See Every Moment from Teen Vogue's 2023 Summit

[Narrator] Please welcome Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief

Versha Sharma.

♪ Reboot, I'm code red ♪

♪ My service's automated ♪

♪ Like data running through my veins ♪

♪ Got you distracted, subconscious overloaded ♪

Good morning, how's everybody doing?

[audience cheering]

Thank you so much for being here.

My name is Versha Sharma.

I am the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue

and I am so excited to officially welcome you

to our 2023 Teen Vogue Summit.

[audience cheering]

Yes, thank you so much for being here

and thank you to everybody watching on the live stream.

If you've got friends, we're live streaming this all day.

If they can't be here, tell them

to tune in on teenvogue.com.

We have a wonderful lineup today.

So whether you're watching online

or here in person with us, I cannot begin to put into words

how honored I am to be here with all of you today.

Not only because I always look forward

to meeting our readers in person,

but because this year is an extremely special one

for Teen Vogue, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary.

Yes, yes, that's right.

20 years ago is when Teen Vogue first hit newsstands

for the first time as the proclaimed little sister

to the fashion Bible Vogue,

what many saw as big shoes to fill.

We have outgrown to walk in shoes of our own, I think,

and that is because of readers like you who continue

to inspire our team to not only keep advocating

and amplifying the stories that you care about the most,

but to never stop evolving and growing in the process.

We could not imagine reaching our 20th birthday

without your support.

Just as you inspire us to keep striving for our goals,

our editorial and our programming teams

were really intentional in what they put in today.

This year's theme is Dream Your Future,

a love letter to all of our readers, letting you know

that there are truly no limits to what you can dream

or whatever goal you want to achieve.

So we've lined up some incredibly inspiring conversations

for you today featuring your favorite icons

and change makers who have put their dreams in drive

and are here to tell you how you can do the same.

I also want to acknowledge

that I know this is an incredibly difficult time

for a lot of people.

There are some unfathomable levels of suffering

that we are witnessing right now

and I do think it's really important that we bear witness

to that.

At times like these I also think it's incredibly important

to come together as a community with your peers,

with your support network and so remind each other

that we have more in common than not

and to never ever forget our shared humanity.

We've got so many special guests today that are perfect

for celebrating our 20th anniversary.

We've got cover stars past and present.

We've got Ashley Tisdale who's gonna be here.

Yes, excited for that.

Aoki Lee Simmons who was just our September cover star

with her mom, the iconic Kimora Lee Simmons as well.

[audience cheering]

Dylan Mulvaney, and many more.

Yes, we're so excited for Dylan to kick off the day.

We love it.

We also have a real treat with our moderators,

not just our current editors who are all amazing,

but some of our iconic past top editors at Teen Vogue,

Phil Picardi, Elaine Welter-Roth.

The three of us have like not been in the same space ever.

So this is really incredible.

From fashion and entertainment to content creation

and entrepreneurship.

We've got it all covered for you today.

And not to mention the performances

we're gonna have later.

Who's excited for Cocoa Jones?

[audience cheering]

Yes, it's amazing.

And who's excited for Renee Rap?

[audience cheering]

This is amazing and you probably already know this judging

by like your enthusiasm, but they had a new remix together.

Yes, that just came out yesterday.

Yes, it's amazing.

Coco Jones is our current cover star.

It just came out earlier this week.

Check out the story.

It's a beautiful photo shoot,

but most importantly 25 years old.

She just got five Grammy nominations last week.

So it's gonna be amazing.

It's gonna be amazing.

We also have some fun activities for you as well.

I feel like a lot of you have already checked it out,

but just so you know, you can strike a pose

at the Adobe expressive photo booth

and the Waverley Street Foundation mural.

You can take a spin

at the National Women's Law Center Trivia Wheel.

You can level up your professional portfolio

at the Rise Career Lounge, including headshot touch-ups

and learn more how you can become a change maker

with the body shops of voting activation.

As you know, 2024 is just around the corner

and learn how to wear your shine with Coach.

We have food trucks that are gonna be here all day.

Lime Truck for delicious tacos,

Burger Guys, which is serving up some amazing vegan burgers

and treats right out here.

And don't forget complimentary coffee

and hot chocolates at the Coach beverage truck.

There are also a few beauty giveaways from BUXOM Beauty.

We clearly did not come to play with our 20th anniversary.

So with that being said, are y'all ready

to get this party started?

[audience cheering]

How many of you have been to Teen Vogue Summit before?

Yes.

How many of you, this is your first time?

Yes, I love it.

Well, I do have one more special guest I have

to give a shout out to.

If you were here last year.

I was five months pregnant

and my baby girl Debbie is right over there with her dad.

My mother-in-law is also here in the crowd.

Shout out to mom-in-law.

Yes, I love it.

So kicking us off this morning, I am thrilled

to introduce our first moderator,

one of our top former Teen Vogue editors.

He is a media industry icon who's not only known

for revolutionizing Teen Vogue's digital strategy

and pushing the team to focus more on politics and activism,

but also for founding Them, which is Conde Nast's

first LGBTQ+ publication.

And he serves as the youngest editor-in-chief

of Out Magazine.

He currently serves as a chief marketing

and communications officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center,

the world's largest LGBT nonprofit.

And we are so excited to welcome him back

to the Teen Vogue summit stage.

So here to introduce our first keynote speaker,

please give a warm welcome to Philip Picardi.

[audience cheering]

[upbeat music]

Give it up for new mommy Versha Sharma.

[Narrator] That baby is so cute.

Congratulations Versha.

How are y'all feeling Los Angeles?

[audience cheering]

It is such an honor to be here with all of you today.

I am Philip Picardi.

I was the beauty intern,

the first boy beauty editor at Teen Vogue,

digital editorial director then chief content officer

of Teen Vogue.

It has been a long journey and I'm so glad to be back

as Teen Vogue is no longer a teenager as of this year,

20 years old.

Give it up for Teen Vogue.

[audience applauding]

It is also, I should say Trans Awareness Week this week.

Can we give it up for our trans folks?

[audience cheering]

I see you.

I am so excited to be here with all of you this morning

and I am so excited to introduce your first guest.

615 days ago, she captivated the hearts of millions

with her viral video series, Days of Girlhood,

who's watched?

[audience cheering]

Days of Girlhood documented her transition journey,

showing the world the beauty of leading with openness

and amassing major success through sharing her story.

The actress, comedian, musical talent, an icon.

And my dear friend is here today to kick off today's summit

with a powerful conversation about purpose, creativity,

and the power of vulnerability.

Y'all better give a big Teen Vogue

and Trans Awareness Week welcome to Dylan Mulvaney.

[audience cheering]

Hello.

[audience cheering]

Hi everyone.

Oh my god, this is amazing.

Hold on, we need a twirl before you sit down.

Give it up for the outfit y'all.

Thank you.

Well there was drama.

Yes tell us about the drama.

So I had a custom dress for today.

It's sitting somewhere in a warehouse

and this was a Christmas dress, but we repurposed

and I feel okay about it.

[Phillip] Yeah, I think she looks great.

Thank you

[Phillip] Dylan there's so much for us to cover.

We've got like a a half hour together here.

We're gonna get it all in, I hear.

But let's start with this 615 days

and we're talking about your journey documenting your

transition with the world in this brave and vulnerable way.

Like let's go back to day one.

What was going through your head

as you pushed the post button

on your first Days of Girlhood post?

Well, that was the third time I had come out in my life

and so I was like, okay, hopefully this is the last,

because I really try to approach that first day

with a sense of humor and comedy

because I think so often coming out can be really serious.

And I think that was the biggest surprise

was that I came from the standup world.

And so I never expected to get as vulnerable as I have,

but I'm really glad that I have, I think there is a lot

of power in that and I think,

honestly, I don't regret anything.

It's been a tough year, not gonna lie,

but in that first video I just remember hoping

that people could see that my intentions were good

and that I was the truest version of myself

and that I was ready to learn.

Yeah amazing.

And you kind of alluded to this in your commentary just now,

but we saw especially recently that you being so vulnerable

and being willing to share your true authentic self

also brought you some backlash.

And I know that's been hard for you this year in particular.

And I wanna, before you answer this question, show some love

to Dylan for what she has been through this year.

[audience cheering]

How are you finding care and support

and coping mechanisms through the backlash

that you've experienced?

I think my friendships have gotten me through the most

and I think of my best friend Lily.

We met when we were 10, we were doing High School Musical.

I played Ryan, but now I would be Sharpay

and actually Ashley Tisdale is here later,

dying to meet her. She'll pass the baton.

Exactly.

And but Lily, like even throughout this past summer

when I was really scared and feeling really down,

she would sleep over every night

and we would just hold each other's hands.

And I think having people that,

especially she's seen me through every stage now

of my life and I think having those people to hold on to

when you're experiencing hate is an important thing.

And then remembering that those people that are,

maybe not showing you support are probably just going

through something themselves.

A lot of the times if I read some sort of hate comment,

I just think like, oh, I wonder

what they're going through at this moment

that makes them feel like they needed to say that to me

'cause a lot of the times I don't even think it has to do

with me or my post or what I'm saying

because it's so weird to go online

and just leave something so nasty, right.

[Phillip] It's insane behavior, that is so weird.

But we're gonna get through it.

And you have, and you always answer it with so much joy

and grace for where people are on their journeys

and you still hold onto this very fierce joy

that I really admire when I'm watching you.

Because I get angry on your behalf

and I want to jump in, but I hold back.

I mean even there's been, I have not gonna lie,

like privately made some, I just want like,

I've like wanna let 'em have it,

but then I don't hit the post button.

I truly I've always said don't react, respond.

And I've taken sometimes weeks after a hard situation

to then be finally ready to talk about it.

So if something is sitting on your heart,

make sure that you're in a good place to confront

and not just react.

That's really good advice for navigating the nation.

I hope you guys are bookmarking that advice.

So basically, now that we've done these 615 days,

I know your fans, myself included, have noticed

that the posting strategy

and the creation is a little different.

She's a little different.

She's, well, here's the thing.

I did so much learning in my first year of womanhood

and now I get to enjoy some of the things

that I've learned rather than doing it

every day and constantly.

And now things are, for myself, some of it.

And I think what's also exciting

is I have a bunch of projects that are offline

that I now get to put more time and effort into that.

But I think you're gonna be really excited

when you find out what those things are.

Can we get a sneak peek?

Ooh.

The strike is over.

The strike is over.

We might have like a little like acting moment.

We might have, we have some writing coming out

that I think you're gonna love

and just really like, I believe that trans joy needs

to be seen in the mainstream.

And I think as much as someone watching a TikTok video

of someone coming out or living their authentic self,

I also think there's such power in seeing it

in like a scripted format or like on Netflix

or you, I just, I think that we need more of it everywhere.

Yes.

And I think, I hope I'm not crossing a boundary here

writing, does that include potentially a book?

Oh, we do have a book on the way people.

[audience cheering]

Any timeline or anything we can learn

about the book while I have you?

Well, I had no idea

how long books take to get published.

But also I think I wanted to make sure that it was the perf

'cause at first I had pitched it as something

and I then a lot of things went down this past year

and I was like, oh, this is good stuff for a book.

So it's evolved over the past few months,

but I feel really good about it.

Amazing.

We're so excited for you.

I can't wait to see what it is.

Well, now that we're talking about social media strategy,

the evolution of TikTok for you.

Let's talk about it baby.

There are lots of budding TikTok creators in this room.

I am sure.

I hope I get to follow all of you after.

What is your formula?

Is there a formula?

How are you interacting with the algorithm?

What tips do you have for folks?

When people tell me, they're like,

I wanna be an influencer.

I first I'm like, run, no,

I say get really good at something else.

And, because it will help whatever the content is.

And I went to musical theater school.

I spent my entire life singing and dancing.

And while I'm not doing that in every post,

I think that energy can come out.

And I think at the end of the day,

if all my followers went away,

or there wasn't that same interaction,

at least I have these skills that I can always fall back on.

So whatever that is, like taking class

or signing up for something random

that interests you, I say go that route.

And then I think as far

as keeping the momentum going online, setting goals,

I made a goal of 100 videos in 100 days for myself.

And I had that accountability factor

and now I am a little bit more,

if you aren't feeling up for it that day,

don't force yourself.

But I think just having, like, maybe it's a friend

that you're like, hey, I really am trying

to make something this X amount of days this week

and having them be your accountability buddy.

100 videos in 100 days.

Hold on.

How long does each video take you to make?

Well, that was, I mean, I made more than 100

in the 100 but that was my entire life.

Like every day I'd wake up

and I'd be like, what is this new thing that I'm gonna try

to learn about girlhood today?

And it was a lot not gonna lie.

But now I think I'm trying to be more strategic

and just thoughtful as far as sharing the trans experience

because we are going through

kind of a crazy political climate too.

And I wanna make sure that none of my content

is being used against the community

and making sure that with all

of these kind of extremists right now

and news stations that my stuff, my joy isn't being taken

and turned into something ugly.

So I'm trying to be pretty protective right now.

Yeah, I think that that's right.

And I do wanna echo what Versha said earlier.

There are voting resources over on this side of the summit.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

We have 700 plus pieces of anti-trans legislation

on the books in America right now.

237 of them are targeting our youth and our schools.

So we need folks to show up

for not just the presidential election,

your school board elections, your local elections.

You can learn more about that over there.

Go get activated, okay.

[audience cheering]

But speaking of the responsibility to your audience,

you have this responsibility to your community

that you talked about, which I love.

But you also now have, if I think my math is correct,

is it 12 million followers?

Yes.

I can't believe it.

That's a lot of people who are following you.

What are you doing to cultivate that community

while still not giving too much of yourself

to that community?

Well actually y'all, so what I think happened was

when I was experiencing like an extreme amount

of hate earlier this year, I started to shut down

and I stopped using my voice

and I was like, I'm just gonna get really pretty

and that will keep me successful

and I'm just gonna stay quiet because I don't want

to be experiencing this vitriol anymore.

And what I realized was it made me

kind of like a shallower version of myself when in reality,

my voice is my most powerful thing.

And I thought about aging into becoming a woman

in my forties or fifties and I wanna look back

on this time period and think like, oh my god.

Yeah, I wore the cute dresses,

but I also said some really important stuff too.

And I think as much as this industry is very mysterious

and everyone's like the glamour.

I just always wanna be the silly version of myself

and I want to be able to exist in spaces like today,

but still have a laugh and show up without makeup on camera

and all of the above.

Yes.

That is important because mama,

I am seeing the fashion brands come knocking.

I saw that Haus Labs advertisement that you did

for Lady Gaga.

Oh my god Haus Labs.

I couldn't believe her makeup artist.

Well, Gaga famously was probably when she followed,

I couldn't like I couldn't handle just having her support.

I grew up being the biggest little monster,

but having that makeup on just made me feel

like a fricking warrior.

Yes.

And you look like one, it's gorgeous.

Thank you.

How are you navigating the brand partnerships

that have all out because one of the things we notice

in the LGBTQ community is they love to tap us

for little tokenization moments.

They love to exploit.

I'm being more strategic about who I'm partnering with

going forward.

And I have always tried truly, I like to work

with people that I already loved

before an offer comes through.

I also, I always try to find the funny in advertisement

because I mean, you're just gonna keep scrolling by

unless you can have a laugh.

And I've actually had a few ads

where they went super viral because the content was good.

So I think there's a way to do both.

And I also now am really strategic and looking into

how are they showing up for the community outside

of pride month, which was a big thing because

for my first pride month, right after I blew up,

I did 14 sponsorships that month and I only heard back

from one brand outside of that month.

And it showed me that oh, okay,

so they want you when you're there,

when it's pride and then not and the rest of the year.

So I really am looking into how

to make sure they're showing up for the community.

Yeah.

And let's double click on this for a second

because I want y'all to know what this young woman is doing

for all of the LGBTQ creators out there

to uplift other trans creators.

Talk a little bit, give us a little bit more

like you partner with the brand,

how are you ensuring they're partnering

with other trans creators after that?

So recently a good friend of mine, Aloch,

who you should all follow, an incredible non-binary.

[Phillip] Aloch Manon on Instagram.

Incredible.

We put together, we flew in 25 of the top trans creators

to San Diego through the human rights campaign.

And we sat down, talked about what we needed

and how to help serve each other,

but also talked about branding.

