesn’t mean people understand anything about who I am based off my associations.
But you do realize that a lot of people’s understanding of you is based on privileges that you do have.
Of course, but at a certain point, I’m just over people criticizing me because my parents have money. I was just born with it, I didn’t ask or do anything for that. And I’m from a stable family, and I’ve always been loved, I’m always happy. I’ve never felt underloved. And yes, I’m going to get a trust fund, but what I want is a clothing line. My grandmother called me the other day to say how proud she is of me for bringing back the family business. I work so hard every day. I don’t want to be the “rich kid of Instagram.”
You mean that?
Listen, when I was younger, I didn’t care. But I’ve given up a lot of stuff in order to put everything towards my clothing line. I’m living at home. I don’t shop. I don’t have an apartment, because I want everything to go towards Just Drew. I want people to take me seriously, and I do like to have fun and I have a certain persona, but whatever. I’m over it.