Love Philly? So do we. Let’s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today.
Meija Moreno did not expect to be at the center of the internet this week.
If you’re unfamiliar with the real-life soap opera that is the reality TV show “Summer House,” here’s a little background on how an artist in Philadelphia got ensnared in a serious Bravo television scandal.
Moreno is not on “Summer House.” She’s not an influencer. She is an artist living in Philly, who works a day job as a remote receptionist.
Yet, she’s found herself embroiled in tabloid gossip with her name appearing numerous times in Page Six in the past week. Cosmopolitan put out a whole article with the headline, “Who Is Meija Moreno, and How Is She Connected to West Wilson From ‘Summer House’?”
The gossip has kicked off endless podcast discussions and articles speculating what exactly went down and why you should be mad.
To sum it up, “Summer House” features young (well, not so young anymore) New Yorkers spending summer weekends in a house in the Hamptons partying it up. Cast member Amanda Batula is accused of seriously violating girl code by hooking up with her best friend on the show, Ciara Miller’s ex, behind Miller’s back. The ex in question, West Wilson, is also a cast member. Not only this, but Batula is not yet divorced from her husband Kyle Cooke — yet another cast member.
Wilson and Batula put out a joint Instagram statement confirming their relationship in late March, which only seemed to add fuel to the fire.
So how does Moreno fit into all this mess?
Moreno is the creative mind behind Snarl.Studios — a brand where she makes ties out of horse hair. “Can’t lie, her horsehair ties are sick,” Cosmo wrote. Right before everything blew up, Wilson wore one of Moreno’s “hair ties” on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
“My friend Meija made this for me,” he said during the appearance.
@bravowwhl Hot or not: West Wilson's horse hair tie 🐎 #WWHL #SummerHouse ♬ original sound – BravoWWHL
Since then, internet sleuths got to work, with tabloids romantically linking Moreno to Wilson. Fans have now speculated if Wilson was not only secretly pursuing his ex’s best friend, but perhaps also dating Moreno while doing so.
We chatted with Moreno to see how she’s been doing, and what it means to be an artist in the center of a television scandal.
“I’m a normal person,” she said. “I’m not a part of that world. I don’t have a fan base that knows me and is ready to ride for me. So when my name started getting thrown in the mix, my immediate fear was that I was going to become a scapegoat, or somehow become the villain in the situation.”
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Summer House fans might know your name, but don’t really know you. To start, I’d love to hear where you’re from and how you got to Philly.
I was born in northern Idaho, of all places, and that is where I grew up. I moved to a suburb of Chicago for a year and then right before seventh grade started, we moved to Montana. That’s where I did the rest of middle school, high school and college.
You don’t know what a small town is until you grow up in a place like Idaho or Montana. The culture there is you get married, you have kids, you settle down — which there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But that’s not something I ever wanted for myself personally. And so I was like, “I think I have to get out of here. I’ve got to go somewhere where things are happening.”
People have always asked where I’m from, just because I’m not a blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman. And people always assumed I was from the East Coast. And so I decided to look there. I can’t afford New York, obviously. And so I was looking at other cities, and Philly was the first one that I decided to go and visit, and I just kind of fell in love when I went. I moved to Philly about a year ago.
Did you always want to be an artist?
I didn’t study art ever, but I was just always a creative kid. I was always wanting to make things with my hands, whether it was jewelry or doing sculptures or really anything. I think growing up in Idaho and Montana made me feel even more isolated in that way. There’s not really a culture for art there, so you’re not seeing people that are out doing creative things and being successful at it. It’s pretty rare. So I think that that always just gave me a sense of feeling like that wasn’t something I could do.
When I got older, I didn’t really see how this was applicable as a career, but I’d find myself doing it all the time for no reason at all. I’m just creating things. When I moved, I made that conscious decision of, let’s just move across the country and try to become an artist and really double down on that identity.
Where does the name Snarl.Studios come from?
