Jessica

Just as someone with iron deficiency anemia craves ice (“pica”), I crave texture .

I yearn to feel the coarseness of sketch paper and the silky fibers of a floor rug more than ever before. I’m sitting at my laptop typing this essay, and what do I feel? I feel the base of my palm resting against the slight cold of my MacBook’s sturdy silver gray... See more

During an interview following an anniversary fashion show, Ralph Lauren told me that the best advice he could give to a fellow creative is that you’ve got to find a way to be inspired by your life.

Shop the spring outfit makers

I think about it all the time. And am really coming around to the idea that winters in New York are like a sensory... See more

Girlhood is big business. The ones who are best at it literally treat it as an occupation, modeling or taking suitably candid-looking pictures of themselves, recommending clothes and jewelry and books, going viral on TikTok. They’re performing a way of being that looks joyful, effortless, and adorable. It’s a performance that by definition has a... See more

Normal behavior is forgotten. Only weird behavior survives.

Nobody tells stories of when you did the expected — they only tell stories when you did the unexpected.

Normal behavior costs nothing in the short term — but it disappears into the abyss.

Unconventional behavior costs a social price in the short term — but the actions live on as story assets... See more

It’s the reverse now. We are in the “management” phase of infrastructure. Rather than viewing immigration as demand expansion and a chance for the pie to grow, we treat it as a scapegoat for wider systemic failures. Immigrants become a proxy war for how we think about identity, who deserves what4 and people on Jubilee argue over who gets the... See more

1. It’s Good.


2. It Can be Better.

It’s a little trite, but try it out next time you’re feeling hard on yourself. If you’ve gotten some way into a creative project, the odds are it’s not terrible. It’s probably not where you want it to be or where you’ve imagined it can be, but it’s hopefully at least decent. And it can be better.

But in my opinion, the best way to get more comfortable asking “dumb questions” is to ask them more, because then you’ll see the benefit and become addicted. I learned this skill at school because I noticed the deep sighs of relief from classmates when I sacrificed myself by asking my teachers or professors the dumb question we were all thinking.... See more

A big project of mine over the next year will be writing about cultural scripts and expectations in friendship. Friendship is vastly undertheorized as compared to romantic relationships, but they’re just as important: they affect our quality of life in the most fundamental ways. Friendship is an entry point to everything: work, romance, sense of... See more

That the answer to all these questions—of art, of children, of startups—is “pay attention to your circumstances, work hard, establish the right culture, and manage your emotions” might be the most unsatisfying advice ever given. Still, it is the advice that I believe to be correct. There is no spreadsheet that will tell me how to raise my daughter... See more