TaviGevinson

I was such a grump/crank/angsty teen about what it meant to be "fashionable" that everything I wore was like, decisively unflattering. Like, "Ooh, this resembles a Muppet soaked in salad dressing, how cool that I get to sport it on my bod!" So even if I see an old photo of myself and know that I wouldn't wear that now, I'm glad I gave myself permission at that time to go for it because it made me more confident and it was just really fun.

Impostor syndrome is the bane of my existence. I look to my role models and remember that nobody, no matter how "aw shucks" they seem in interviews, can get anything done without, well, ~believing in themselves~. I try to stay so inspired to get work done that there isn't even time to be insecure about it, I just have to do it. (That means...watching movies, reading books, consuming, finding out what Rookie readers want to see on our site.) I also have playlists (mostly Kanye, also some Fiona Apple and Eve and Kelly Rowland and much more). Also mantras. Kate Nash told me to say to myself every morning: "I'm a badass bitch from hell and nobody can fuck with me." Saying it out loud makes it more true than if you just told yourself it in your head. So I recommend that. You got this.

BEAUTY AND THE BRIEFCASE STARRING HILARY DUFF

Oh shit. Um. Probably Beyonce. Because her visual album left me with SO many questions, and she seems to have come into her own (even more so than before) lately in a really special way, and I think it would mean a lot to our readers.

1. Thank you for reading Rookie, for coming to our event, for writing this really nice note about it, and for including the Lizzie McGuire yearbook reference!
2. Perfect pizza...just pepperoni.
3. I'm comfortable with my relative role model status as it relates to my creative pursuits. But I'm very happy that it doesn't seem contradictory to the work that I do that I should also have space to experiment and make questionable personal life-related decisions like anyone else my age. I'm pretty pleased to meet girls at Rookie events who feel inspired by Rookie to make their own shit but aren't looking to me as like, a beacon of purity.