I had made this little kiss lock purse, and I’d embroidered it with a cougar — growling, snarling on the front of it, and then painted the words, “show me your teeth.” It was right before I moved that I made that bag. I wanted the brand to be something that’s animalistic and kind of bold, but not overly aggressive. Then I found myself looking back at that bag that I had originally made, and she’s just, like, snarling on the bag. I was like, “Oh, that’s perfect.”
How did you come up with the idea to create a tie out of horse hair?
I got some black hair extensions, because I was thinking about using hair as fringe for my crocheted bags, and I was playing around with it at one point, and then it was just kind of by my chest. I was like, “Oh my gosh, wait, that’s such a fun play on words to do, like a ‘hair tie.’”
There’s something so interesting about something being creepy and pretty at the same exact time. And I think the horse hair ties, in a way, are a little weird and creepy, but I think they’re so elegant and pretty. I think it’s also probably a little bit of an ode to my Western roots.
It was all a pretty recent development. Within the past three months, I’ve been working on it.
Are they hard to make?
It typically takes me a few days to finish one hair tie. There’s a lot of braiding and sewing, and I have to process the hair and wash it, and dry it, straighten it — all of these things. Just working with hair in general, you know, it’s thousands of strands of this really fine material. I love a tedious job, and I just think it comes together so beautifully.
All the ties that I’ve made so far have been out of horse hair. It’s the tail of horses, or the mane of horses. I get it from a company that has a horse farm over in Mongolia. It’s not a slaughterhouse or anything. I contacted them to make sure. As far as I know, they are not harmed or slaughtered.
How did you meet West Wilson?
We both went to school in Bozeman, MSU, Montana State University. And he’s older than I am, so I actually didn’t hang out with him much in college, but Montana’s small, so we had a bunch of mutual friends and whatnot. I definitely knew of him, and we actually met for the first time at a destination wedding in 2023 that we were going to. We kind of lived together for a week, and that was the first time we ever met, and then we kept in touch afterwards.
What did he think of the tie idea?
West was always really supportive of me chasing down that dream of being some kind of artist. When I told him that I thought I wanted my medium to be hair, he was like, “oh my god, yeah, that makes so much sense for you.” He loved the idea, and was like, “Will you make me one?” It’s kind of perfectly up his alley, being a Midwest guy with a farm and ranch background. So I made him one, and then “Watch What Happens Live” was coming up. And he was like, “I really want to wear it on the show.” He was really supportive of it.
Like many fashion items, this one’s a bit polarizing. Only 37% of “Watch What Happens Live” pollsters are calling it hot. Why do you think not everyone gets it? What are they missing?
When West wore the tie on “Watch What Happens Live,” I didn’t know that he was going to be able to shout me out by name. I was actually on the train going back to Philly from New York when the episode was airing, and all of a sudden I started getting DMs from people before he even mentioned my name, which was so exciting.
As soon as I saw that there was going to be a poll, I was like, “Okay, people who would do a reality TV poll probably aren’t the same demographic of people that would be into a weird niche accessory, like a horse hair tie, because it is odd.” It’s an odd thing and it’s weird. It really didn’t hurt my feelings by any means. Anytime I’ve posted them online, I’ve gotten really great feedback. There’s more little weirdos like me online.
It was a really cool experience. I was really excited that it happened, even if it wasn’t the best voting outcome for me.
There’s a lot of rumors surrounding your relationship with West. Do you want to clear any of that up?
I would really appreciate it if we can just not.
Totally, I just want to give you that opportunity in case you want to take it.
I really don’t want to touch it right now. I don’t mind you mentioning that he obviously wore the tie and was supportive of it and whatnot. That’s all fine, but anything dating-wise, I’d rather just not get into it.
I’m wondering how business has been in the aftermath of the scandal. We’ve learned from “Vanderpump Rules” that Bravo scandals are a great way to market merchandise. “Summer House” cast members are filming commercials and selling products piggybacking on the news. What has interest in the hair ties looked like post this “Summer House” scandal?