And even like now it's crazy in a contract, the fact that

I would have to like have in writing,

like if haters come for me or if there's transphobia,

you will be willing to stand up for the community or for me.

I think that's something we have to think about

because it's easy to hire us

and then when the going gets tough,

they leave and that's not okay.

So I'm just trying to make sure

that every trans creator has the resources that they need

to make great content, but also be successful

and make some money and we have to have each other

Right now.

I think what I've learned is having the trans community

is the most important thing to me at this time

because when we're against each other,

it's working against us.

That's right.

It's feeding that agenda, yes.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

And I wanna switch it back

to a little something more upbeat.

Okay, woo hoo. Teen Vogue wants us

to play this or that, a game, a quickfire game

content creator edition.

Okay so here's how it works.

I name two related topics and you simply have

to choose your preference.

Okay, am I allowed to say anything but the word?

Yeah like if you-- You expand a little bit.

Yeah give us a riff, give us a riff.

Okay.

You can sing the answer too if you want.

Okay.

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Hello ♪

Okay okay.

Round one, get ready with me or pack with me.

Pack with me which is the new thing I'm trying,

but because get ready with me,

I get so self-conscious when I'm doing eyeliner.

Like doing your makeup for someone else is kind of scary.

And the editing, it's easier to just to pack right in there.

I don't love the editing, y'all

just keep the video running.

Okay, next.

Okay, next original audio or trending audio.

Oh my god, it is raining.

Original audio.

I think that all of my favorite moments

and my favorite videos have been my voice

and those were the ones that I think hit.

And I think sometimes it's easier to use a trending audio

when you aren't feeling as vulnerable or it's easy

to show up that wow hello.

But so original audio, oh.

Okay.

Static content or video content.

Okay his is gonna be controversial

because I am a TikToker.

I prefer, like, I love a photo. I still love a photo.

Keep Instagram Instagram.

I just, I think that posting a pretty picture

is a nice thing sometimes.

Wow, was that a millennial Gen Z divide in the audience?

I heard like a very like slight woo for that answer.

Love.

Comments on or off.

Comments are on for my followers, off for anyone else.

[Phillip] That, yes.

But the tea is the haters still will follow

to leave a comment, but baby, they're following me.

It's just, they're adding to the algorithm.

You're giving me the metric, you know what I mean?

That's what I'm saying.

A comment.

That's very smart.

We do that at the center too.

It like, it's a great tactic.

Okay Instagram, single image or carousel post?

Carousel image every time

because there's always so many good ones I can't pick.

Yes, and it doubles your opportunity to be seen

in the feed.

You know what I'm saying?

Exactly yeah.

You can kind of pepper some in there.

Okay a smartphone camera or DSLR.

Oh never held a DSLR in my life

and I'm still trying to figure out the iPhone.

So smartphone.

Amazing.

Okay, now moving away from the TikTok of it all,

but like, sort of in the same vein, you are a performer.

You are like a theater kid.

Yes. Through and through.

I love it.

Oh, we got theater kids out there.

I knew it.

We got the theater girlies in the house.

Yeah, they're here with us.

I also just can't believe

truly my biggest dream in life growing up was just

to be in the back of a musical like tree number three.

And now being here it's, I can't even, it's so crazy.

And I'm just so honored and I love you all.

Thank you, okay.

[audience cheering]

For 365 Days of Girlhood, you did a benefit concert

and performance for the Trevor Project.

And I'm just interesting

how you're thinking about musical theater

and performance in theater as like a continuation

of what you've built on TikTok.

Well, what I've found is that transness

still doesn't exist in commercial theater and on Broadway

like it needs to.

And I've, right, and I go into these audition rooms

and a lot of the times I'll force myself

to sing in the original key because I'm so scared

that they won't, it'll just be another reason

why they won't hire me.

But that doesn't always feel comfy.

And what I would like to do is figure out

how can we make productions and music

and the way that we use our voices

as trans friendly as possible.

One of my big dreams,

I wanna do a Legally Blonde the musical concert,

and I wanna fill it with a bunch of trans people

and change keys and see how we can

actually do an existing piece of work

and fit our bodies and our voices.

And that's what has to happen.

We have to learn how to do that right now.

[audience cheering]

I think, and I think you may have an in

with Reese Witherspoon if I'm--

Oh, I love Reese.

I love her daughter Ava.

I just think, when I think of Reese Witherspoon,

I think of just the cheeriest happiest human in the world

and the kind of woman that I want to be one day.

Yes and an American icon, Elle Woods, hello.

Icon.

Well, this year's summit, the whole theme

is about dreaming your future.

And so I know that all of us in the audience have a dream

that we're holding.

And last month we spoke at Models of Pride, which for those

of you don't know, world's largest free conference

for LGBTQ Youth.

1200 people showed up for Dylan Mulvaney, it was so loud

that I couldn't hear the next day because of the screams,

but you really want to talk about bringing stories

of trans joy into the mainstream.

And we also talked about this possibility

that you have for a trans romantic comedy.

Oh, that's my dream, yeah.

Tell us more about that dream.

So I just think about growing up

the only trans people I really saw were on Law and Order

and they were victims and we've also got these amazing shows

like Pose, which are so important and historical

and necessary.

But then I think about those feel good

like Never Been Kissed or 50 First Dates.

And I really feel like we've gotta see trans people

finding love and success and happiness

because that will teach people how to love us

through scripted content.

And even now I've started dating, woo

and I just think about how much more comfortable

some of these people might be if they saw a relationship

like that on TV or in a movie and that that's possible

and that trans people should be loved very purely

and wholly and yeah, I think we need some trans rom-coms.

Yes.

So that's on the list.

I mean, one of the things that always

kills me about the conversation about transness from people

who don't know trans people is it's always centering sadness

or it's like talking about trauma

and I'm like, well, trans people are also joyful

and trans people are also comedians

and trans people are also fun and fabulous

and trans people love each other, you know?

Yes and I feel like it truly is 10% of who I am.

I've got all these other parts to me.

And speaking on the trauma part, I was doing an ad

for a food delivery service

and I sent in this really funny script

and they were like, could you actually talk

about how hard your childhood was?

And I was like, I'm getting groceries delivered.

Like what how.

Yeah, it is really something.

And that kind of full circle representation is important.

It adds depth and understanding to the issue.

On top of this media and multimedia career

you have built out for yourself

or you are in the process of building up for yourself.

You've also been embarking on the fashion girly era

that you've entered.

Thank you. Yes.

This is a self-proclaimed thing I think,

but I've been really excited to witness it too.

How has dabbling with fashion helped you tap

into different parts of yourself?

Well, I think fashion was a really,

it was obviously not like one of the reasons I'm a woman,

but it helped me find my femininity.

That was one of my first weigh-ins.

Makeup is so intimidating.

And I think fashion for me was something

that was a little bit easier

and I feel like I started in kind of this

like toddler aesthetic, like barrettes and overalls

and now I think I'm getting

to something a little bit more refined.

I love Audrey Hepburn and I always will,

that really classic Jackie O style.

But I love that I can put something on

and it shows how I feel or sometimes

like if I'm feeling a little down,

I will throw rainbow all over my body

or like the craziest colors

and it does make me feel a little bit better.

So I don't know if that's a form of therapy or not,

but I'm all for dressing for how you want to feel.

And I love overdressing.

I will, you will, very rarely will you see me in athleisure.

I support athleisure, but I love to get dressed up.

[audience cheering]

What we've been talking about, the girlhood journey.

fashion and beauty feel so intrinsically tied

into that journey for you.

Have playing with and experimenting with these things

helped you deepen your relationship to yourself,

explore new facets of yourself,

put on a new skin for yourself.

Like what's the vibe?

Oh, for sure.

I even remember this summer when I was feeling really upset

with how the world was showing up for the community

and feeling so down and honestly it was through

like I wanted to be reckless

and so I did that with my clothing

and I kind of edged it up a little bit

and I also realized I'm 26, I was like, this is the time

to be a little edgy.

And it's been so fun because also I think what happened

was When I came out and I realized I was building up

this following, I was so scared of being sexualized

as a trans person or seen as a predator

or all these things that they're projecting onto us.

So I tried to make myself the most palatable version

of what a trans person could be,

which was so sad because it wasn't fully the full scope

of who I am.

I've got some Chelsea Handler there,

I've got got some Emma Chamberlain, I've got other parts.

And now I feel like I've given myself permission to go there

and to explore those things through makeup.

And like Donnie Davy did my makeup today from Euphoria.

She's the designer of Euphoria.

And that I think has been so cool to meet my heroes

and get to work with them and wear brands

that I always loved growing up

but could never wear because I was a Catholic school boy.

But now here we are and I just, I honestly can't believe it.

Oh, I love that.

Congratulations.

Okay, we are moving into some global audience questions

that y'all have submitted via social media in a second,

but I wanna close our proportion of this conversation

because it is Trans Awareness Week.

Tomorrow is Transgender Day of Remembrance.

And I'm just wondering if you wanna shout out,

you mentioned Aloch already.

Do you wanna shout out any trans people

or uplift any trans people that you want this audience

or the Teen Vogue audience to follow or know about?

Hell yes.

Okay for comedy TS Madison, she is so funny.

I mean the joy that that woman's page brings also,

she's really taught me like through her content

how to go for the haters in a way

that is just, it's brilliant.

I love Ashley Marie Preston makes some really cool content

with, especially with spirituality,

which I think is directly linked to transness.

Shea Diamond is an amazing singer.

Check her out on Spotify.

Like truly, I am so grateful

that I have a community of people.

Oh, Madison Werner is right here by the way.

Hi Madison. Amazing infographics.

And there's so many great people and you gotta follow,

there's a lot of versions o what transness looks like

and it's not just this, so.

And we have to shout out our mutual friend

Raquel Willis's new book just dropped this week.

Oh my god.

Okay you've got to go run to buy that book.

It's everything.

Yes, The Risk It Takes To Bloom

and it's a beautiful piece.

The Risk It Takes To Bloom.

Yes, thank you Dylan.

You're talked a little bit about in there in good ways.

Yeah, thank god.

We worked together at Out Magazine.

She's an icon, Southern organizer who moved to New York

and you guys will love the book.

Okay, let's move on to the Teen Vogue questions, shall we?

Hello.

We got 120 questions in less than 24 hours

submitted via social media.

I have a few I can get through in our,

oh, last seven minutes we make this quick.

All right, number one, how do you make content regularly,

especially on days where you're feeling creatively drained?

Oh, I sometimes, like I said, making a goal.

I think having that goal, and I remember there were days

where I was feeling down,

but my goal was to make a video.

And I remember I think it was around day 80 something

I truly made a day where I was like,

hi, I didn't wanna miss a day.

I don't know what to talk to you about right now

because I'm mentally not all there,

but I love you and this is all I got today.

And people, they were cool with it.

So I think it's showing that content doesn't just have

to be so polished.

It doesn't have to be, you can go into it

not knowing exactly what it's gonna be

and you might be surprised.

Yes, great.

Okay from one musical theater lover to another,

please name your favorite musical.

Oh my god, that's a toughie.

But I saw the Color Purple with Cynthia Revo on Broadway

like three times and now the movie's coming out.

I'm gonna sob like a baby.

I already know it, but that music, it was like, oh my god.

Sob like a baby.

[Phillip] The movie is so beautiful.

What's yours?

Yeah, the Color Purple.

So I saw Cynthia too. Same?

Yes. Oh my god,

I knew I liked you. Incredible.

I just saw this week. We should go see it.

I would love to. You already saw it.

I saw it this week, yes. What the heck.

Oprah was there.

Oprah. Yes.

In purple sequins head to toe.

Yes, it was nuts.

How can allies support their friends who are transitioning?

Oh my gosh.

Honestly, gas them up in the comments

when whether you're close friends with someone

or even if you just see a trans person on your for you page,

just like sending them a little love

because inherently they're probably going through it

in some way or another.

It's tough out here.

And I also think about Lily or the women in my life

that have given me the little tips and tricks

or really just held space for me and made me feel included

in ways that I didn't ever want to force onto them

because I felt a little nervous about taking on

that title of womanhood.

But really inviting your trans friends to the table

and even maybe they're transitioning away

from whatever gender you happen to be

and supporting 'em that way too, I think is beautiful.

Yeah and-- Oh, oh.

And for I think the allies, so many people are afraid

of asking questions because they don't wanna come across

as insensitive or ignorant or harmful.

Which I think is an important fear to name and to locate.

But how do you push past the fear and like lead with love?

How have people had loving questions

and conversations with you that felt safe?

Well, I think if you're close enough

to someone, it can be appropriate.

I do get nervous sometimes because I'm so transparent online

that people might think that that's normal.

You can just walk up to a trans person

and ask them anything.

And I really do feel like an open book

because I'm okay with that, but a lot of people aren't.

So if you are close with someone and you feel

like it's appropriate to ask them of something,

ask them where they're at first,

mentally, physically, spiritually,

because then that's a good way to go into a conversation

rather than just forcing it onto them.

I think making sure they're ready for that.

Yeah.

And can you check in during the conversation

to say, is this okay?

Like is there a way to keep asking for consent or?

Yeah or maybe it's like a hey I have a few questions.

Like what are you open to to sharing with me?

Because that kind of puts them in the driver's seat

and not in the hotspot.

Okay.

In a similar vein, one of our readers is having a hard time

accepting that they could be trans and they're wondering

if you could speak a little bit just about how you came

to accept yourself.

Okay.

Well I came out to my mom when I was four

and that didn't go exactly as planned,

but hey love her, like that was, it was the year 2000.

So there weren't very many resources.

And I come from a very conservative Catholic family,

but we got here.

So that's what's important.

I would just, I would say to them,

be really patient with yourself.

Find the people, whether that's at home or at school

or in your friend group

that you know are going to have your back.

I think my tactic was always to go to the people first,

that I knew 100% were gonna accept me

whatever stage of life I was in.

And save some of the harder conversations for after that

because I had already knew that if that conversation

didn't go well, that I had the love there

from somewhere else.

And to really try to enjoy it.

And I think that is the one piece of this whole last year

was like, I rushed a lot of things.

I talked about it a lot of things really fast

and I think there were some little minute details

that got lost in the mix and I'm doing those now.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Two more.

Any designers that you are loving working with

or wanna shout out right now?

Oh my gosh, I'm obsessed with Miu Miu right now.

Valentino, but oh, the dress for today,

it was Lirika Matoshi and she was the strawberry dress.

Do you remember the strawberry dress that went viral?

I actually think, 'cause I've followed her for years

and now we've remained close.

But she, I feel like is very similar to my days of girlhood.

Like the strawberry dress and days of hurt are similar

'cause people, they put you in a box,

they see you as this thing.

She was the strawberry dress

and now we're breaking outta that box

and we're trying new things

and it was really cute as on the dress.

Had a few of those little strawberries

as like a little nod to what she used to do.

And that's what I see myself doing now

is like doing little nods to this past year.

But yes, it doesn't always have to be that.

Oh, that's so cool.

And that dress is gonna see the light of day.

Oh, it will baby.

Okay, good I will be looking,

It'll be in a carousel.

Okay to close this out,

you are excellent at cultivating a community of kindness.

Our readers say, how can others do the same?

Oh my gosh.

I think just looking at someone

that maybe you don't fully understand

and acknowledging that they could be going

through it in a multitude of ways

and I find it easier at least to be kind to someone

rather than to hate.

And I think the amount of energy that you put in

to being kind is far easier than being cruel.

So it's just a little smile.

I always like, if I'm walking on the street,

I say hi to everyone I see.

And it's amazing how those little minute moments

can change a person's day or your day.

I know there's been moments where I'm feeling so down

and I see somebody or they say hello

and it makes everything, and seeing you all in person

to be honest is like the coolest part of today

because so much of online can feel very isolating.

But we're all real and we can all be friends

and this is amazing.

So thank you Teen Vogue and thank you.

I think I love you.

I love you all.

We love you.

We also wanna give a quick shout out

to all the folks watching us on the live stream.

Thank you for watching.

We love you, we see you.

Thank you for LA for showing up in this crazy rain.

Give it up for Dylan Mulvaney one more time.

Thank you.

[audience cheering]

All right, we're gonna turn the floor over

to Versha Sharma.

Have a great rest of your day, y'all.

[audience cheering]

You need help?

[Dylan] I'm okay.

