Are 13-Year-Olds Taking Our Jobs?
"You know that feeling when you're sort of floating around like a ghost and so exhausted that you consider drinking the Lola perfume in your goodie bag at Marc Jacobs? No? Me neither. Except this one time when I went to New York Fashion Week and it was sort of crazy."
Gah. I want to douse the flaxen-haired author with superspicy haterade, snatch her bag, smash the perfume behind me like a smoke bomb, and go legging it down the block cackling like a maniac—but can't. Because Tavi Gevinson, the writer, is a fashion blogger who's been featured in Teen Vogue, the Times magazine, graced the COVER of the POP magazine relaunch and IS A CHILD. Like a teeny wee baby person, who can't feel all that good to maul. Or at least it would feel FUCKING FANTASTIC but, like, only for a second.
Tavi is 13, small for her age, a dweeb, happens to be besties with Rodarte's Mulleavy sisters, gets to go to ALL the shows, ALL the parties, and has Rei Kawakubo sending her Comme des Garcons like it's no big whoop. People who know she exists are tired of hearing about her and people who remain ignorant of her existence get to go on feeling like they've made good decisions about their lives.
Whatever, girl's got a grind. But on the heels of the video she shot for the launch of Rodarte's Go collection for Target that was released on Style.com earlier this week (with a pretty extensive Q&A no less. Also, I think the line is barf, it's Rodarte distilled to the point of looking like colored fondant), she's reviewing spring collections for Harper's Bazaar.
Here's what she had to say about her BFFs' runway collection:
"Rodarte was the most enchanting. It began with fog slowly crawling up the legs of our chairs. A few people coughed, unimpressed. But through the fog flew the Mulleavy sisters' California condors, draped in burnt cheesecloths and distorted leather. Immediately, the unmoved were intrigued and didn't care to hide it. The audience broke into roaring applause."
Eh. Not dreadful. I get it, she likes it. But then she spouts some mess about how "effortless cool" is "always in style" and some other pshaw, which is right at the point that other magazines' fashion editors, who you know were just spoiling to get their licks in, are turning on the girl, calling her gimmicky and JT LeRoyish. And sure, Bazaar's on some WaPo shit with this anyway but now I'm wondering if this is the exact point that the wave crests and the backlash begins? Did this girl (who I think is clever and endearing and who I kinda don't care if she's nothing more than a brand because her market positioning is KILLER) peak at 13? And after a scant 2-year stint? If you look at the video, the expressions on everyone's faces are exactly like they're talking to Brüno and if you look at her blog, EVERYONE is posing for photos with positively vulpine rapaciousness. And it's not just 'cause they're starving.
Are they all colluding with the understanding that with one signal she could be flung from the party? Why does this start to feel like some elaborate parlor game and one in which whoever attempts to evict her prematurely can be blackballed too? Are there pony-hair animal masks involved? And gloves? And candelabras? And chanting? Am I giving these people way too much credit? What is this feeling of protectiveness I am feeling in my womb-area? I think I'm going to sleep now.
I'll hold her down; you hit her.
DISCLAIMER: THE AWL ™ IN NO WAY SUPPORTS OR CONDONES VIOLENCE OR THREATS THEREOF, BE THEY STATED IN JEST OR OTHERWISE. HAVING SAID THAT, THE AWL CAN UNDERSTAND THE SEETHING RAGE THAT IS INSPIRED IN OUR READERSHIP BY STORIES FEATURING OVER-HYPED 'PRECOCIOUS' RICH KIDS WHOSE MOMMIES' CLOSETS FEATURE VINTAGE GALANOS GOWNS AND OSSIE CLARK BOOTS.
I've often been told I did my best work at thirteen, as well.
She is going to be soo world-weary and tired when she is, what, 15?
Also, when you say 'Rodarte for Target' really fast, it sounds like '[mumble] retarded'.
[You forgot the part where she has like 5 online personas and does the style sheets and coding for all her blogs. *sigh*...]
http://www.metafilter.com/87291/What-time-did-you-get-home-from-school-today
FML
yeah.
TRULY KUDOS
Observations.
1. She's a young Michelle Williams
2. I call bullshit on the pink tulle skirts being so fucking breakthru. My nine year old has been wearing that stuff since she took ballet at age four. She and every other girl whoever took ballet.
3. The shoot was in North Dakota. Where was Abe?
1. Thought the same thing!
2. No kidding, pink tulle skirts weren't breakthrough 10 years ago when Sex and the City started and they certainly aren't now.
