App Review: Lulu

Labelled as the “first ever app for girls” (I honestly don’t know what that means, does my gender prevent me from enjoying Instagram and Plants vs. Zombies?), Lulu is a virtual ranking system that allows a female-only audience to rank their male friends, lovers, ex-lovers, and crushes on a scale of one to ten based on appearance, personality and habitual behaviour. 

While its main intention is to help girls “make smarter decisions” (as explained on their website), it comes across as more of a degrading and insulting forum that encourages people to make quick and rash decisions based on gossip from complete strangers.

The app requires its users to log in via Facebook, where they will then be linked to profiles for their male friends. The interface is compiled of a large collage of faces and profiles which users can tap on, read, and contribute too.

Users have the option to provide men with a number ranking, define what their relationship to them is (i.e. friend, ex, crush), and then describe them using brief sentences and hastags (i.e. #boysgotgame, #disappears, or #cheapasabigmac). In the collage setting, men are given an averaged ranking with a list of their most popular hashtags, while users can click on their profiles and read the full descriptions.

While it is a laugh at times, it can also be sad to see your friends getting low rankings or insulting descriptions, and makes you feel like a massive stalker (especially the “Last Seen At” option). And while it is user friendly for straight female clients, it isn’t very inclusive for other sexualities.

Overall, Lulu has good intentions, but is the creepy neighbour equivalent of apps.