[upbeat music]

♪ Just another sunny day in Southern California ♪

All right talk about kicking things off with a bang.

Thank you again to Dylan Mulvaney and Phil Picardi.

Let's have one more round of applause.

[audience cheering]

Such an inspiring conversation.

I am so excited to welcome our next set of speakers.

It's a mother daughter duo that is truly iconic.

They have given a new definition to legacy building

trailblazing their own path to success without apology.

Not to mention one of them just so happened

to be the cover star

of this year's September, October Teen Vogue issue.

Everyone please join me in welcoming to the stage

model writer activist Aoki Lee Simmons

and her mom entrepreneur, creative director

and philanthropist Kimora Lee Simmons.

[audience cheering]

We're going up the stairs carefully.

A little bit of rain.

A little bit of rain.

I think it's supposed to stop very soon.

I asked them, I was like--

Welcome, hello.

I was like, it's a chair right?

Not one of those low sloopy things

and they were like no it's a chair.

It's a low sloopy chair.

[audience laughing]

Oh yeah.

Probably the tallest guest we've ever had on stage so.

Oh my goodness. I apologize.

There we go perfect.

You look amazing. I think these noises

when I sit down I'm so sorry.

I'm like a.

You look amazing.

Thank you both so much for being here with us today.

Thank you.

Hi Versha.

This year Aoki was filled with so many milestones for you.

You served as the face of your first global campaign,

the Tommy Hilfiger spring 2023 collection.

Graduated college from Harvard in May at the age of 20.

Amazing.

One of the youngest black women to do so ever

in history of Harvard.

[audience cheering]

And your first magazine cover with us at Teen Vogue.

And then you turn 21, which is amazing.

So with all that you've achieved in this year alone,

how do you approach creating new goals for yourself?

Do you, have you thought about what's next?

I kind of have not.

I've had a very confused summer.

I've been like taking it easy but I think with college

and with modeling it both came from just having fun

with something and being inspired.

Like as a kid I really liked to learn.

I was a huge nerd.

It was that very natural and then I was like,

oh I guess I wanna get a serious degree

or whatever, go to college for a long time I thought

about getting my master's right after or something.

And modeling was the same.

I grew up modeling with her a little bit, Baby Fat runway

and I guess I was like oh this is very fun.

So I just kept doing it a bit.

So the next thing will find me that way.

Like what's a lot of fun.

Kimora outside of being a business mogul, no big deal.

You are also an amazing mother of five.

As a new mom myself, I would love to know

how you approach your kids

in following their dreams without imposing

your own expectations on them.

So that's a good question.

So congratulations.

[Versha] Thank you.

My lady.

You look amazing.

[Versha] Thank you.

I think probably as a parent I was gonna tell you

to sit up straight so I'm glad you did

because if you see us not sitting properly tell her

like sit up straight, just go like this.

Like sit up straight.

So I think as parents we probably

as moms certainly we definitely do impose our way

and our wishes and I think it kind of just comes naturally

that way and it's, we do impose ourselves

and we probably should step back a little bit,

'cause you guys are always like when Yoki was little she

would say you just wait until I'm older

and I am moving and you are gonna regret grounding me.

And so I think you have to learn as time.

I was only grounded twice.

Okay like ever.

I think you have to learn probably

to step back a little bit

and let them make a little bit of mistakes on their own.

And I know you don't probably like that

but they do like that because they're like,

let me do it, let me do it right.

So you have to kind of let them go their path

and be there as a support and just try your best.

I don't think there's any perfect thing

for mothering or parenting.

I don't think there's any one size fits all.

Do the best you can honestly.

And get your advice and your wisdom from a good source,

not from someone that's janky with their information

or with their parenting.

Get it from the good auntie or the grandma.

Or the good, the sound advice.

Well I was gonna say clearly you've done

an amazing job because I've really gotten to know Aoki

these past couple of months and I absolutely adore her.

She's just amazing.

Thank you.

I wanted to talk a little bit

about your Harvard experience

because you started when you were just 16,

you were so young.

So what were those last four years at Harvard like for you?

And do you have a cherished college memory?

I turned 17 like right away on campus.

So I feel like it wasn't that crazy but I think yeah,

I really enjoyed just being in the learning space

and getting to like focus on very niche.

I studied classics that's ancient Greek and Latin.

Very strange.

It's like Percy Jackson but as a degree.

So it was nice to immerse myself in that

and it's a little bit, yeah, very niche.

I enjoyed that a lot.

Cherished college memory, move in was fun.

Move in and move out were both fun

'cause she made my room really cute

and then it went downhill for four years

and then we moved out and my room in New York

is now very cute.

Now we're doing it in New York.

Yeah so her move is still there.

Is that your cherished memory moving in and moving out?

[Aoki] I feel like graduating. We had so much fun.

Graduating was a big deal.

We had fun.

We were touring the campus together,

and we got all this cute stuff.

My sister was there, I made some of my best friends

on like day three.

We were in the dorm, we were going to dinner

and she was like, do any of you kids want some dinner?

And then those were my friends for quite a while.

So yeah, I have a good memory of getting there.

We had fun, we had fun.

But there's, how many of you guys here are in college?

Are you guys in college?

Oh my goodness.

Okay great, that's a lot.

You got this hang in there. Okay, so I think

the other side too is that a lot of her time there

when she first got in she was probably pretty nervous,

you have fun now you got out now

and you can say that you had fun but you probably had stress

and nerves and all kinds of craziness.

So I feel like you had to find your tribe,

you had to rely on your homestead, your home front,

your few good good friends, right?

It's tough.

So when you get out you're like, yeah,

I had fun or that was cool.

But when you're in it,

it probably seemed a little more daunting.

It's a lot.

If anyone is anyone's thesis right now,

like doing their thesis, final.

It's a lot like hang in there, it's fine.

You can always turn into a project.

Don't forget that.

Exactly, good advice, good advice.

Now I was a little bit surprised I probably shouldn't be,

but I was a little bit surprised when you decided you were

gonna do, pursue both modeling and higher education.

There's like a little bit of backlash on social media,

which people telling you how to live your life.

How do you deal with that as somebody

who has really grown up in the public spotlight

and on social media?

I mean I know how you should deal with it.

Do I do that, not always, but turn off your phone,

touch grass, all that, take a deep breath.

[Versha] Touch turf, it counts too.

Touch AstroTurf, like get out of the house.

It's never that serious.

But sometimes you know you can read a lot of crazy things

and then just start doom scrolling but on your own,

on yourself as a subject, which is even worse.

So I guess I just try to detach,

take some time away from the phone.

I love to read.

She also thinks all my problems in life

are because of that damn phone.

So I just don't always use it.

Or drink water, moms are like,

that's 'cause you're on that phone all night

and you don't drink enough water.

So yeah, get off the phone and drink water.

She's not wrong though.

That's true I still need to do that.

Now Kimora you started your modeling career at 13,

breaking industry barriers at the time

as a multi-ethnic woman modeling on the Paris runway.

Round of applause please for that.

Absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing.

Thank you.

So we can only imagine your reaction when Aoki decided

to pursue modeling full time after college.

Were there any reservations that you had about her decision

and with all of your experience, what is the one thing

that you wanted to prepare her for in this industry?

So I think that everybody knows if you have seen us

or heard us or heard me talk or seen Aoki,

then you guys know I've had my reservations

and then you guys know Yoki.

So behind the scenes she's like, mom, don't say that

fashion is great.

Don't say you had reservations

but obviously you have some reservations.

I think the biggest thing I wanted to teach her,

which is probably what I would tell all of you,

and it's very similar whether you're modeling or not

or going to get whatever job or not,

it's in life you face rejection, right?

And you face people not thinking

that you look cool enough or that you're tall enough

or that you're thin enough or that you're light enough

or dark enough or your hair does this or that.

I grew up in that kind of time

and I actually was 13 in Paris,

but I was in St. Louis locally modeling

at like 10 or 11 years old

for the dog food commercial or something.

And I wasn't, I had definitely grown up with times

that I wasn't the cute one.

I was like the ugly duckling, the weird one.

And you notice people always have an ugly duckling story

because we all grow up and kids can be mean and cruel

and to be a little bit different

for whatever reason is like a problem.

And if you're lucky enough to be able

to express yourself and be cool and individualistic,

that's great, but everybody doesn't make it through

in that way.

So I think like.

Modeling is not always like that.

So I think you didn't want it to be.

But I'm just saying more like--

The sad side of like judgment.

No, modeling is not always like that

and there are some great rewards, but I think in life

it's just don't take yourself too seriously.

You're gonna face rejection.

There's gonna be places where you're not good enough,

pretty enough, liked enough.

Honestly, who cares?

It's easier said than done, but honestly who cares?

But now she's in it.

You're in it and you are, you honestly do see like--

You started to have fun though

'cause when I bring you little things and references.

You're like, oh I did like that show a lot.

I love it.

And I now I'm so proud.

Obviously I'm proud the whole time,

but you don't want your best friend or your kid

or your sister or your brother

to face those kind of things.

So you just wanna be supportive

and try to avoid the pitfalls,

because you call and say mom sometimes

somebody was so mean or someone was so we had a long day

with no food or it's tough out there you guys.

So take it easy on yourself

and have a granola bar in your bag.

I seriously love all of this mom advice.

Touch grass.

Touch grass. So good.

Now there's a little bit of a what is it,

over 30 year difference between the start

of your modeling careers.

So what differences and similarities have you noticed

or do you talk with each other about

in your experiences so far?

Like Kimora, do you think things have changed

from when you started out?

I think things have changed.

Well some things changed and some things stay the same.

I think it's a very tough business,

a very cutthroat business.

It can be, I think like the castings

and that whole situation can be really long

and really daunting and crazy lines.

[Aoki] You have Google maps now though, so it's not--

You do.

I think now that whole process is a little bit different,

the way that they do castings

and the way that you get in and the way that your agency

and your booker and I think some things change

and some things stay the same.

It's ever changing.

It's a growing industry.

It's ever changing.

The pitfalls are always the same.

Sometimes people can be really catty or really crazy

or really it's a high standard of like unnatural,

illogical things on yourself that hasn't changed.

And what about for, also for black women

and for women of color, how have things changed

or not changed?

I feel like it hasn't changed a lot.

Well let me rephrase that.

It's changed so much but we still have so far to go.

Anytime that you see a campaign or you see a runway

and it's like one person that looks like me

or one person that looks like you

or one person that looks like you one or a few or a handful

or because that's the hot topic

or because that's the news topic at the moment.

I don't love that.

I wish people would practice

what they preach a little bit more

'cause it always comes up in the press,

which is important because you can see

like brands that you love and people that you follow

and when they start to take these stands

and things and people can change.

But when you see brands saying they've always been inclusive

and they've always been supportive

and they've always been these things.

It's not so hard to check their past campaigns

and their runway shows and their this and that.

The power is within you guys, right?

So just take a little look

and make sure they're practicing what they preach.

So I wish the whole diversity play was a little bit.

I know, I'm sorry.

We're excited the sun is coming out,

but it's also blinding us a little bit on stage.

So bear with us.

Bear with us.

How about you, do you feel like things have changed

or are they the same?

Definitely changed

'cause sometimes I'll tell you something

and you'll be like, I don't you have to go to a show now

looking cute.

She would show up like wearing whatever.

Oh, wear whatever you're going to the show,

they'll dress you up.

And I was like, no.

There's like, oh my god, TikTok to get ready for the show.

There's a lot you gotta show up cute.

So.

That's a one like social media,

that's the age difference thing.

I would go to a casting or whatever looking like a mess

because yeah you're gonna be dressed up

like Cinderella theory.

And everybody's got their phones out so.

But nowadays I think with social media

and all of that, yeah you probably do have

to look a little bit different.

You're looking like the part to get the part I guess.

And I think with the whole,

now that we're in a social media society,

probably things are different.

How you market yourself.

The outreach that you have, the mistakes that you make

and how they haunt you.

Social media makes things a lot different too.

I think we didn't have any of that.

Yeah, that's so crazy.

We didn't have that back in the day

we were riding those horses and carriages.

[audience laughing]

No, okay, we touched on it briefly earlier,

but we have to take a moment

to talk about your first cover shoot.

Yes, yes.

What was it like working with us

for your first magazine cover?

It was amazing.

We had so much fun.

You came in actually and Brandon was with me

and he was like, the editor is behind you.

And I was like, oh what?

And then you were so nice and we had so much fun

and literally I was like, oh mom, she's young and cool.

It's gonna be great.

I'm not gonna be scared.

And so we had a great day.

I think it was a long one and really fun

and by the end everyone was like,

wow, we've been here so long.

I think the whole crew was like, we had so much fun.

I didn't even notice.

So it was a really good time.

You were in Japan still as I was texting her all this,

I was on the phone.

Every video.

Yeah getting the live text updates.

No, it was really was like I was

in her whole video or a voice memo.

It's like mom and now I have put on a sock

and she was like, that's nice honey.

Okay I'm in Japan.

So it was just a really great experience.

A lot of fun and a good day.

[Versha] Kimora, what was your reaction

when you saw your daughter on her first September cover?

[Aoki] You cried.

The whole process for me was a lot.

Like, I was thinking like when you said

how was it your first Vogue cover, I was thinking

that is a question for sure for the mother.

I was on the phone the whole time.

I was amazed the whole time like coming up.

I feel like never was I on the cover of US Vogue.

Never was I that age and even a young girl

and that's my first cover

or my only big cover or anything like that.

I think that's so big.

And when I was coming up there was not, there was no brown

or any color woman of color, little girl

or otherwise on the cover of any major fashion magazine.

That was just a big deal let alone Vogue,

you oftentimes would think certain looks you go a different,

this path or that path.

Different looks for different books so to speak.

So to be at Vogue I think is so refreshing, a step,

a big step forward in the right direction.

It was like a full circle moment for me

'cause I worked a lot with Vogue.

But never in that way.

Like wow.

And I thought, you know, she Yoki was going through a lot

at that time.

We all were.

But she was going through a lot

and I remember her even doing like a,

I don't know if it was an interview or something that online

and you were like, I'm gonna have so much trouble working.

And then she got booked this cover

and it was like kind of the universe's way

of showing, we all know how that is.

You can have problems at home, problems in your family,

your mom this, your dad this, grandma that, cousin that

you're like, I'm never gonna be able to get out of this.

Not that many problems like the grandma and the cousin,

it's just like one or two.

Something, one or two but we have all that.

And then to turn around and book like your first big job.

I thought that was like the universe's way of seeing

it's okay, you deserve this, you did this on your own.

No one can take that from you.

And I think it's important too for kids to be able

to come out of their parents' shadow a little bit.

And that was your moment, I was so impressed.

I cried, I loved it.

It was great.

Thank you guys.

And I think so, so, so many young people stop me

and her all over the world.

And it's a big, big deal to them too, to see someone

that looks remotely like them or maybe to see someone

that would've struggled in the similar ways that they did.

So it was a big deal.

I loved it.

I'm so proud and thank you guys.

And I know that comes from so, so many people.

It was great.

It was amazing.

Did somebody record that?

Just like play that later.

[indistinct crosstalk]

Everybody recorded that.

It's recorded yes.

We'll get you that clip later to watch on your rainy days.

My morning affirmation are gonna be just that

what she said.

It's also I love just like this full circle moment

because also we have like photos of you

and your sister Ming when you were modeling

as young girls on the runway

and we were running them in Teen Vogue.

And now here you are fully grown on the cover.

Now Kimora, I know as Aoki is navigating

this full-time modeling career,

it's also been really important for you

to teach her financial independence

again, successful, incredible business mogul yourself.

So why do you consider that important?

So that is a great question too.

You guys, financial independence is really high on the list

of independences that you must have.

And it's not about how much money you have,

it's about what you do with that money

and how you use what you have to like grow up

and glow up, right?

And it's about not wasting and it's about,

you know those basic things and if you don't

come to me, I will help you.

Maybe that should be another seminar that we do.

But the most important thing I have learned in my life,

I'm a single mom of five kids.

If you do not practice and this is what I tell my kids,

if you do not practice financial independence

and financial literacy, someone can come along,

a guy, a boyfriend, a spouse, a girlfriend,

whoever that may be and suppress you, oppress you

take things from you, fool you, turn you around.

Believe me I know.