3. Abe's not on camera, but you can detect his contemptuous derision somewhere off to the left.
I feel like a 13 year old talking about 'cool' is the same as them about 'love'. What do they know of love and cool? Or at least "effortless cool" and "love that is not just for a non-threatening member of a boy band".
Wait, 13? I'm doing the math, and it just don't add up. Anna Piaggi's not even dead, much less reincarnated.
There is really no pretension like teenager (barely!) pretension.
ALT-TAGS?!
IMPOSTER!
Oh come on now! I saw her in the Spring 2010 tents and thought she was totally adorable. I'd rather hang with her than the various barbies I saw. And I definitely didn't get the sense that they'd all turn their backs once they got the Wintour signal. It was more like, "OMG this girl is so cute! Sure I'll talk to you!"
I've read her blog since last spring and yes she is absolutely adorable but she's a mascot. And while I do not think it'll be Wintour that gives the nod, don't you feel that it must end and when it does it'll be incredibly jarring for her?
Yes. Yes yes yes. Reminds me of this zine (I'm old) I used to write for that had a little girl interviewing rock bands. She interviewed Billy Idol, Lemmy Kilmeister, etc. And she was REALLY GOOD. Good musical taste, really great questions. But then she got older, and I guess not as cute or something, and she took on an 8-year-old protege to take her place. It always depressed me. And the protege couldn't write/think for shit.
OMG. That blew my mind. Tavi is MENUDO!
Definitely. I mean the other side to "she's adorable" is "ooh, look at this curiousity, sure I'll humor you."
That girl dresses like an asshole.
Go play in traffic, kid.
(Disclaimer, disclaimer… playing in traffic is bad.)
I'll bet she gets all snooty in Justice.
Justice does that Gucci thing I hate. Why wear something with the logo all over it? I hate that. I'm training my daughter to hate it, as well. Look at me…my hoodie says "Justice"! Look at me…my purse says "Gucci"!
Same dif.
literally LOL
I heard she's pregnant. Psyche!
Not psyche–she's really pregnant!
No, she's not pregnant, I made that up.
(Not since the abortion.)
Coke-induced miscarriage.
Dwarf prostitute.
Meh, she's 13. We used to dress up like fashion crazy nonsense mish mash too, we just didn't have online access to make a blog out of it and didn't live anywhere near NYC or other semi-populated area to go actually SEE anything in person. And we had to use whatever was around from Cato's or Goody's because the closest mall was 2 hours away.
Anyways, she'll probably grow out of it and into some other fetish next year.
She writes about fashion like a thirteen-year-old would imagine an adult writes about fashion. Which means, of course, that she writes pretty much exactly like the typical adult fashion journalist.
this.
Am I the only one queasy from all the obvious exploitation of this child? I mean, TARGET, for fuck's sake? And Rodarte and every single other publicist/journo hack featured in this should be shot. ugh.
exploited child writes about target, whose clothes are made by…yeah, too easy.
It's such a baby Drew Barrymore smoking ciggies novelty situation.
See, here's the problem with "bloggers" which is actually illustrative of a larger cultural problem. With the expansion of media has come the need for more content. People that are actually knowledgeable are actually busy doing things like contributing to the real, solid economy by producing fashion lines or building houses or working through public policy. So instead we turn to people who are expressive and "have a lot to say". These people are very good at giving an opinion, even on topics which they have little knowledge. Loosing ourselves from the constraining qualifiers of experience and knowledge means anything can say anything at anytime about anything. From this we have now extended even further so that Lindsay Lohan is a fashion designer, Lady Gaga is a performance artist, and so on. (Really? I could go on about this for days. Especially Lohan. Everytime I see the latest 'What's Next for LiLo?' headline I want to scream, "How about getting a fucking GED?") Ladies and gentlemen and ladiemen and gentles? This is the way the world ends. With the bang of expression and whimper of those who knew better but said nothing.
truth. zero weight on actually KNOWING how to DO SOMETHING anymore. anyone who owns a copy of photoshop is a designer, anyone who blogs about x topic is a writer, ad infinitum. and beyond that, these behaviors are being rewarded with readership and legitimized by compensation. anyone* with a music blog gets free advances, anyone* with a fashion blog gets free samples. how do we value anything when we've devalued everything?
*okay, not just anyone, but still.