I’m really fortunate for the situation, but also it is so unfortunate. Obviously, it was really amazing to have my art be seen on such a wide platform, and then it turned into a really unfortunate scandal all around. It also happens to be a scandal that directly impacts me. It’s kind of hard to separate the two. I don’t want to miss my opportunity, but I also want to handle things in a way that I feel proud of. I have gotten quite a few orders, which has been so amazing and validating. It’s kind of hard to work on them right now. Working on them just reminds me so much of this weird event in my life.
Have you been able to capitalize on the attention?
I haven’t done much since this whole scandal has happened. Nothing feels like it’s necessarily a good move. People are inevitably going to have questions about the actual drama of this situation, which is totally fine. I totally understand it. It’s the nature of that Bravo, reality TV sphere.
I’m just a normal person, and so I’m not used to navigating that whatsoever, and I’m not used to having more than five people paying attention to what I’m doing. I do want to try to get a silver lining out of this really unfortunate situation, but how do I do it in a way that makes me feel morally good about it, and also doesn’t come off as capitalizing on a really painful situation for a lot of different people.
How are you doing? I’m sure it’s been overwhelming.
The whole situation is really mentally hard. I feel really horrible for everyone involved, and there’s just so many layers to it. It’s been a really difficult thing to navigate both personally and professionally, because professionally, I would love to do this full time one day. And again, it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier, where it’s like, this is a really special and unique opportunity that I got, and a lot of artists don’t get that kind of platform ever, and they definitely don’t get it so right off the bat. So I was really lucky, and I felt really lucky to have that opportunity. And now it kind of feels tainted.
I have not processed it whatsoever, because it’s so not normal to all of a sudden have what feels like the nation’s eyes on you for something that’s inherently negative that you’re directly involved in, but not a part of the cast. People don’t actually care that much about me, but I’m kind of a weird part of it.
Do you have people around to support you?
My friends and family have been so fantastic. I’m sure I seem insufferable right now to them. I have friends here, but they’re all newer friends that I’ve made within the past year. It’s just different talking to them about situations versus talking to friends who have known me for years. My family and all those people are very far away from me right now. I guess I selfishly wish that I could be closer to them at the moment.
And then the other thing I will say, it borderline brings me to tears to talk about the amount of women who have come out to blindly support me and ride for me during this whole situation. It was a huge blindside for me. As soon as my name started getting thrown in the ring, my immediate thought was “the woman never makes it out alive no matter what.” I had a 48-hour panic attack about it, because I don’t even know how to defend myself, because I’m just one person. And again, I didn’t ask for this, and as far as I knew, I was not doing anything wrong.
So I was just really terrified, and I had so many women reach out to me and just show me support. It really makes me emotional to talk about, because that just feels like womanhood to me. So many women experience this kind of situation, obviously not on this scale, but they can relate to it in some capacity. That outpour of support was something that I wasn’t really expecting.
If people reading this do want to support you or are interested in your art? What is the best way for them to find you?
I have an Instagram that’s snarl.studios, and that’s pretty small. I kind of was rushed to make it after West wore my tie on Watch What Happens Live. I wasn’t really ready to launch the brand yet, if I’m being honest, because I didn’t think he was going to say the brand name, and I didn’t think he was even going to say my name. I wasn’t ready for this kind of exposure, but I’m happy it’s happening. So, let me try to catch up here.
And then my Tik Tok, which isn’t exclusively my art, is a lot of me just talking about it and posting about it. It’s just Meija.Moreno.
Two weeks ago, I was used to a few people viewing my art and what I’m making, and now it feels like thousands of people are watching what I’m doing. I know that’s going to go away once the scandal goes away, but it’s just been a really cool experience that at least I can get a few silver linings out of the situation, and that part of it feels really validating.
