Sylvie

Lately, it feels like every week, another major tour is being quietly cancelled because the seats aren’t selling.The music industry has a new diagnosis: Blue Dot Fever.It’s named after the blue dots on Ticketmaster seating maps — the unsold seats that keep multiplying.Meghan Trainor. Zayn. Post Malone. Jelly Roll. The Pussycat Dolls. Among the... See more

if you care deeply about something, you can compel other people to care through your work. You may find, too, that it may seem as if no one cares as intensely and passionately as you—but once you start writing, all these people come out of the woodwork who are just as invested as you.

When it comes to getting people invested in literature, I tend to believe that the right approach is not to beat people over the head with lectures about how literature is really important; it cultivates moral and ethical qualities in a person; if they don’t read books, or they’re reading the wrong books, they’re dumb and cringe and uncool.

It’s... See more

My mom would come to every single sporting event we had and encourage the heck out of us. As we got older we got more embarrassed of her verbal encouragement (why are teens this way?!), so she got these adorable wooden clogs that she would stomp loudly on the bleachers to remind us she was always cheering for us. It was always the most comforting... See more

My mom set up a “secret closet” in each house we lived in growing up — it was a dedicated closet space filled with blankets and pillows and glow-in-the-dark stars. It always felt special because we called it “secret” and was just for us, and my memories of it feel magical

There were three of us so one-on-one time was hard, but she always used to take us either out alone or away overnight on our half birthdays. It made me feel SO special.

My mom threw me a “women of influence party” when I turned 16. (This was waaaay before social media and “influence culture”). She invited women from my life (kindergarten teacher, friends’ moms, tennis coach, etc.) who had poured into me. It was both fun to be celebrated but also so humbling to realize that I have gotten to where I am thanks to... See more

What I realize now that I couldn’t recognize then is that when creative people aren’t creating, they slowly go insane.