Take it from me if you have some independence,

do you notice how like friends,

even when they wanna break up, they wanna get out

of a crazy relationship but they can't

because they're living with that person

or borrowing that person's car

or that person pays for their gas

or I can't imagine all the stories.

You guys cannot have full safety and control

of your life if you don't have financial literacy

and independence.

Just remember that even like your kids,

kids go to their parents for money.

Learn to take that on for yourself.

Learn to be independent.

Learn to manage yourself

and your finances so that someone cannot manipulate

and maneuver you with dollars.

And you'll be so much better on your own two feet.

And that's why I tell that I teach that to my children

because I don't want them to be taken advantage of

in that way in the world.

[Versha] Yeah, I think that that's incredibly important.

There's a lot of predators.

Yeah.

I'm gonna be a little bit obnoxious.

I just need help right now with the sunglasses.

Casey, I see you.

Can you bring me those sunglasses?

I need them.

I'm blinded right now.

This is my husband and little baby.

If you didn't see them earlier, but I'm like,

I feel like I'm squinting and I can barely see them.

So I just want to get do, do you need a pair?

You good?

I would love a pair. Yeah, okay.

Well can somebody get you a pair too?

We've got Teen Vogue, hi baby.

Everybody say hi to baby.

My baby girl.

Yes.

I think Yoki's okay.

Do you need 'em?

No, I don't think so.

It's up to you, it's up to you.

You can say, mom knows you don't need.

I'm like, I'm literally sweating here in the sun

and I see you guys are dealing

with the same thing in the sun.

I apologize.

Thank you.

Thank you for staying we love you, we love you.

Okay, Aoki, you have again grown up on

wait, what happened.

Now the light's going down.

Oh yeah the cloud cover.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're good, we're good.

Aoki you have grown up on social media

really like navigated your becoming in that way.

So I love the way you use it honestly.

I love like your authenticity.

I know you've been going live a lot more lately

and just talking to people.

So just tell me about your approach to social.

Oh wow.

So that scared me 'cause I went live last night

so I was like, yeah a lot more like yesterday

at like midnight.

So that's concerning.

But yeah, a lot like that when I have something

to talk about to say whether it's like something

quite serious in the news, like I wanna talk about this now.

Or it's like, does someone know how to bake this?

I just gotta go on live and start talking.

And I've made a lot of friends that way.

I find a lot of community that way.

So it's very spontaneous actually.

I think you wish I'd like give it a minute,

think it through more.

And so I'm trying to take a little bit

of a more of a process to posting.

But for now it's very much just like,

look at that interesting tree.

I post the weirdest things.

How do you remain authentic to yourself

while navigating this public image?

Which I think is how a lot of people feel

about social right now.

I think because I'm a Leo so I'm very outgoing.

Oh my god a lot of Leos.

Wait this is amazing.

I'm a triple Leo.

I know see you did so good.

There were gasps in the crowd.

Like seriously I love being open outgoing.

So if I pretended to be very reserved on social media,

people would know when they met me

or saw me out acting like god knows what.

So I'm very open already.

So I try to maintain that same way with the world.

I tell the truth a lot.

I've actually had someone say when I was working

and doing a paid post whatever and I put hashtag ad,

you gave so many thoughts on how you tried the product

and did all that.

And I'm like, I have thoughts.

So you have to just share with the world

and you can't pretend something you're not

'cause people can really tell with the phone,

with social media, the more you're out there,

someone will find out who you not really are.

But the way you actually act, you might well act

how you act.

Yeah.

Kimora, it was over two decades ago

that you started trailblazing a lane of your own fashion

and captured the aesthetic of a generation.

Now with the current resurgence of Y2K fashion,

how has it been for you seeing that make a comeback?

I love it.

I love it for so many reasons

because Y2K I feel like is my graduating class.

I say that in the sense that we created that whole Y2K,

we meaning me, my peers, like the pop stars at that time,

the hiphop stars at that time, the music,

the fashion, the culture, right?

So I really love it.

Again, my girls have grown up in that, right?

So they're just early twenties.

So it's embracing that.

And I was really growing my babies as well as my brand,

my family, which was my brand,

which is Baby Fat as well as my kids.

And to this day I've now relaunched Baby Fat, babyfat.com.

[Versha] Yes.

And my thank you.

And my kids are bigger.

I have five kids now.

So I love this whole resurgence of Y2K.

I love it.

I love the prints, I love the animal prints.

The cheetah, the leopard.

You guys know me, I have

what I'm sure we had our own pentone pink, the light pink,

the cat, the black and gold, the black and silver,

the metallics, the denim.

Like I love it.

And I think now it's probably a little bit more mix

and match and people have their own interpretation of it.

Which I think makes it a little bit more

palatable for everybody.

It's kind of like not again,

it's not a one size fits all thing.

But when I think of that,

yeah I think of like Britney Spears,

I think of Paris Hilton, Nikki Hilton, me, Aaliyah.

I think of like so many greats,

like a young Mary J. Blige, I think of a great time

for R and B, hip hop, rock and roll, fashion.

So I love it what goes around comes around they say,

but this is a good one.

And it's stayed for a little bit of a while, right?

It's been here for a minute now.

And everybody can take different elements that they love,

whether it's the denim or the prints or the pink,

whatever the faux fur and really go with it.

So I love it.

And what was it like growing up with your mom

working on all of this for you?

For you princess.

What was it like growing up?

I feel like it's fun to have a fun mom.

I don't know it's like you were very outgoing

when I was younger.

You still are like, you were just a fun,

we would follow you everywhere.

Like all the way to the runway.

Like we were like, okay, where are you going mom?

We'll come with you.

Oh that sparkly, let's go that way.

Yeah, we were just talking about that my kids

are very involved.

Like they would go to work with me

and just be with me all the time.

And I was a young mom and so I just,

they were entrenched in fashion

and the business of fashion.

So they were in front of the camera,

behind the camera, now they're just like, mom, listen to us.

We'll tell you what it is,

we'll tell you what's good 'cause you don't know.

And then other people see them in the streets

and they're like, your mom is everything.

And then Aoki's like, okay mom,

you might know this one thing

you can answer quickly please.

Now this past September, Baby Fat debuted

its first independent collection

since you acquired the label back in 2019.

Yes. Yes.

Yay.

Now both Aoki and Ming were extremely involved

in the design process of that collection, I believe.

So how do you continue to create space

for your daughters while building

upon the legacy that you started in your own way?

So I'm really proud to say that Baby Fat

is a legacy business.

A family business if you would, a heritage brand.

I love that.

And when I think of other heritage brands,

I think of my other friends of mine, like Donna Karen

or Tommy Hilfiger, someone who's still around.

They have their kids that goes through generations.

And so for me, that's Baby Fat and that's my girls

and even now my boys coming up.

And I think it's just so good to have everybody

working together in a business that we started together

and that they've worked so closely to

and with and for all of their life.

And now they have other things also that's kind

of coming into that whole aspect of their life in terms

of business and other brands and other friends.

But I love that it's kind of a cornerstone.

And then we brought it back.

So now we've, I don't know if launch is the right word,

but we've dropped our collection on babyfat.com.

And so again, you can see the pieces.

Some of them are like our classics, like Y2K,

we have bomber jackets, but then we have newer stuff

that you guys have worked on, or reiterations

of the baby tee that have new designs.

And now Yoki now that she's graduated is even more, right?

You're just saying, mom, you did this.

She was launch in the right word to be nice

'cause Ming and I have a launch plan.

And she was like, I'm gonna give y'all

your little design minutes.

So she's like, we've dropped something,

we're gonna do a launch.

Yeah.

But you're always telling me you're on the phone

with Blake.

You're like, we need this.

It has to fit sexy like this.

They want their little, you're always telling me

the little basic pieces, all the tanks and the sexy jeans.

We bring her like t-shirts and say, try this on.

Isn't this great?

Okay, I want this theme here.

I want this to do this.

And yeah, we're very--

And now the girls have started doing more.

They're always in my ads.

They've been in my ads since they were born.

They're in them now.

So it just keeps going on and I love it,

I love working with them and they have such great ideas

and I really just think community wise,

this generation has great ideas.

And so we work well together on the business side,

the design side, all of it, the modeling side.

I love getting this behind the scenes.

Now I could talk to the mom daughter duo for forever,

but I wanna give our lovely audience the chance

to ask some questions.

We've got two microphones here if you'd like to line up.

If you have any questions for our amazing speakers,

we would love to hear from you.

I think we've got one over here.

We've got a couple minutes left.

So please do come to the mics

if you have something you wanna ask.

Hi.

[Person 1] Hi, oh, sorry.

Can I film this 'cause my mom's at home.

My mom's at home.

Of course yes.

[Person 1] Hi.

So my mom is iconic and awesome

and I am also iconic and awesome and.

Round of applause. Yes you are.

We love the confidence, we love the confidence.

[Person 1] And so how do you guys keep

your specific brands and sort of aesthetics and identities,

but while still remaining, I don't know,

like mother and daughter,

well like how do you maintain that connection

but still maintain your personal identity?

We are all very headstrong women.

I've, it's a shocker,

a shocker that I've raised women like that.

And so I try to defer to them and I know I don't enough

'cause Yoki's always yelling at me and Ming.

Just design wise, there's certain things

that we really wanna make.

We're not always yelling at you, just like about denim.

I don't know, little things, little things, denim.

But she's saying, how do you maintain that sense

of togetherness, but individuality, right?

Or like--

We're just very close.

Like me, you and Ming have the funniest group chat ever.

I just can't post screenshots of it.

Like, we're very close.

I love, I came home three days ago

from New York where I live and it's just

so like we're a little trio.

We are powerful girls.

We just do whatever.

Yeah we work well as a team

and I threaten their lives sometimes.

[Person 1] Oh okay.

Sometimes I'm like, and I need you to put on the jeans,

and they're like, okay, we had them on this day,

but I need you to take a picture.

That's the so the whole social thing, right?

So I think we work well together.

We get it done.

At the end of the day it gets done.

We share our ideas.

The try was done yesterday.

See, it gets done.

I think a key part of this as you have witnessed today,

is that they're very honest with each other.

And I think that helps, right?

That helps the relationship.

So thank you and shout out to your iconic mom.

[Person 1] Thank you so much.

Yes, she just retired.

Everybody give a big shout out to Karen.

Karen, yes.

Congratulations.

Enjoy that retirement please.

Hi Karen.

All right we've got a question over here.

[Person 2] I love you both so much.

Oh my god, thank you for being here.

I'm also starting my own business soon, own brand.

And I would just love any advice that you have

for someone in my position.

It's definitely a you one.

Definitely you have.

[indistinct crosstalk]

So you're starting your own brand.

And your own business.

[Person 2] Just maybe, it's putting yourself back

in those shoes when you first started.

What is the business. It's so tough.

Like my mom told me don't accept any, you do jewelry.

[Person 2] Yes.

My mom told me don't accept any wooden nickels.

Which is like, don't let somebody sell you a bag of goods.

And I feel like nothing too easy is worth having.

And I feel like don't sell yourself short.

If it doesn't win, it doesn't feel good to you.

Don't sell yourself at all.

If it doesn't feel, don't do anything

that doesn't feel good to you.

And I think make decisions that are authentic to your heart.

A lot of times that's a good one.

Growing up in the game, in this fashion thing,

I've seen so many brands fail.

And we talk about this all the time,

because it's not authentic

or you're doing something that you think someone else wants

and it's not enough, they wanted to see you.

That's what makes you different

than someone else's jewelry or ring, right?

Is 'cause it came from you.

So stay true to yourself.

Watch your budget.

Even if you have no budget, watch your budget, right?

Try to get your product out there.

Like donate loan it lenders, fashion shows,

school, college shows local things in your community.

Try to get it out there and get it on people.

And you want it to be seen by as many people as you can.

I think that's the thing.

And use social media.

Use all of your platforms and your accounts.

It's like free advertising and marketing

use that for yourself to your benefit.

[Person 2] Okay, thank you so much.

Good luck.

[Versha] Yes, good luck.

All right we've got one over here.

Hello.

Oh my god.

So I'm also building my brand, which is just myself

like for college, prepping me for college.

And I just want some advice on how you would market yourself

and build your networking skills.

Me?

I feel so she has done the business,

I'm adopting the business.

So I, well I guess what I've seen you do

with marketing is you honestly just accept people's love

for you.

You're very open and joyful

and you're like, get out there, wear your thing.

Like I'll be like, oh I don't think I look great today.

Whatever.

It's like you have to go and show it off, be yourself like.

Yeah, I would make sure--

Make people know why you love what you're making.

So if that's like a mini skirt

and the bedazzled mini skirts.

I think one thing about, so when--

Why would you have it on?

I was when I was younger to that, to your point, right?

I made this thing called the baby tee.

So I also coined this phrase, but it was because I went out

and I bought younger, like teenage boy, more like tees

and that had like graphic cute things on it.

And then that turned into like a style

that I wanted to wear.

And I remember this, the way that I got it out there

was to put it on every model or super model

or up and coming model that I could come across

like here take a tee, like a promo item.

But the fit was so great and the cat was so great.

So it's a little bit of being in the right place

in the right time.

But it's definitely calling upon your friends

and using your friends in your community

and around you to be the perfect model for you

and to showcase your stuff.

So again, I would say get it out there.

Get your stuff seen, wear it.

You are your own first model or your first spokesperson.

Whatever that may be.

It might not be fashion,

it might be marketing or something else,

but get yourself in front of the right people.

Mingle in the right crowd.

Have your peers if possible when possible

using your product or your services.

One day at a time.

Like look at how we all pivoted during COVID.

Not we all because you saw some brands fail

but you also saw some brands make it.

It's 'cause they were able to shift

to a more online platform

to a more like I could reach my consumers this way.

So it's also about being innovative with yourself

and your product and your services

and just keep trying every day, little by little every day.

And you'll get there.

[Person 3] Thank you so much.

Thank you, good luck.

[Versha] Okay, we've gotta be quick.

I'm so sorry because I see there's

so many amazing questions.

We'll do one last quick question here

from Miss California Teen.

Amazing.

[Talia] Hi.

Hi I'm Talia.

I'm just so excited to meet you guys.

Big fan.

I wanna give out a shout out to my sister over there.

She's filming.

But it kind of relates to the question

'cause I wanted to ask, what is your favorite thing to do

as a family?

You guys are in a big family.

How do you stay so close

and what are your favorite things to do together?

Okay, is that me again?

Yoki's leaving everything to me.

I don't wanna leave it all.

[Talia] Well we love both of you.

I would say we love to eat.

Yes.

Food brings us together.

Snacks, junk food, bad things, cooking.

I'm not much of a cook though.

But I sure will love to experiment with a recipe.

I think anything that brings you together,

like watching a great movie, going somewhere if you can.

If there's somewhere you wanna go.

Like take a trip or take a drive

or I don't know, what kind of things do we do you?

She likes to put us all in a room and be like, play.

And we're like, he's eight, she's 24, what's going on?

But we're all very close because of that.

Like we spend a lot of time together, Kenzo and I like,

And I think the holidays are always good--

From our room.

Like I'm like, hi, we're all in a little row.

So the holidays we wanna be together, we're trying

to be together for the holidays, so.

That's a big hard line for her too.

You have to come home Christmas, Thanksgiving,

Easter, whatever it is.

There's a few points in the year that no matter

how old you are, everyone must be together.

No matter how hectic it is

or how crazy your life is, we always try to make time

for one another.

I think that's important too.

[Talia] Thank you so much.

And support your siblings in different things.

Thank you. And congratulations

by the way.

All right, I'm sorry we couldn't get

to everybody's questions,

but I'm telling you follow Aoki,

if you're not following her on Instagram

yet, she's doing these lives.

You can ask her all the questions that you want, I promise.

Aoki and Kimora, thank you so much.

Thank you guys. For being here

with us today. For the last questions.

Thank you so much you guys.

I cannot wait to see all the work

that you both continue to do.

Let's give it up one more time for Aoki and Kimora.

All right everybody. Nice to see all you guys.

Thank you so much for having us.

Thank you.

Is everybody enjoying summit so far?

It's good.

Okay, all right.

Up next we're gonna be taking a quick break,

but don't venture off too far

because our amazing indoor stage,

if you haven't checked that one out yet,

it's gonna be kicking off with insightful discussions

about creating eye catching content with Teen Vogue editors

that you don't wanna miss.