I can't even count on both hands how many "photographers" I know/know of who have zero professional training, zero college/tech school degrees or schooling on the subject, very little experience- who are granted access to numerous shows, concerts, parties, events etc. and have their work published by actual publications- all because they have a myspace page or what-have-you and enough money to by a halfway decent digital camera. Credentials and experience don't matter for shit anymore.
waa waa waa you fucking babies. Is the work bad quality? Then it won't last long. But if it's just a question of not having joined the professional secret society, trading the right handshakes, hiring the same pool of people over and over, hey, too bad for you, 'cause that's not actually a disqualification.
I know some of the non-professional concert photogs you describe. Now they're pros or semi-pros, and get paid by WaPo and Pitchfork for their concert work. Cause it's good! I know some of the bloggers you describe, who started writing about policy when they didn't know shit and now work for places like the Atlantic. Because they're fucking good! Maybe you don't think so, using whatever criteria you've got to justify your own existence and explain the injustice of the universe. I submit that that may just mean that your standards are irrelevant and self-serving.
Really, this conception of some ridiculous industry birthright can't die fast enough. All my friends are journos (I'm not), I hate to see them going through professional stress, I want them to succeed, but if ever there was a profession that let its head get too big, it's this one. The Newseum needs to be burned to the fucking ground, then high school classes of aspiring writers need to be bussed to the rubble and told NEVER AGAIN.
I would say they're playing to the Ladies of the Internet's appetite for 1. Adorable Things (see also: kittens, Asian kids with Ukuleles) and 2. Fashion (see also: lookbook.nu, sartorialist, etc)
But yeah, what you guys said too.
I have a lot to say about this.
We're waiting….
Here Here!
Tavi didn't accept my request to follow her on twitter. I'm still bitter.
I simultaneously cringed, dry heaved, and wanted to cry when she started speaking on camera because she totally has that nasally, nerdy, small 13 year old girl voice that I used to hear when I would be foolish enough to record myself talking.
She really does give great voice. I wonder how many human larynxes the borgs had to dissect before really hitting those heartstrings. Man, she's perfect.
I always thought the point of fashion began and ended with trying to get people to fuck us, so I don't really understand why anyone would take advice in the matter from some pubescent asexual moppet.
First of all, it's obvious that fashion-minded folk never really have matured beyond that pre-teen phase when what other people are doing or wearing is of supreme importance. Secondly, your jealousy of her position elucidates your own stunted growth and lack of intellectual and spiritual progress. And finally, this girl seems very wholesome and wonderful (as you may have been), but there is exactly zero chance that she'll make it to adulthood without being similarly stunted by the expectations of the "adult" world that demands constant entertainment and copy that pops.
Oh Bucko. Don't you think I know that my jealousy of her position elucidates my own stunted growth and lack of intellectual and spiritual progress? I'm 30. I'm far too old to deny that this is the case or to be unaware of it. I wish you could see me for the magic that I am. Here, lemme dance it for you…
Ize be betraying my roots here but is it possible for a 13 year old to write this well? Does she have some sort of intellectual genetics of which I am not aware? Maybe I've just read too many text messages from youngsters? Maybe she has a good editor? Bottom line, I call BS on the whole thing. Basically, here's my problem: "the Mulleavy sisters' California condors, draped in burnt cheesecloths and distorted leather." I'm sorry, but she's got a ghost or she's just copying retarded crap out of Thursday styles. What 13 year old is even aware of a California Condor, let alone aware enough to pull a really trite metaphor from it.
OK, if she is this bright, she has no business running around writing about Fashion Week. She should be in school, polishing her skills and reading, reading, reading. Instead, she's a freak of a little kid, even freakier than Jodie Foster at that age, but at least Jodie Foster made real money being that kind of freaky.
Go watch a Little League baseball game. There is that one kid on the mound with a mustache pitching 83 MPH while his dad screams at him from the bleachers. This girl isn't a freak, she's just overworked by her parents and doesn't have any friends to distract her from her (parents') obsession.
As a side note, If I could have blogged about Dungeons & Dragons when I was 13, you bet your ass I would have been on the cover of Teen Vogue.
TAGS: WE HATE YOUR KIDS, SHUT UP MIDDLESCHOOL, ENJOY BEING A SAMPLE SIZE CAUSE THAT WILL END AT PUBERTY, GO COUGAR ON ELIJAH POLLACK
She should just get child-married to Jonathan Krohn, the 14-year-old conservative pundit. It's the same kind of thing: you see a child spewing conservative punditry/fashion BS and you don't think "whoa, that child is so mature, he sounds just like Bill Kristol/Anna Wintour", you think "whoa, Bill Kristol/Anna Wintour and their ilk have the intellectual firepower of tweens". They're the sound of an entire industry coasting through.