I Wanna Be Tavi Gevinson When I Grow Up

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How does Tavi Gevinson exist? At the ripe age of fifteen, she’s managed to captivate the fashion world with her blog, Style Rookie, and move into the arena of entertainment with her latest endeavor, Rookie. Originally conceived as a project with Jane Pratt, Tavi, perhaps wisely, decided to scrap the plans so she could retain full ownership over the project. Smart girl. GET THAT MONEY, HONEY.

What’s even more surprising about Tavi is her very grown up ideas about feminism. At a time when she should be becoming a total mean girl and hating herself, Tavi has promoted girl-on-girl friendships and actually written eloquent articles going against the traps many teenage girls fall into.

She’s managed to get the respect of the notoriously superficial fashion world as well as the feminist intellectuals, which is no small feat. Everyone loves Tavi. Everyone secretly wants to be Tavi. She’s a dream teen. She’s the precocious child you thought you were growing up, but are now second guessing. Sometimes it’s hard to believe she’s even real, that someone could be so smart about fashion, be such an amazing writer, and have such progressive ideas about gender at such a young age. Then again, maybe we’re not giving teenagers enough credit. Sometimes I forget that 14-year-olds can walk, talk, and have complex emotions. Tavi is an example of just how fully-formed and articulate you can be as an adolescent.

When I first heard of Style Rookie a few years ago, I was dismissive. I thought that it was gimmicky and ghostwritten by her parents. But now it’s hard to deny Tavi’s importance. She’s a breath of fresh air in new media, a prime example of something positive that came out of technology. Quite simply, she rOCkS. Can you imagine being someone in her ninth grade class though? It’s like, “Hi. I’m 15 and recently stopped peeing my pants. You have a profile in The New Yorker. Cool. Can I have a fruit snack?”

It will be interesting to see where Tavi goes from here. I can imagine her being over it when she’s 19 and moving to Alaska to knit and play with dogs. Or maybe she’ll be my boss. It’ll probably be the latter.

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Image – The Style Rookie