In the meantime, be sure to check out all of the activations

and photo ops that we have for you at the summit today.

We've got food trucks, makeup samples, headshots,

resume reviews and more.

So thank you all and we'll see you soon back here.

Thank you.

Oh y'all are here.

Okay, lemme hear one more time.

Hello Teen Vogue Summit.

[audience cheering]

My name is Kaitlyn McNabb.

I'm the entertainment news editor here at Teen Vogue

and it is an absolute honor

to introduce our very first performer of the day,

who also happens to be our November December cover star.

[audience cheering]

Since age nine, this multi hyphenate has worked her way

through Hollywood, stealing our hearts

and our screens on the Disney Channel,

starring in a little movie y'all might know

called Let It Shine.

[audience cheering]

A decade later she is one of the stars

of Peacock's Bel Air as this generation's Hillary Banks

and a vocal powerhouse and inimitable performer.

In 2022 she released her debut EP,

What I Didn't Tell You

featuring the hit single ICU which

just last week she was nominated for not one, not two,

but five Grammy awards.

[audience cheering]

Today she is gracing the summit stage with a performance

and sharing more of her incredible story with all of us.

Please give it up for Coco Jones.

[audience cheering]

Hey y'all.

[audience cheering]

How y'all feeling?

[audience cheering]

Thank you guys so much for having me.

Thank you so much Teen Vogue.

Let's turn up real quick.

♪ On the track ♪

♪ Wishin' I never found you ♪

♪ You got this thing about you, can't escape ♪

♪ When I run out of choices, I can't fight ♪

♪ Yeah, I've tried other sources ♪

♪ Don't know why all the courses lead to you ♪

♪ Is it true when they say you know ♪

♪ When it's right ♪

♪ Maybe this is a sign ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm always so unsure, back and forth ♪

♪ Can't make up my mind ♪

♪ Caught in between, maybe it's me ♪

♪ I'm thinkin', how come every time I leave ♪

♪ Baby I can't stay gone long ♪

♪ And then, it's me to double back, like, please ♪

♪ Tell me that you still want me ♪

♪ When it gets hard, I let it go ♪

♪ Sorry I'm so emotional ♪

♪ Don't wanna regret this down the road ♪

♪ I don't know, babe ♪

♪ I was in my head, shit was gettin' redundant ♪

♪ Want a new stick, somethin' I can have fun with ♪

♪ I was impulsive, try to compare, but you got it ♪

♪ I know where my home and my heart is ♪

♪ Maybe this is a sign ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm always so unsure, back and forth ♪

♪ And I can't make up my mind ♪

♪ Caught in between it, maybe, it's me ♪

♪ I'm thinkin', how come every time I leave ♪

♪ Baby I can't stay gone long ♪

♪ And then, it's me to double back, like, please ♪

♪ Tell me that you still want me ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Tell me, tell me ♪

♪ On me baby ♪

♪ Shower to rain on me ♪

♪ Let your love just shower me ♪

♪ Just rain on me ♪

[audience cheering]

Thank y'all so much.

I'm singing a couple songs from my EP,

What I Didn't Tell You.

[audience cheering]

I hope y'all like them.

From a EP baby.

♪ Baby, what was I expecting ♪

♪ My girlfriends said, stay away ♪

♪ But I couldn't stay away ♪

♪ Feels too good when you put it down ♪

♪ I'm locked in your spell when you come around ♪

♪ And it's been too long since I've been treated right ♪

♪ It's different cities every night ♪

♪ But you'll come and catch that flight ♪

♪ Give it to me, LA, New York City, I ♪

♪ I think that I ♪

♪ I think that I ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love with you and your body ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love with you and your body ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love ♪

♪ And I'm just stalling, ♪

♪ It's you and your body baby ♪

♪ It's you and your body ♪

♪ I've just been reacting ♪

♪ To your moves and your subtle ways ♪

♪ Back and forth when you at my place ♪

♪ I got the power, you like that sound ♪

♪ Taste so good when you come around ♪

♪ And it's been too long since I've been treated right ♪

♪ Different cities every night ♪

♪ But you'll come and catch that flight ♪

♪ Give it to me, LA, New York City, I ♪

♪ I think that I ♪

♪ I think that I'm ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love with you baby ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love with you baby ♪

♪ I'm fallin' in love, baby ♪

♪ And I'm just stalling ♪

♪ It's you and your body ♪

♪ And there's no going back now ♪

♪ Baby, there's no going back ♪

♪ Baby there's no going back ♪

♪ Baby there's no going back now, now, now ♪

[audience cheering]

Y'all are hilarious.

[audience cheering]

♪ Somethin' 'bout your hands on my body ♪

♪ Feels better than any man I ever had ♪

Sing it y'all

♪ Somethin' 'bout the way you just get me ♪

♪ I try and I don't 'cause I can't forget ♪

♪ You've got a feeling ♪

♪ A soul that I need in my life ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, whoa ♪

♪ And though we may grow ♪

♪ I don't know why we don't grow apart ♪

♪ Maybe, maybe, maybe I need you ♪

♪ I breathe you, turnin' my heart blue ♪

♪ Maybe I need you ♪

♪ When I leave you, I see you ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ I ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ First, we agreed that we better as friends ♪

♪ I'll delete every messagе that we send ♪

♪ Try to move on with somеbody less like you ♪

♪ I don't know how we end up in the red ♪

♪ I find myself readin' your comments again ♪

♪ And then, we end up in each other's heads ♪

♪ It all makes sense because ♪

♪ You've got a feeling ♪

♪ And a soul that I need in my life, babe ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh-ooh-whoa ♪

♪ And though we may grow ♪

♪ I don't know why we don't grow apart, babe ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Maybe I, I need you baby ♪

♪ I breathe you, you turnin' my heart blue ♪

♪ Maybe maybe I, babe, I need you baby ♪

♪ When I leave you, I see you ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ When I leave you, I can't breathe, I need you baby ♪

♪ Maybe I just feel lost without you ♪

♪ Maybe I'm just pissed off without you ♪

♪ Baby, my life's just off without you ♪

♪ Maybe you're worth it all to me, baby ♪

♪ Maybe, maybe, maybe ♪

[audience cheering]

Thank you so much.

[audience cheering]

I am so excited to be in conversation

with such a phenomenal talent.

How are you?

I am good.

First of all, y'all were the most lit crowd.

[audience cheering]

I was like, oh, we up and stuck.

Okay period.

I will truly never get over hearing you perform live,

you have an other worldly voice.

You just completed your first ever headlining tour.

What was that like?

Being on tour, it is a different hustle.

I mean, I definitely found myself

being way more disciplined.

I don't even remember my first tour.

I was on tour with Mindless Behavior, I was like 15.

[audience cheering]

So it had been a while.

And I wanted to make sure that I gave every crowd

everything that I had.

So I was very disciplined.

I had a routine.

I didn't really turn up.

I was really consistent on performing

and then resting and making sure that the next day

I had the same amount of energy and effort.

I wanted every crowd to be satisfied.

I think they were.

Yeah, I think so too.

I think so too.

What did you learn about yourself on the road as a person

and as a performer this time around?

I think I got back to the love that I have

of performing.

For a while I was just in the studio making songs

and then I was filming and so I didn't really get

to be on stage as much and I kind of forgot how it feels.

So I guess I kind of relearned another aspect

of being a musician that I love.

This was a big year first for you,

but your success did not happen overnight.

You've been practicing a lot of gratitude in the past week,

I'm sure, trying to process all the emotions that come

with being nominated for five Grammy awards.

[audience cheering]

Do you feel like it has like hit you yet?

Like do you have, has it hit you that the fact

that you've been recognized in this way

as some of music's best?

It comes and goes.

Sometimes I'm like, I look back at my childhood self

and I'm like, okay, this has been

a really, really long journey.

And I know that younger version of me,

I gave it everything I had, every opportunity that I got.

So sometimes I'm like, okay, yes, this is

what you worked for.

And then other times I'm like, is this for real?

Somebody cut the cameras.

Like honestly, is this my life?

It just depends on the day.

Yeah.

And your journey is so inspiring.

I mean your story has ups and downs,

but it really is a story of evolution.

And if you were to think back to your first audition,

your first live performance, all of your very first firsts,

how would you say you got to where you are today?

Like what were the tangible steps

that you took towards reaching this chapter

of your career that you could share?

I think it was two things that my younger self had

that I always try to remind myself to not forget.

One was this almost delusional confidence.

Like it was crazy.

I'd walk in the room and I'd be like,

baby, don't you know I'm Hannah Montana.

Like are you not aware of who you have in the room?

Me at nine years old.

But I was just so sure of myself

and of my talents and my work ethic

and my passion for all of this.

And I think sometimes you forget

that you really love the things that you are striving for

and you're deserving of great things.

So I think my confidence was something that got me there.

And also just resilience.

I mean, if I would've walked away

maybe after the 1000th no,

then maybe it would've been like,

all right, you've earned it.

But I just couldn't stop.

Like it just was never gonna be enough for me to walk away.

I was just gonna do whatever to get where I wanted to be.

I mean when it's for you, it will never pass you

so clearly you're here for a reason.

That was tea, that was tea.

Okay.

I think until you posted that video in 2020, that iconic

what really happened livestream,

y'all know the one the one that reinvigorated

your career basically.

I don't think many people understood the harsh realities

of what it means trying to make it in this industry

as a young black woman.

Especially as a young black woman bursting

with confidence such as yourself.

What's something that people don't know about the plight

of becoming a star that

and becoming the star that sits before us today?

From both the acting perspective

and the musician perspective?

What's something they don't know about

like the plight of it all?

I don't know because one, I told pretty much

every truth that happened to me.

So I'm like, what do they not know?

And then I'd had an EP said, what I didn't tell you.

I'm like, what do you guys not know at this point?

Man.

Geez, I don't really know.

Because I feel with social media

and with more people taking that veil of pretend

off of their profiles

and off of their brands, a lot more is educated on

a lot more of the good and the bads.

And I try to keep it 100 every time

that I get a microphone or a platform.

So I feel like as far as the difficulties that come

with being in this industry, I think it's really

obvious at this point.

But I do also think it's inspiring to see the women

who have made changes like the Shonda Rhimes

and the Issa Rays who have gotten places of power

and have written for women who are of color,

like who've created those opportunities.

And I think that's what everyone can be doing.

You can create your own TV show on your phone

and that it can really go up and it can become viral.

Like at this point, in this stage of the world,

we can create our own opportunities.

So I've seen the industry evolve so much

because we're talented individuals

and when we have a platform and we have consistency,

we can pretty much do anything at all.

[audience applauding]

Yeah, absolutely.

So now as a 25-year-old,

how do you think your understandings of success

and failure were shaped by growing up in the spotlight

as a child star?

My understandings of success and failure

had to be rebranded because I thought success

and failure was being booked or not.

And so I was like, okay, I am not eating clearly.

But when it shifted, success is not giving up.

It's doing something every day towards your end goal.

And maybe that's something is writing a song

that you'll never put out

but you became a better songwriter that day.

Like you didn't become a worse one that day.

Or maybe that's creating a piece of clothing

that doesn't look like anything else you see out there.

Who knows how it's gonna get made.

But you're being a visionary babes,

success to me is doing something rather than doing nothing.

And failure to me is doing nothing forever.

Failure to me is walking away.

Sometimes success to me is giving yourself mercy

and grace instead of always being insanely hard on yourself.

It's like, girl, you gotta be your own friends.

This is getting crazy.

So sometimes to me it's like, relax,

you're good, you're meant to be here

and then the next day you do something productive.

Balance.

Absolutely.

Keep trying.

Yeah, 1000%.

[audience cheering]

So if you could do it all over again,

is there anything that you would do differently?

Like what mistakes do you think that you made

that you would advise other aspiring entertainers

maybe in the audience to avoid?

I mean, I don't regret because it is what it is,

but if I could go back two things.

One, my mom told me to get on YouTube way earlier

and I was like, girl, the jobs come to me.

I'm Hannah Montana, I've told you this.

But looking back, I'm like, wow,

I could've had a huge platform by now

if I would've done that at literally 12 years old

and then the audience would've been mine

that nobody could take away.

And I think I do have that now in a different way.

But I could've had a different career

if I had my own TV show on YouTube.

You know what I'm saying?

Whatever I created at that time.

And then I also think sometimes I'm like,

I wish I would've learned tangible crafts

that help me in my dream.

I always have to depend on an engineer.

No matter how many great songs

somebody's gotta learn how to, somebody's gotta record it.

I don't know how to do that.

But I had the time to learn.

I always depend on a producer.

And so it's frustrating 'cause I'm like, I have ideas

but I didn't learn how to produce.

I mean I know a little garage band won too,

but I had the time to learn these tangible

and like less artisty things to learn

that would've been crucial and could have changed my life

and especially instruments.

Oh my lord.

But that's another story.

But anyway, it all worked out the way it needed to work out.

And I'm learning them now with the limited time that I have.

But yes, if I could go back.

Are you learning an instrument right now?

Oh no girl I had to give up on that

'cause I need these nails.

Seriously I'm like at this point--

Not your ministry.

I understand, yeah.

I'm just like, there's give and take

and there's certain things that I just need

and I need my nails.

I'm sorry.

Everything is not for everyone.

Correct.

Right.

But I'm learning to engineer though.

I do think that's a crucial skill to have.

And I don't have all the time that I used to have,

but it's important to me to learn.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Wow, producer Coco Jones.

Girl. It's coming.

I love that.

Maybe.

So you've said in the past that as a child actor

you didn't know yourself.

Do you feel like you know who you are today?

Yeah, absolutely.

I feel like I'm the most myself I've ever been

and I keep becoming more myself

and I'm like, wow, that's really interesting

'cause I thought I knew myself that day,

but look at me today.

I'm really that girl, I really know myself.

But I think therapy was a big part of that

because--

Shout out to therapy okay.

.com

Because I had all of these things

that I believed about myself and I was like, well,

da da da about me.

And she'd be like, but why?

And I'm like, I'm like, someone told me in the second grade

that that's why.

And she's like, baby, no, no, you're an adult.

Like you get to pick and choose your truth.

So I had to reevaluate everything that I was sure about

because it had no legs to stand on for the most part.

It was just what I had heard

or what I assumed from the world around me.

But like that doesn't have to be my truth.

Whatever I want to be my truth is mine,

so now I feel in that process of removing stuff

that didn't apply to who I really am

and what feels authentic to me, I'm more myself now.

Absolutely.

And how do you, yeah, give it up.

How do you think that deep intimacy

of knowing oneself is going to impact you moving forward

and impact your art?

Knowing myself impacts every decision I make.

Personal and business and creatively.

Because there were so many times

where I just went with what everyone said.

I wasn't sure.

And I wanna be sure of everything that I do

and the people that I trust with the decisions

that I don't know, I wanna be sure of that.

The people that I let into my limited space

for free time, I wanna be sure of them.

Are they bringing me up?

Are they dragging me down?

And it's okay to let go of the things that

I'm not sure about because certainty to me,

I mean uncertainty is a sign to me.

And I also always would be like, well maybe it's just

because dah dah dah and I'm trying to make this fit.

And it's not.

Girl let it go.

Let it go.

Let them go.

Don't force it.

That's the lesson today, okay.

We would all love to know, we being me.

How is the album coming along?

[audience cheering]

I promise y'all as soon as I can get the album out,

I'm trying to get her out.

Okay.

Plus being on tour, I'm like, oh my gosh,

I have so many new ideas.

I just feel so like charged up with ideas.

But I am the type where I'm very competitive

with my own self.

So I have a lot of songs that I did

before I was consistently in the studio,

like when I had a studio session here and there

and then I have to go here, but I have a session here,

quick 30 minutes here to do this.

And I want to get in a rhythm of being creative

and being in my songwriting bag, see what I come up with

and then compare it to the other songs

that I really feel like are that heat.

But I say all that to say, ideally I would want the album

to come out early in the year, like in the summer.

Okay, yeah.

Give us a summer soundtrack please.

[audience cheering]

As a little girl how did you envision,

what did you imagine your album to sound like

when you were younger

and do you think that it'll match the present now?

Girl hell no.

I mean my original thoughts about what I wanted to,

first of all I was rapping.

I mean I just don't, that's not--

[Kaitlyn] Are those still in the vault,

are those bars still in the vault?

They're in the vault.

[Kaitlyn] Oh, okay.

