22 Quotes & Sayings By Tavi Gevinson

Tavi Gevinson is a fashion editor at Teen Vogue, a fashion blogger for Rookie, and a writer. She currently serves as the creative director of M·A·C Cosmetics. She is a founding editor of Lenny Letter, a fashion and culture site. She is a contributing editor at Teen Vogue and has been featured in Vogue Italia, Fast Company, the New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Interview, i-D Magazine, NYLON Magazine, and Complex Read more

In addition to working with brands such as Alexander Wang and A Noi for Target, Tavi is the co-founder of the online activism group #bodysnark.

1
My goofiest-sounding secret is that I also believe in magic. Sometimes I call it God and sometimes I call it light, and I believe in it because every now and then I read a really good book or hear a really good song or have a really good conversation with a friend and they seem to have some kind of shine to them. The list I keep of these moments in the back of my journal is comprised less of times when I was laughing or smiling and more of times when I felt like I could feel the colors in my eyes deepening from the display before me. Times in which I felt I was witnessing an all-encompassing representation of life driven by an understanding that, coincidence or not, our existence is a peculiar thing, and perhaps the greatest way to honor it is to just be human. To be happy AND sad, and everything else. And yeah, living is a pain, and I say I hate everyone and everything, and I don’t exude much enthusiasm when sandwiched between fluorescent lighting and vinyl flooring for seven hours straight, and I will probably mumble a bunch about how much I wish I could sleep forever the next time I have to wake up at 6 AM. But make no mistake about it: I really do like living. I really, truly do. Tavi Gevinson
2
I think it was my mom's attitude about art and being part of the narcissistic digital generation or whatever that made me think anyone would care what I had to say about anything! Tavi Gevinson
3
I created 'Rookie' because I read a lot of websites that I thought were cool and interesting, but they weren't for teens, and I wanted us to have something that could be ours. Tavi Gevinson
4
One of my intentions with 'Rookie' is for the girls reading it to know that they are already cool enough and smart enough and pretty enough. Tavi Gevinson
5
So much about 'Rookie' has been very organically familial among our contributors, among our readers. Yeah, if I interview someone like Lorde, who I do know outside of work - sometimes I'm just so happy; it's so cool that this is organically, effortlessly, the warm, supportive friend vibe that we want here. Tavi Gevinson
6
Oh God, I'm awful at sports. In gym I just try and avoid getting hit in the face. Tavi Gevinson
7
My dad is an English teacher, and my mom is a textiles artist. My parents made my sisters and me feel that if we wanted to pursue something creative, it could be done. They've always been supportive of everything from the beginning. Tavi Gevinson
8
I'm really good at making teen angst romantic. I'm really good at dealing with heartbreak and things like that and making it into this whole experience. But there's no way to make someone-on-the- Internet-said-something-mean-about-me into romantic angst where you can listen to music and cry or whatever. Tavi Gevinson
9
I so think it's limiting to define an audience ahead of time. This is something I've brought on myself by being like, 'There are no 'real' teen publications! That's what I'll do! ' But then it's like, well, if I want 'Rookie' to be successful and popular, then people will invalidate the realness by saying it's popular and mainstream. Tavi Gevinson
10
'Rookie' is not your guide to Being a Teen. It is, quite simply, a bunch of writing and art we like and believe in. Tavi Gevinson
11
I usually end up making a huge mess every morning when I get dressed. My outfit affects my whole day. I'm always running late, and I'm always trying to make sure I feel really good in what I'm wearing, because if you're wearing something you're not comfortable in, it ruins your day. Tavi Gevinson
12
It's great that with the Internet, there has come this sense of creative independence. Tavi Gevinson
13
My life motto is basically to lower your standards and expectations so you're never disappointed and never put any trust in anything, and I try to prepare for the day that I wake up, and everyone I know is like, 'LOL JK best long-running practical joke ever', so I've never really let myself freak out or get too excited about anything. Tavi Gevinson
14
I try to be very honest in my writing. It's amazing, though, to think that people are responding to what we do, but it's okay if they're responding in a positive way too, because I think just creating anything at all to put out there is a gift. Tavi Gevinson
15
I'm really thankful for every experience I've had, even the ones that were puzzling or disorienting, because they taught me so much. Tavi Gevinson
16
Interviewing Rei Kawakubo in Tokyo and John Galliano in Paris, both for 'Pop' magazine, were huge for me, not just in learning about fashion and writing but about how little desire I had to be a critic/reporter/journalist/commentator so much as a kind of travel diarist. Tavi Gevinson
17
One thing I've learned in my limited experience is you can justify anything intellectually. There are a million reasons to stay with someone, and a million reasons to end something - so you can really only trust your gut. Tavi Gevinson
18
When I was starting out, I saw it as something that was definitely going to end. Every time I came to New York for fashion week or to interview someone, I was so sad going back home because I thought, 'These things don't get to last.' That's sort of the narrative of young success. Tavi Gevinson
19
I get kind of sad when I look at all of my magazines and think about how at one time I was much more impressed with a certain fashion editorial, or how I feel like I can't really relate to being that excited about fashion anymore. Maybe it's being jaded, but I honestly like that now, when something's really good, I feel more affected by it. Tavi Gevinson
20
I think that when you make yourself vulnerable, the thing that you do next is better. It's not like you have to inflict pain on yourself in order to make yourself better, but I think it helps. The thing that bonds you to a new friend isn't that you went to a really fun party; it's 'cause you had a really weird, sad conversation. Tavi Gevinson
21
With the release of her fourth album, 'Red, ' in 2012 and a handful of highly publicized romances, Taylor was criticized by the press and other entertainers for such sinful acts as dating people and writing songs about it, gaining a reputation as boy-crazy and love-ridden. Tavi Gevinson