A lesson in trusting your gut.

Back in college, when I would proclaim myself “getting thick” when the scale tipped 105 pounds, I received two formative insights about my style.

The first, from a rockhead boy I wanted desperately to love me. A boy who once, as I sat on my twin bed post-coitus, looked at my hips and declared “You know, sitting down, you could trick somebody into thinking you were thick.” Tells you everything you need to know about my self esteem at the time. Point being: his compliments came few and far between.

Anyway. I’m sure I was in some combo of a sweater, button-up, and low rise bootcut jeans—all from Express, thank you very much—he looked at me and said “You look good in the preppy/work clothes look.”

Read more at Can I Kick It? on Substack

Normalize having some audacity.

We live in a—categorically—absurd world. Where adults film themselves run-skip-jumping down the street for TikTok. And people surgically alter their faces because an AI-generated filter gave them an eyelid lift they really liked. Yet we can’t approach low stake activities—repeating outfits, eating alone, learning new physical skills as an adult—without blanket permission from strangers.

Please normalize this so I don’t feel weird.

What if you decided the thing, whatever it may be, is worth feeling a little weird? And you simply accepted it as the cost of doing what’s good for you?

Read more at Can I Kick It? on Substack