They're locked up.

But girl, they wasn't even eating like that.

It was about like basketball.

Okay.

But I mean my life at that time,

it just was very cookie cutter and that's fine, you know?

But now I'm so much more authentic

and there's so much more to say

'cause there's so much more life that I've lived.

It's nothing the same.

But she was really cute.

I would listen to her sometimes I'd be like purr but no.

Oh my goodness.

So what is a part of the entertainment industry

that you haven't touched yet,

but you would like to because you do it all.

Thank you.

I mean it's a fact, you know?

You know what?

There are a couple different things.

One I really want to mentor slash artist develop

or something.

I just have this image of being like, you're next up.

And I don't know who and how and when there'll be the time.

And also I'm still trying to get up there.

So I'm like, let me humble down.

But one day I wanna like help someone rise from the ashes.

I also really love scoring films.

Like I listen to the music sometimes of films

and I'm like, god, you ate.

And I just would want to be scoring a film.

I just think that would be cool.

Like to have a symphony there and I'm like violin's higher.

I just imagine that and then it just being

in some beautiful film, that's what I would love to do.

I love that.

I can't wait for you to break into the film industry.

We will be clapping when the credits are rolling.

Okay. Thank you.

What words of advice do you have

for those here today or watching online

who are working towards making their dreams a reality?

You know, I feel like there's this universal formula

of working hard as freak, being passionate

like a crazy person and being consistent.

And then you get the payoff.

The thing, that formula that I tried to figure out,

the thing that was never fitting was the time of it all.

But I realized I look back at everything that I did

and I just gave it everything I had,

every opportunity for y'all said it a decade.

I was like, decade is crazy.

But purr, I mean, it took the time, you know?

And ideally it would've been different times.

But the things that did not change was

I gave it everything I had every chance I got

and I was passionate like a crazy person.

So I feel like that's the formula that worked for me.

That's what I would advise for anybody trying

to reach any formula.

Let go of the idea of time.

Time is an illusion, but get crazy about what you love

and get consistent about what you love.

Absolutely.

[audience cheering]

Coco, I cannot thank you enough

for sharing your gift and your words with us here today.

I mean, we should all truly consider ourselves lucky

to bear witness to your resilience and your rise

and you are so deserving.

Okay, let's give her her flowers okay.

[audience cheering]

Thank you.

Thank y'all so much for having me.

Thank you Teen Vogue.

I appreciate it.

Let's hear it one more time for Coco Jones.

[audience cheering]

Thank y'all.

[audience cheering]

So are y'all ready for more Teen Vogue Summit?

[audience cheering]

So our next host truly needs no introduction,

but please welcome to the stage journalist, author,

TV host, and former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue,

Elaine Welterroth.

[audience cheering]

♪ Funny how the story goes ♪

♪ Getting hooked on bigger dreams ♪

♪ Ah ♪

What's up Teen Vogue Summit?

[audience cheering]

No, I feel like you guys could do better than that.

[audience cheering]

What's up?

How are you guys?

Are you having fun today?

Come on I need more energy than this, you guys.

Come on.

[audience cheering]

It's such an honor to be here with all of you guys today.

I'm Elaine Welterroth

and okay, some of y'all, some of y'all

are old enough to know,

but some of you in this room might be too young

to remember when I was the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.

But I remember like it was yesterday

when we kicked off the very first Teen Vogue Summit

in LA six years ago,

and it was a literal dream come true.

So to be here today with you guys is a full circle moment.

I'm not gonna cry y'all, I am not gonna cry.

That is my goal.

But it really warms my heart to see all of you

show up for this and to see this iconic brand

going so strong.

And you have always been the very best part of Teen Vogue.

So shout out to you guys.

Round of applause to you for yourself.

I wear many hats now, but my favorite hat of all

is that I'm a new mom and I was gonna shout out my baby,

but I think they're late.

My husband and my baby are late.

But to think that all the things I've done since Teen Vogue

all started in this room with people like you.

And when I look out into this room,

I think about all the incredible things

that you are gonna go off and do.

And it makes me, it just makes my heart burst.

And I have the incredible honor today

of diving into the brilliant mind of the dynamic woman

who is now at the helm of this iconic brand.

So everyone, I want you to give a warm round of applause

to the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Versha Sharma.

Come on girl.

♪ Funny how the story goes ♪

♪ Getting hooked on bigger dreams ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ They try to bring us running down ♪

♪ Singing louder than the crowd ♪

♪ Ah ♪

Can you you tell we're in the same girl group today.

Coordinated our outfits.

How are you Versha?

Good.

Today has been amazing.

How good was Coco Jones, you guys?

Incredible, incredible.

The most incredible, beautiful crowd

I think I've ever seen.

Yes. Real talk.

All right, so we don't have much time.

Let's dive right in.

There's so much that we have to talk about.

Yes.

One of the things that I think is so interesting

about both of our journeys as editor-in-chief

of this incredible brand is that both of our journeys

came with firsts.

When I was appointed editor-in-chief back in 2017,

I learned in headlines

that I was the youngest editor-in-chief at the time,

and only the second black woman to ever hold the title

of editor-in-chief at Conde Nast in its history.

And when you became editor-in-chief,

you became the first South Asian woman

to hold this title, historic.

But I wanted to ask you about how you've managed

to navigate the innate sort of pressure

and the responsibility that comes

with advancing representation when you are sitting

in that seat as a first of your kind.

Yeah, that's a great question.

I think there is pressure that comes with it, of course.

But when you grew up like we did,

when we just didn't see women

who looked like ourselves in these leadership roles,

we didn't see people who looked like ourselves

on the cover of magazines.

Like, yes, it's pressure,

but I think it's a really, really awesome responsibility.

And I take it seriously because I just think about,

well, what did I wanna see growing up?

What was I missing growing up?

When did I feel alone?

And the fact that I now have this incredible team

and a platform to amplify people

from underrepresented communities, it's,

I mean, it's the best job in the world.

And so it is, yes, it's a responsibility

and there is pressure that comes along with it,

but it's also like, it's an incredible opportunity.

And I'm so glad that I've been able

to put four South Asians on the cover in the last two years.

Like, it's amazing.

In the time before that there were like two South Asians

who had had solo covers on Teen Vogue.

And then in the last two years there have been four now.

So I'm very proud of that.

I'm very proud of that.

And you should be.

Y'all, let's give her a little round of applause for that.

So just four months into your role as editor-in-chief,

you found yourself going to the Met Gala honey.

I really, I did not know that was part of the job, y'all.

I was like whole when I got the invite.

Nice little job perk, right?

But you felt it was important to show up

at that red carpet moment with a statement of your own,

you came with a custom clutch that read, protect Roe,

kill the Filibuster.

Why was it important for you to use a moment like that,

to make a statement like that?

Especially as someone who's leading a magazine

called Teen Vogue.

Why was it important for you to use that moment that way?

And by the way, was it your first major red carpet moment?

Yes absolutely like the biggest red carpet.

And that was exactly why I was like,

I have never been on a carpet like this.

I don't know if I ever will be again,

this is a huge platform.

Like what do I wanna do with it?

What do I wanna say?

And I think that's something that Teen Vogue

has always been so amazing about.

And I'm gonna turn a question on you in a minute

and talk about the amazing shift in coverage

that we've had in the last six, seven years.

But it was so important to me to use that time

and that platform to be able to just say something.

It's the Teen Vogue ethos.

I think younger generations understand

the intersectionality of all of these issues.

And people are like, oh,

don't bring politics into the Met Gala,

or don't bring politics into fashion.

It's like fashion is political.

Art is political.

There are ways to talk about that and dive into that.

And I wanna encourage that.

Now, this was September, 2021.

This is before the Supreme Court overturned Roe V Wade.

We knew that there was a real threat of that happening,

but that's why it was protect Roe, kill the Filibuster

'cause what was the actual policy solution at the time?

It was to make, it was to protect abortion rights

at the federal level.

Now, unfortunately, that didn't happen.

And now the Supreme Court has overturned it as we know.

But we have already seen how much the rollback

of reproductive rights affects young women

and girls especially so much.

And it's something we prioritize at Teen Vogue.

We take it seriously.

We cover it a lot.

And so that's why it was like that particular issue

that I wanted to shout out because I just know

that it affects me, it affects you,

it affects our audience so much.

And it's really unfortunate that we are where we are today.

But what I love is that every time abortion

and reproductive rights have been on the ballot

since then, it's won.

People have voted overwhelmingly in support

of reproductive access and rights.

And hopefully that continues next year.

Yes.

[audience applauding]

So I did wanna talk about this,

which is like you were saying,

some people here are probably

maybe too young to remember you.

I don't think so.

People know the icon of Elaine, right?

Yes yes.

And Elaine was absolutely instrumental

in making this very conscious and public shift

for Teen Vogue's coverage to more political activism

and issues, wellness, sexual identity and health.

It was just, it was amazing to see what you did

with the magazine in 2016, 2017.

So tell me, why was that important to you to make that shift

and what was it like actually making it?

Ooh, how long y'all have?

No, I think that, first of all, I think it goes back to

recognizing the responsibility that comes

with sitting in a seat like that.

Especially as a woman who looks like me,

you've also said, and I absolutely agree

that fashion is innately political.

So is beauty.

And I came from a beauty editor background.

I was the beauty director at Teen Vogue.

Fun fact, most people don't know that for years

before I was promoted to editor-in-chief.

And so I was very focused on using beauty

and fashion as a lens or as a platform

to talk about representation and diversity

and even politics, cultural appropriation.

I mean, and what I learned with

every time we push the envelope a little further

to try to go beyond just thinking about

what's the beautiful picture and really thinking more

about what's the story we are telling?

What is the message we want

to impart on this impressionable audience?

The more positive feedback that we got.

And I'm so grateful to have been an editor-in-chief

in a moment where the conversation was not one way.

It was a two way conversation

because social media lets you know quick

if you are out of touch or if what you are putting out there

is resonating.

And we knew despite what maybe the,

we were hearing internally about what was going too far

or how to be safe in terms

of the content we were creating.

We knew that this was landing, this was resonating

with our community.

So we kept pushing it a little bit farther.

And we also just looked to you all,

what are you already talking about on the internet

and the conversation.

What I found is that the conversations were going

so much deeper.

Even on places like Tumblr,

which I don't know if y'all even do that anymore.

Tumblr is back.

Tumblr is back. Amazing vintage.

Okay, cool.

But I learned from you all, and I listened to you all,

and I saw that you all were already having

more sophisticated conversations about politics,

and y'all were already talking

about intersectional feminism.

And so it was a call to evolve.

And at the time I really felt that the mandate

was evolve or die.

You know?

And so we really, I'm so proud

of the whole Teen Vogue team for rallying together

around what felt right to us at a time

that really felt unprecedented.

And at a time when so many people

were underestimating the intellect of young people.

When young people have always been

at the forefront of activism movements.

Why wasn't there a media brand that represented

and reflected that.

It just seemed like an obvious opportunity and I'm so glad

that we explored it.

I'm so glad that the rest of the culture embraced it.

And more than anything, I have chills right now.

I am so grateful that the torch has been passed

to someone like you who has been so responsible

and so steadfast in terms of carrying that out

and going even farther and doing it in your own way.

So it truly, it brings me so much joy

to sit next to you right now and think about the way

that you are leaving your own legacy

and your own fingerprint on this incredible brand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is like, this is wild.

I know you were talking about full circle moments for you

and starting Summit, which is just so amazing.

But like for me, I watched you, I knew who you were.

I saw the amazing job you were doing with the magazine.

I was also like, oh my god.

Like she is cool.

I don't think I could ever be that cool.

And at that time in my mind, it was never conscious

that like, oh, I want that job.

Or maybe one day I can be editor-in-chief.

It seems so distant to me.

I just really admired everything that you were doing.

And so it is such a full circle moment for me

that I'm like sitting here with you right now

as the editor-in-chief.

It's just absolutely wild.

You're that girl Versha.

I mean.

You are that girl.

I can't handle it.

I think we have to talk a little bit about

sort of your journey to Teen Vogue because

this is a dream job for you and for so many other people.

And as you said at times it felt like almost too big

of a dream to even go after.

Can you talk a little bit about kind of the mindset

of going after a dream when it might even feel a little bit

too big, but going after it anyway?

Yes yeah, absolutely.

And I have to say, what's really instrumental

in times like that is your support network, it's your crew.

I didn't even know that the EIC job was open

until a friend who's also a journalist,

also an Indian American woman told me, she was like, hey,

I heard Teen Vogue is looking for a new editor-in-chief.

Lindsey's leaving.

She went to The Cut, you should totally apply.

And I was like, whoa, really?

And I really thought that it was like a long shot for me,

but she encouraged me to apply.

My husband encouraged me to apply,

my friends encouraged me to apply.

And I was like, okay, even though

this is a long shot, like why not?

Let me try it.

And lo and behold, it actually all worked out

where I got the job.

And I think what was also so important about that

is when I feel imposter syndrome

or I feel insecure, I always go back to the work.

And regardless of like,

the intensity in the public facing part

of this job can be very intimidating.

I am actually a political journalist by training

and that's how I started my career in journalism.

And so people like you, people like Lindsay

who came from the fashion and beauty world

and totally made sense as choices

to lead the publication, I was like,

I don't have that background professionally,

but I do have a real journalism background

that I think I can help push the magazine forward.

And that part, taking the torch forward

from what you started.

And I think that confidence of just like,

let me look back at the work.

Let me look back at what I've done, what I'm proud of.

And it's always been about amplifying the voices

of young people about bringing attention

to issues from young people that everybody else is ignoring.

Again, Teen Vogue was doing this in your time,

like gun violence in schools.

You had some amazing covers with young activists.

And so focusing on the work

and then having the support network that I did

is what encouraged me to go after the job.

And that's why I'm here.

So I'm very grateful.

I'm very grateful.

Amazing.

It's so inspiring.

It's interesting for me to hear you say

how much sense it made to see someone like me in this role

because guys, when I got that job, when I got even invited

to interview I turned it down.

That's how--

I didn't know that.

That is how the imposter syndrome in my head

was working overtime on me.

I actually turned it down and it came back around.

And I went for it thinking like I was intimidated

by capital F fashion.

And that's not actually why I entered this business

to begin with.

I wanted to write cover stories, I wanted

to write feature stories.

But I kind of fell into this sort of beauty lane.

And anyway, when I got the first job at Teen Vogue

as the beauty and health director, I was following up,

anyone know Eva Chen?

Yes. Okay.

So I was following in Eva Chen's footsteps.

She was the one that called me to get this to come,

take this job as she was leaving it.

And I felt like I had such big shoes to fill.

And I remember feeling this pressure to assimilate,

to do it the way it had been done before me.

And then I remember,

and this was a really distinct kind of memory

and crossroads moment for me professionally

and personally as a woman,

as a young woman looking to find my voice.

When I saw in headlines that I was the first ever

black beauty director in Conde Nast's 107 year history.

Wow.

It stopped me in my tracks

and it made me think if I walk into this room trying

to be somebody else, I am doing a disservice to everybody

that looks like me, who has never had a representative

in this room before.

Exactly, yes.

And it was the call to action for me to show up

as more of myself in this professional space,

even if it was intimidating.

And to bring my community with me

and to bring the issues that matter to my community

with me unapologetically.

And it was this idea that I'm doing it for y'all.

I'm doing it for the culture, I'm doing it

for people like you who have never seen these messages

and this representation coming from a brand

that has the word Vogue in it before.

And so I think for all of you,

if you find yourself in a position where you are shrinking

or you're feeling intimidated or you feel like that dream

is too big or it doesn't suit you,

think about how you can be of service in that role.

Think about how you can be more of,

you bring more of you to this space and as a result,

honestly, expand the footprint of the work that's coming out

of wherever you are.

And I hope that that lands with somebody in here

because it is intimidating to step into.

This is cute.

Like this is cute.

You feel like you're with your people.

This is a like-minded space.

But all of us eventually go into spaces

where we feel like we're the only one.

And you have an opportunity in that moment to shrink

and to play by the rules or to break the rules

and do it your way.

Yes, yes.

I love that, I love that.

I think that's, you've made some really important points.

And I think that's also something

that helps me overcome imposter syndrome

and the feelings of insecurity is

just when I got the job, I got so many messages

from young Indian women and men who were like,

I was about to give up on my career in fashion,

or I was about to drop out of fashion school

because I just haven't seen people like us

succeed in this industry.

