Tavi Gevinson: Then people expect women to be that easy to understand,...

You don’t need to be a completely complete human right now … That’s what makes you human.

Tavi Gevinson

being-yourself inspirational funny

Feminism was not a rulebook but a discussion, a conversation, a process...

Tavi Gevinson

feminism process conversation

I wanted to start a website for teenaged girls that was not kind of this one-dimensional strong character empowerment thing, because one thing that can be very alienating about a misconception of feminism is that girls then think that to be feminists, they have to live up to being perfectly consistent in their beliefs, never being insecure, never having doubts, having all the answers...and this is not true and actually, recognizing all the contradictions I was feeling became easier once I realized that feminism was not a rule book but a discussion, a conversation, a process.

Tavi Gevinson

badass girl strong

There are moments when I am really not happy with how I look, or I think it would be an easy way out to try and do the conventionally attractive thing. But part of it is that I don't have the energy to put on, like, makeup. If people want to do that, that's fine. But I've learned that it's not for me.

Tavi Gevinson

makeup people thinking

You don’t have to be special, you just have to be kind.

Tavi Gevinson

special-you be-kind special

Fashion intersects a lot with art and film and music, and that was appealing to me. I read a bunch of fashion blogs and wanted to be part of the community.

Tavi Gevinson

fashion community art

Women are complicated...not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy, and women happen to be people.

Tavi Gevinson

crazy complicated people

I don't think I was ever thinking critically about my aesthetic, I think it's enough when you're little just to understand that you can give yourself the permission to try and see things differently or create something original, even though you probably won't make anything original for a really long time.

Tavi Gevinson

giving long thinking

I try to make everything creative because it's stimulating. There is this great Stanley Kubrick quote somewhere about how life is sort of bad and how creating is important because it lets a little light in.

Tavi Gevinson

creating light creative

What makes a strong female character is a character who has weaknesses, who has flaws, who is maybe not immediately likable, but eventually relatable.

Tavi Gevinson

weakness strong character

Feminism to me means fighting. It's a very nuanced, complex thing, but at the very core of it I'm a feminist because I don't think being a girl limits me in any way.

Tavi Gevinson

girl fighting mean

Some of my clothes are things that we'd play dress up with when we were little, and it's funny that now I'm wearing it like as an everyday thing. But if I say 'vintage' or 'thrifted' on the blog, there's this community of fashion bloggers and I've become sort of tight with some of them, and we like just send each other packages. If I'm thrifting and I find this great dress but it won't fit me and I won't grow into it because I'm impossibly tiny, I don't want to let it sit there. I'll buy it and send it to a friend.

Tavi Gevinson

fashion community everyday

If you are intimidated by the artists who came before you, understand you too have a place, right next to them.

Tavi Gevinson

intimidated next artist

One thing that I always liked about fashion was that it was tied in with music and art and film.

Tavi Gevinson

film fashion art

I think that everybody wants to be heard, and the easiest way to be the loudest is to be the hater.

Tavi Gevinson

hater want thinking

I love art, but I don't think I'm especially good at it. Fashion I think I could imagine, but I'm not really sure. I think it's easiest for me to picture myself in music.

Tavi Gevinson

fashion art thinking

Just really be passionate and stick to your creative vision. Because it's competitive, and there are so many mind games and so many things that could get in the way. But success is the best revenge, so build yourself up rather than knock others down.

Tavi Gevinson

creative revenge games

I will try to hold on to the intense feeling. I will both be glad that that’s no longer happening and kind of miss it. When you’re 14, you’re basically on drugs all the time - the hormones in your body are so crazy. But I really loved and appreciated the intensity of that. And you’re experiencing everything for the first time, so everything feels like an epiphany. And, like, I really liked the experience of having a crush, because I was like, this is my thing and it doesn’t have to do with you and you’re just some dummy boy for me to project on.

Tavi Gevinson

crush crazy boys

I see so few scripts just because, for whatever reason, there just aren't that many good scripts with a young, teenaged girl. So it's always been sporadic. People don't know what to do when writing a story with teens that takes place now - they think you have to make a bunch of references to Facebook.

Tavi Gevinson

girl writing thinking

Graduating high school was really emotional for me. I'd obviously made a huge thing out of what that experience was for me, and saying goodbye to it was very weird. So I had to be like, boom, onward and upward.

Tavi Gevinson

emotional goodbye school

Then people expect women to be that easy to understand, and women are mad at themselves for not being that simple, when, in actuality, women are complicated, women are multifaceted - not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy, and women happen to be people.