But you got this job and maybe there's hope for me

after all.

And like that just blew my mind.

Getting these messages from people that I didn't know.

And goes back to that awesome responsibility of carrying all

of those people with me when I do walk into these rooms

'cause look my career.

There have been times where I was the only woman

in the room, the only person of color

or woman of color in the room.

And I am so ecstatic that I now work somewhere.

Our team is so diverse.

You've seen our editors and our whole staff

and it's just an incredible community to work with.

And so there are gonna be

those really, really difficult times where you do feel

like the only one, or you are the only one.

But I say keep going.

You're gonna find your people, find your tribe,

and it's gonna be better

than anything you could have imagined.

And yeah.

I love that.

That falls so well into today's theme,

which is dream your future.

How much more time do we have 'cause I could be up here

with you for a while.

I know.

And we're supposed to leave some time for questions,

so we've got some time left, but, can I go real quick?

I wanted to ask you something.

Okay.

I'm gonna read from my notes here,

because this woman's career is that iconic,

looking at your professional path so far

in the field of journalism, you've reached the top

of the career ladder

when you were appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.

It's been five years, five years, six years

since you departed from the magazine.

And the successes keep coming.

You released a New York Times bestselling book

More Than Enough.

Yes, yes.

Shout out to that.

You're a judge on Project Runway, which we love.

And you now have your own column,

Ask Elaine at the Washington Post.

And yes, shout out for that

and facilitating your own masterclass course.

So how do you keep dreaming

even after you've reached all these peaks?

Oh gosh.

First of all, I love that we have some Project Runway fans

in here.

Okay.

Okay Gen Z, I see you.

So that's a really interesting question,

especially in this moment when there is

so much despair in the world.

Yeah. And I will be honest with you all,

it is sometimes hard to find the motivation

to get up and continue creating from an inspired place.

But I try to think about creating from a place

of what does the world need most right now?

And how can I be of service?

So no matter, whether it is a book

or a television show that I'm on,

whatever it is that I'm creatively investing my energy

and time and my resources in, it has to be something

that I either need or that I needed.

And I let that guide me.

I let that be a calling of sorts,

and I think it helps reframe my own sadness

with the state of the world,

which can, how many of y'all sometimes find it hard

just to get up out of bed these days?

Right.

So I don't wanna sit up here and glamorize the life

of a creative entrepreneur.

There are really high highs, but there are also hard days.

And I think those are the times when we really

need a mantra.

We need an affirmation, we need a mission to cling to.

So I, for me, as I said, it's really about creating

what the world needs more of

and remembering that even when I feel like

less than in any way that to remind myself,

and this is not just a shameless book plug,

okay, y'all, but I genuinely,

the reason I named my book More Than Enough

is because that is my mantra.

That is something I lean on and reach for.

And so I hope that when you guys process today

and you journal write what your mission is,

and remember that your mission can be multi-platform.

Your job titles are temporary.

You're gonna keep jumping from one to the next,

but your purpose is infinite

and it's always going to be rooted in your personal mission.

So get clarity on what that is

and allow that to energize you

when the world is draining you.

Like it is draining us right now.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I think that's great advice.

Did I just depress you guys?

Are we still there?

No.

I mean, it's so you have to be honest,

and that is honesty, things are really hard right now.

Things can be really hard on an individual basis.

And I think it's another thing I'm really proud of

building on at Teen Vogue is our coverage of mental health.

The honesty with which we try to approach that,

the resources we try to direct people to,

because yes, you can absolutely have this mission

or purpose that animates you and motivates you.

And also you can absolutely be depressed

or have anxiety that makes it hard for you

to get outta bed in the morning.

So I think it's important for us

to keep acknowledging that all of these things can be true.

We can hold space for all of these feelings together.

Absolutely.

So I'll admit, since we're now in like, sort of

where we are in the world, I will admit

that when I was editor-in-chief back in 2016, 2017,

I thought that we were facing the worst of times

in this country, politically, socially.

And that was a catalyst for change and disruption in terms

of the content that we were creating.

It was a time to innovate.

I channeled that frustration with the state

of the world into creating content that matters more.

And that could be hopefully a voice for other people.

But when I think about what you are up against today.

I mean, girl, it cannot be easy to do this job today.

I mean, in the background of a global pandemic

that you were at the helm of this magazine during

unprecedented climate crises, race wars,

geopolitical wars that are raging in this moment

that are actually placing limits on our freedoms of speech.

How do you, against that kind of backdrop,

manage to really uphold this legacy for Teen Vogue

of embracing this intersectional approach

to speaking to the next generation of leaders

and talking directly and boldly and fearlessly

about politics while also holding space for joy

and makeup and the joy of fashion.

It's still important, it's still important.

And all of sort of what's happening in our culture.

How do you navigate this?

And particularly the more controversial topics

that maybe some people still don't expect

from a teen publication.

I know.

It is wild to me when I see tweets or posts

and people are like, oh my god,

I can't believe Teen Vogue is producing

some better journalism than the New York Times.

Sometimes.

Isn't that the best when see them.

It is the best and also we've been here, right?

We've been doing this for years and years,

thanks to people like Elaine,

thanks to our incredible editors and journalists

that we have.

I'll try to be a little brief, 'cause I do wanna leave time

for audience questions

and line up at the mics here if you have them.

It sounds cheesy, I think, but the way that I keep going,

the reason that I keep going is because of you.

It is because of our readers, because of young people.

Because I know when you said this earlier,

young people have always been at the forefront of pushing

for change and pushing for progress.

And that is no different in this year, and so all

what I see as our responsibility,

as stressful as the news may be,

or as difficult as the news may be, our responsibility is

to reflect what you care about, what you wanna know about,

help you learn more, be informative.

And I think, people will ask me in times of despair

and times like these, what gives you hope?

And it is the people who are showing up and marching

and going to protests and calling your legislators

and pushing for change because that's the energy

that we need.

That's the energy that's only gonna get us there.

And so that's how I keep going.

And then also, I think we can both now relate to this

as new moms, our babies.

We want them to have a better world.

And so it's easy to look at their beautiful little faces

and think like, I want you to grow up as safe as possible.

I want you to feel accepted and loved

and be able to achieve whatever dreams you have.

It's so important.

It's so important.

But yes sorry, I could go on, but I've got questions,

so let's go for it.

[Person 4] Hello.

First of all, Elaine, you are my hero.

And I know that word is overused,

but I only say it about my mom and Elaine.

So I can't even tell you how I've been,

have to walk into rooms.

And I just think, how would Elaine walk into this room?

And I become a more confident version of myself.

So thank you.

And my next, my first question is,

I'm in the middle of trying to pivot my career.

I'm a little bit older.

Could you go a little bit closer to.

[Person 4] Oh yes.

I need to pivot my career.

I'm a little bit older.

I've never felt so old in my life,

but I--

You look 15.

[Person 4] I'm not, I'm 25,

but I have like around seven, eight experience

years of experience in styling.

And through that I have realized my actual dream

is editorial and to work for a magazine.

But I've had trouble trying to pivot that

because my experience is not in magazine.

So it's hard to even get in the rooms, get the interviews

because my experience is one thing.

So I'm just really having trouble figuring out

how to make that pivot and give myself credibility to work

for a magazine, work for you.

Are you looking to style for the magazine

or write for the magazine?

What department speaks to you the most?

[Person 4] I think either, I mean, I love writing

and I would, my dream is to is to write

and write cover stories

and interview the woman men on covers.

So I think writing yeah.

But I do love styling.

Pitch us.

Please pitch us.

Shoot your shot. Yes.

Like we have so many incredible, yes,

we have so many incredible freelance contributors

and we're always looking to expand that roster.

So please reach out.

We've got the whole contact us page on our website

that tells you who to pitch to

depending on what topic you wanna cover.

But you're here today, you're doing the thing

like you're meeting us, so this is perfect.

Like you're doing exactly what you need to be doing.

And I'll just add to that,

that don't underestimate the power of that first byline.

It might take a long time to get a bite

and to get someone to say yes to your pitch.

But girl, that first byline will open so many other doors

and the power of a Teen Vogue byline

will open even more doors.

So I just wanna cosign what she's saying.

Shoot your shot, pitch those stories.

Keep pitching them, do not give up.

And once you get that first one, let that momentum carry you

to the next and the next and the next.

[Person 4] Thank you so much.

Hi, you both are so inspiring.

As a woman of color, I really come into this moment

in my career where I'm making more of a leadership role.

And so I aspire to be leader like yourselves.

And for me it's like I wanna continue

to reach for the stars.

And so I hear that a lot of leaders say

that there's a moment in time

where you change that mental shift

where you just start thinking big picture.

If you do share that sentiment, what would you say?

How did you get to that or was it something

that happened throughout time with your career?

Go ahead.

So the question is, how did we start thinking

more bigger picture and, 'cause I think I think

for a certain amount of time you're just grinding it out,

your head, you're like nose to the grindstone.

You're doing the job you have,

you're not necessarily thinking about your five year plan

or the ultimate destination.

But at some point it's time to lift your head up,

think more big picture about where you're headed

and navigate accordingly.

I will say one of the tools that I've used that's been

so helpful for that is mind mapping.

Have you ever heard of that before?

So basically it's like a way to visualize

all of your dreams

and the possibilities right in front of you on the page.

And basically there's different ways to approach it.

But if you're somebody who knows, for example,

like the companies or brands that speak to you,

but you don't know what you would do

for them, okay, start there.

Write the list of all of the companies, all of the brands,

all of the people that inspire you

and that you could see yourself working for or being like,

or and just start there.

Then each one, you start to go a little bit deeper.

You start to go onto their website,

see what opportunities are there, see who works there.

And do I know anybody?

Can I go on LinkedIn and maybe I can start reaching out

to people for informational interviews.

It's a tactical way to approach navigating your dreams

and separately, if you kind of know

that you wanna be freelance

and you know that maybe you wanna have a podcast

or maybe you want to be a stylist,

I feel like there is, you have to be able to map

that career out on page

before you can even figure out

what the next step is to take.

So I think as a creative person, as an entrepreneur,

I have to see it on the page

before I can even figure out what the next step is

and how to even go after it.

But what, how would you answer that question?

Yeah, no, I think that's exactly it.

And I think my motivation or one of my primary motivations

has also often been like, it's just breaking barriers,

again, I've been in enough of these rooms

where I see who's in leadership and who's not,

and I just, I take that as motivation to change it.

And then also once you get into those rooms,

always leave the door open for people to come in after you.

Because again, that's the only way we're gonna be able

to change the whole system.

Thank you.

[Person 5] Hi I ever since I was little,

also my dream kind of seems very far to reach.

I have been telling people I wanna be the editor of Vogue.

People have been saying, I am crazy,

I am gonna get there.

Dream big.

It's literally the theme.

[Person 5] But my question is how do you guys,

what is your guys' advice on starting and getting up there

and how your guys' career started

and just how to get to that point?

I started as an unpaid intern at a political news website

called Talking Points Memo.

Thankfully, times have changed a little bit

and unpaid internships are not legal anymore,

so don't do those.

But it really was, it was getting my foot in the door

showing what I had to offer through hard work

and then also being really, really open to learning.

At that job I ended up staying there for three years

and I learned every part of the publishing process,

like reporting, writing, editing, social media,

web management, like all of the things,

even like advertising and ad placements, all of that.

So I think always be open to learning,

understand that there are actually a lot of different paths

to get to an editor position.

So there's no like straight linear path

to get there, focus on what you're most interested in.

And then like Elaine was just saying

look at the editors that you admire

or whose careers you wanna emulate.

And honestly reach out.

Like this is the beauty of social media, right?

Like you can really connect with some of these people.

And I think, and more often than not, they're willing

to talk to you and give you some advice.

And I would just, that's a perfect answer.

The only thing I would add is listen, when I came up,

I had to wait to be appointed.

This is the social media generation.

You can appoint yourself.

So give yourself the job that you want to be doing.

Do it better than anyone else and let that be your platform

or your launching pad for someone to recognize

and hire you in a more traditional media role.

In the past that would've never been a,

we had to navigate gatekeepers.

We had to figure out how to get to New York,

we had to do unpaid internships.

It was such a different landscape.

And now I think it's,

while it's very noisy on the internet, if you are better,

if you can do what you do better than anyone else,

Miss Future Anna Wintour,

then let's see that on your Instagram, on your TikTok,

on all of your social, in your social footprint.

And then use that to pitch yourself.

And you might even get covered

before you end up getting that role.

You might realize that's not even the role you want.

You might end up being the person on the cover,

not the person at the on the mass head.

You never know.

[audience cheering]

[Person 5] You guys are so inspiring.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

[Erica] Hi, my name is Erica.

I'm a designer at Sketchers

and I just wanna know, do you have any--

Sorry, can you speak a little bit closer, yeah.

[Erica] Hi, my name is Erica, I'm a designer at Sketchers

and I just wanted to know,

do you guys have any advice on burnout?

So I've been in the industry for eight years

and right now I'm experiencing

that you've been hustling since college outta college

you finally get to almost a stable position,

but now you're feeling burnt out and not inspired.

Do you have any talk about it?

Yeah, again, how much time we have?

No.

Okay I'll talk less.

I wanna hear your perspective on this too.

How much do you play?

[Erica] Never.

How much do you work out?

[Erica] I think working in fashion

you just don't have time because my shift looks

like eight in the morning to sometimes 10 at night.

Oof.

[Erica] Yeah.

Is there a way that you can carve out more time

for joy in your life?

[Erica] Yeah, I don't really work on the weekends,

but also not to give excuses,

but I am trying to be this great person in fashion.

So during the weekends I'm like, okay,

we're starting a new part of Sketchers, which is Uno

and we're going to be catering towards Gen Z.

So I'm kind of like, not ahead of that,

but a big part of that.

So on the weekends I'm like, okay,

let me present this to the VP.

Like even this event I came to is in the thoughts

of presenting to my VP.

Yeah.

Yeah, you have this always on mentality.

Like 24/7 on.

And I think and I've been there,

I've spent over a decade working like that.

And I do think that it serves you to a point

and then you get to a point where that no longer serves you.

And it actually doesn't even serve your mission

of getting farther faster.

And you will be amazed by

how much more clear and focused

and efficient you can be if you give yourself permission

to rest and it's real, no one is gonna give you

that permission.

You have to give it to yourself

and you have to be your own boss

by implementing those moments of rest and joy.

And the way that I had to do it is I literally

put it on my calendar, like a meeting

and I treated my little, I called it my joy container,

my little joy container on my calendar, which was

otherwise totally jam packed.

And I honored that space

and time on my calendar like I would any other meeting

that I was showing up to for someone else.

Show up for yourself, even if it's just one hour a week.

It can be life changing and it can create space for you

to become more creative about what your next step

is gonna be and how you can make a shift in your life

so you're not forever working in this way.

Because once you are tap dry

and you are no longer of a benefit

to your employer, girl.

You will be disposable.

So that's a reality.

So in order to prevent yourself from getting to that spot,

figure out how you can invest in yourself

and as a result, you will show up

with more energy, with more focus,

with more creativity and better energy.

So much of this creative space that we occupy

is about do people like you and wanna work with you.

And if you are coming in there looking tired,

feeling depressed, that is contagious.

And people don't really love working

with people who are like that.

So you gotta find time to get your light back,

and it's as important as the job that you're doing.

I cannot stress this enough.

Yes, I co-sign all of that.

Rest is important.

Yes.

Round of applause for that, honestly

'cause rest is so important.

And I will say, if you're not following the Nat Ministry

on Instagram, I highly recommend them.

It's all about what exactly Elaine is saying

how important rest is.

And I just think you know yourself, you know your limits.

Give yourself grace and permission to rest.

I struggle with it too.

I know it can be really hard for ambitious people,

especially you feel like you're gonna fall behind

if you stop.

You're not, you're gonna be better for it.

So just take care of yourself please.

Yeah.

[Erica] You said I wouldn't fall behind

so I'm gonna trust it.

Yeah.

[Erica] Thank you.

All right.

I think we have time for one more question.

[Person 6] Oh, thank you.

It's my birthday too, so yeah.

This is the most well-dressed crowd

by the way I've ever seen.

Wait, what did you say?

I couldn't hear you speak close.

[Person 6] Oh, it's my birthday.

Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

[Person 6] Thank you.

But my question is for the both of you.

I am an art director.

I work like seven days a week.

So I really resonated with that question.

But I wanted to ask how, 'cause I feel like I'm a bad bitch,

but how do I--

You feel like what?

[Person 6] I'm a bad, like I'm a bad bitch.

Like I feel like I'm a bad.

Is he saying bad bitch?

I just wanna to make sure I was hearing.

[Person 6] I don't know

if I'm allowed to say it, that's why I'm getting caught up.

You can say it,

[Person 6] But, oh okay.

But I wanted to know how do you come into the room

and show up as unapologetically as you feel

without shrinking to make other people feel comfortable?

Ooh, great question.

Take that.

I just wanna say just

'cause you used the phrase and I had to say it.

So I went to the GQ Man of the Year party the other night,

which was amazing.

Meg Thee Stallion was there

and yes, shout out to Meg, we love Meg.

And she told me she felt like a bad bitch growing up

because she read Teen Vogue and I love that, love.

She's like, I learned how to be a baddie

from reading Teen Vogue.

So I just love that you're not alone,

you're on the same level as Meg Thee Stallion.

You're good, you're good.

So the question is how do you show up unapologetically

and not shrink yourself in these rooms?

Again, it comes down to support.

I think like if you can surround yourself with people

who really understand you and know you

like outside of your work life, outside of anything else,

get those people who will amp you up.

That's what you need.

And I think whether it's just a group text

and you're texting them, you're like,

I'm feeling some kind of way today and asking for advice.

There's nothing more important than having a community

that surrounds you, that supports you, that believes in you.

And all of those people want you to be yourself,

they believe in you, they love you for who you are.

And it's those people that you need

to remember when you're in those rooms.

Absolutely

What she said.

[Person 6] Well thank y'all.

One more, one more Versha please.

I know, go for it.

[Person 7] Hi you guys.

You guys are both so inspiring

and just seeing, just hearing you guys today

and also following your careers is inspirational to me

and I know so many others.

So thank you guys for that.

I just graduated college and--

Congratulations. Congrats.

[Person 7] Thank you.

And it's just been a crazy time

and I'm a multifaceted artist.

So I act and I model, I write, et cetera.

But I was just wondering how do you guys keep,

'cause you both are such ambassadors for change

and I'm just curious how you keep your authentic opinion

and voice when you get in rooms of higher spaces

that you've never been in before.

Especially as someone younger,

I get intimidated when I am in rooms

with those kinds of people.

So I was just wondering, do you guys have a bite?

You should take this.

Okay, I'm gonna tell you one

of my favorite quotes from Michelle Obama

and you should read her books if you haven't read her books.

She's a brilliant woman.

She says, I've been in rooms

with the most important people in the world, world leaders,

CEOs, whatever.

They are not that smart.

That's the secret.

They're actually not that smart.

You're probably smarter than they are.

And I think it's just so many people

get to where they are in these successful positions

because of so many advantages that they have,

whether it's race, gender, sex, generational wealth.

And what you need to remember

is you're already brilliant having overcome

all of those things, being who you are,

a young woman of color doing what you do

and that's just what you need to remember.

And I think I've also been in these rooms now,

not the same as Michelle Obama,

but some of these rooms with some

of these extremely high profile people.

And I just cosign what she says, like you meet some

of these people and you're like, wait,

like you're definitely not who I thought you would be.

And so it's just believing in the power

of your own voice, which I think Teen Vogue has always been

about is finding your voice and learning how to use it

and understanding that your story is different and unique.

Nobody else has the story or the life that you have.

So use it.

[Person 7] Thank you guys.

Yeah, I wish we could sit up here all day

and talk to you guys and take these questions.

It's been so amazing.

I know next year you need like a whole masterclass version

of this where it's all you guys asking questions

and getting answers, don't you think?

Wouldn't that be fun?

All right, Elaine, I have to say thank you so much.

Thank you for being here.

Please a round of applause for Elaine Welterroth,

the absolute icon. Thank you guys.

Truly, I think we've talked about it,

but I just wanna say it to your face,

your impact on this publication lasts to this day.

And I'm so grateful and I'm so happy you took the time

outta your very busy schedule to be here with us today.

I'm very, very grateful.

Thank you.

Don't make me cry out these lashes, girl.

You know I put these on myself today.

She did.

They look amazing.

I've never been able to do that.

All right guys, Summit is gonna continue.

We're gonna take a short break.

There's a lot of fun to explore over there.

More gems on the indoor stage.

Just a reminder to check out all of the amazing activities

that we have.

Everything happening in the Summit Courtyard, grab food

and drinks from our food trucks,

take photos at the Teen Vogue letters

and it's just been wonderful to talk to you all today.

So thank you so much for being here.

[Elaine] Thank you for showing up for yourself today.

[upbeat music]

[Narrator] Please welcome Teen Vogue executive editor

Danny Kwateng to the stage.

[upbeat music]

[audience cheering]

Hi everyone.

[audience cheering]

I love that this is like a full crowd.

Oh my goodness.

I hope you've been having a really good day today.

We've had some amazing programming, amazing booths,

good food, good conversation.

And so I'm really happy to bring this next guest out.

So I am Danny Kwateng, I'm the executive editor

at Teen Vogue.

Thank you.

And I can't imagine being in a better place

than here in LA with each of you today as we celebrate,

as you know, our 20th anniversary.

So the next conversation is extremely special

because not only is this a speaker who is an icon,

but she's also a Teen Vogue icon.

And she stepped onto the scene at the same time

that we were rising as a brand,

capturing the quintessential moments of her career

and influence across generations of young people.

In the early two thousands, she became a household name

for her role as Sharpay Evans.

[audience cheering]

In the international hit film series, High School Musical.

[audience cheering]

And for her role as Maddie Fitzpatrick in Disney

[audience cheering]

The Sweet Life of Zach and Cody,

who just got to go to a restaurant

that they booked a reservation at yesterday.

[audience cheering]

So over 20 years later, the actress, singer, mother

and entrepreneur is still making headlines as she continues

to disrupt the wellness space with her brand Frenshe,

a community-based wellness

and lifestyle platform, creating an accessible

and science-based [indistinct] approach to holistic living.

So today, welcome her to the Teen Vogue Summit stage

to hasten the nostalgia and navigate the beauty

of her evolution.

Please, please welcome the lovely

and beautiful Ashley Tisdale.

[audience cheering]

Hello.

I have never heard a crowd yell so hard.

You guys are so cute.

[Danny] Oh my god.

I'm also wearing the shortest skirt possible today, so.

It's all good.

Mothers can wear whatever we wanna wear.

Okay.

So excited to have you.

Thank you so much. This feels

like a very full circle moment for us

and for you probably, maybe.

Yeah, for sure.

We talked, we had a little, a chat early this week

to talk about things and I think one thing that resonates

with us is just your longevity and you've done so well

and you've figured out a way to evolve.

And so I guess it's complicated, but it's easy.

I maybe, I don't know, but what's the key to that longevity

that you've kept for the past 20 years now?

Oh man, you know, I don't know what the key is,

but I would say that Frenshe came at a time

where I was going through a lot of difficult times

and realized I suffered from anxiety and depression.

And so it's in the moments that are more silent

that I feel like you're creating.

And I would have to say that moment when I realized I dealt

with these things was something I wanted

to start speaking about and openly talking about

because a lot of people weren't talking about it

at the time.

This was like probably six years ago.

And so I just felt like there was something in me.

I remember hiking, I hike a lot

and when I hike I get inspired

and I kept on saying to my husband,

I wanted to start sharing my stories with everybody.

I felt like I had this platform,

I connected with obviously you guys,

but I felt like there needed to be something

that I can truly connect with people

and I felt just, I wanted to make

anybody feel not alone in their journey.

And so that was really where Frenshe came from,

was that I was like, I want somewhere where I could share

what I've been through that has been amazing

and not so amazing.

Everything from my mental health to plastic surgery

to just everything I've learned so far.

And I think that I had no idea that that was going

to be something that would catapult me into doing products

and creating a really successful line.

But I think that's what's so special about it

is that like there really is a journey

and it's always unfolding

and so never give up on what you wanna do.

Yeah, for sure.

[audience cheering]

I wanna talk more about that transition.

So for you from acting to owning a business

that you're actively involved in,

it is not easy to own a wellness business

with products particularly.

And so how was that journey from something you ideated

as I'm dealing with these mental illness struggles,

I wanna do something to help, I wanna create something.

What was that transition from idea

to actually making it happen for you?

Yeah, I think it was just there was a journey

where I was meeting with a lot of western

and eastern practitioners thinking something

was wrong with me and it was really anxiety

and so it was that idea, like I said, where I was like,

I really want to connect with people on a deeper level

and share this.

And so I think it was just for me acting, I've always done,

I've done since I was three years old

and it's always going to be a passion of mine,

but I launched Frenshe in July, 2020,

and I also got pregnant and we were all home

and I really wanted to connect with everyone

and share all these ideas that I had

and share just my journey.

And I think from then it was interesting

because I haven't acted since.

I've been running this product line and I also am a mom

and it was just one of those things

where I really felt like I'm doing something

that's more meaningful and helping people,

not that acting doesn't do that, but it's I'm starring

in usually someone else's idea and it's very easy

to kind of like go on set and read your lines

and do your thing.

This side is really hard and it's something

that every single day I'm in meetings on Being Frenshe,

my product line and it's not an easy thing to do

and there are times where you second guess yourself

being like, am I even doing this right?

And I think that, yeah, I just felt like there

is a lot more meaning to my life since doing it.

And so I'm super proud of it

and not that I won't do acting again.

I'm sure when something really inspires me I'll do it,

but I really love being able to create something

that is helping make people feel good.

Yeah.

[audience cheering]

So tell me, there's a lot

of celebrities that are brand faces, but you are in it.

So tell me the difference between being

a celebrity brand ambassador and actually a founder

of a company that runs a brand.

Yeah, I mean I've obviously done brand deals in the past

and so, a brand deal is really like,

you're kind of the face of it where it's very easy

where you just get to do the photo shoots and you obviously

you believe in the stuff that you're doing,

but it is definitely different from being a founder

and running the company.

I basically have been involved from inception

of Being Frenshe to creating the scents to the packaging,

to the marketing, to making sure

that when we are creating this line,

I do obviously have a partner,

but when I was creating the line Frenshe,

my blog is the most authentic thing

because it's literally based off my married name French.

And it's a place where I was being really vulnerable

and continue to be vulnerable and talk about my struggles.

And so knowing that I was going

to be creating a product line from that, it's so important

that that is translated too.

That this is some coming from an authentic place

and that, I guess I was scared being a celebrity.

I was like, oh gosh, I hope people don't think this is

another like kind of just celebrity line

and me putting my name on it

because this has really taken up like 85% of my life

besides being a mom.

So, yeah, it's so much fun.

It's just such a different world than I've been in before.

There are times as a founder where you literally are crying

because you're like, you're having

just a really rough moment and you get up

and you're like, I've, am I even good at this?

And you're like, maybe I'm not supposed to be doing this.

But then seeing people use it and love it

and seeing, I see everything on social media,

so it's I see everyone like liking it.

People now come up to me, which is something

that is so wild and I love,

but obviously in,

people have always been like, oh my god, I love your movies.

I love High School Musical and everything.

But to see people come up to me

and say they love my line, it's so meaningful to me

because I'm like, this is something

that I literally create.

It's like having another baby.

It literally is.

It's like I created this thing and I'm like,

I can't believe people use it.

It just makes me feel so good.

So yeah.

So then I'm like, I think I'm good at this.

[audience cheering]

I'm just curious as a side note,

what's your favorite part of the business?

Like, is there one thing that you could,

is it marketing, is it product development?

Is there one thing that you just like love the most

and is there something that you're like,

ugh, we have to do that today?

I would say the events I love the most,

because to me the line is obviously it's a body care line,

it's sold at Target

and it has a mood boosting scent technology in it.

So it makes you feel a certain way,

but it's, for me, it's not about the products,

it's about the same thing still.

It's about connecting with everyone.

And so to do events where I get to meet so many new people

and our events are very different

because they're all centered around an experience.

I wanted to create experiences for everyone

because that's how I feel about the products.

It's like, okay, whether I need like a five minute

mood boost to like a 45 minute spa to de-stress.

I wanted to create experiences at every event that we do.

And then when we're there, we actually all talk about

on, we just, we connect, we talk about

our mental health struggles

and we just actually had an event,

which was a glamping event.

And it was just so beautiful to be with

so many different people and where they were even open

to sharing that stuff.

So that's the stuff that I love.

I feel like that's the human connection

and I think that that is what I always look forward to.

And it's like, yes, the line is amazing,

but the fact that I get to create these experiences

for people and make them feel great is really awesome.

Yeah awesome.

You mentioned this a little bit before,

but it's become, Being Frenshe has become a bit

of a TikTok sensation in terms of introducing people

to new perspectives of self-care.

So for you, what has excited you most

about crossing over into the beauty industry?

You've answered that a little bit,

but like what product or scent from the collection

are you obsessed with right now

or have always been obsessed with?

I know I always get this question, it's so hard.

Well, cashmere vanilla is our top scent

and it's just got a funny story,

but it's literally based off of my love

for making Trader Joe's jasmine rice.

[audience cheering]

I was like, this smells so good in my kitchen.

It has to be one of the scents.

So I had the lab, how they did it was pretty amazing,

but they created a bubble and took the notes out.

And it is, honestly, it's amazing

that it's the top selling scent

and where it originated from.

But another story about that is my ex-boyfriend,

who I did not have the best relationship with,

taught me how to make that rice.

So not all, like it was not,

it was a bad experience, but good things come

from bad experiences sometimes.

[audience cheering]

Oh man.

So, okay, so in 2020 you made the decision

to shut down the operations of your first beauty line,

Illuminate Cosmetics.

And so you've spoken candidly about that experience

and what it equipped you with your current business.

We talked a bit about failures on our chat we had earlier,

but what do those challenges teach you in terms

of a business you tried and then it failed

and now having your own thing that's very successful?

Yeah, that was really a tough time.

That was actually when I started to realize

what I was kind of facing with my mental health

because I was so stressed.

I had taken over, I had done a brand deal

and I'd taken that over because I had such great ideas

to have a company and it was like red flags from the start.

It was like, don't do this.

But I did. I did I kept going.

I really had no support.

I had no team.

I could not find a team and it was really stressful.

I was thrown into basically business school that year.

I was one putting in discount codes on Shopify

as I was doing in hair and makeup on a Netflix show.

I was so stressed.

I was like, it was just so much

and it really took a minute for me to acknowledge

that it was not something I was meant to be doing.

I think I got carried away with like

why I wanted to do it versus actually doing it.

So I had to shut it down.

And you guys, I'm not even kidding you.

I had insomnia the entire time.

I was Googling celebrities who have failed

because I was so scared of failure.

It did not make me feel better,

even though I know everybody fails at something

some point in their life.

And so I shut it down, I cried.

I realized I failed at something personally

and I really shut down being like,

I'm never doing products again.

Like I'm not doing it like it was too hard.

That was the worst experience of my life,

but it taught me so much.

It taught me so, so much.

And Frenshe was the first thing that re-inspired me.

And it was because I was able to connect with you guys.

And it was because I was not selling anything.

I was like, this is just gonna be me

telling my stories and being creative

'cause I love being creative.

And then obviously when I was thinking

about doing the product line,

I was so scared before it launched.

And to be honest, Illuminate the one thing I had in my deck.

I made like 25 decks for investors.

But the one thing I had in it was that I wanted it

to be a Target line.

So I literally felt like that dream was crushed.

I was like, just never gonna happen.

And so seeing the journey

and seeing all the stuff I went through to then

creating Frenshe to then creating, Being Frenshe,

like right before it launched, I just remember

telling my husband, I was like, I don't know,

I just was clearly so scared of this not succeeding.

And to be honest, when I went into Target

and saw the line, I cried and I cried

because I realized I'm gonna get emotional.

I love you guys so much.

Because to me that was a success

because I was like, I didn't stop.

I kept going.

So it didn't matter what it did, I was like,

this is it for me, you know?

And I'm so proud of it and yeah, I'm so glad.

And honestly, I tell that story

because I just feel like anybody

who feels like they failed at something.

Like literally just how you get yourself back up,

that's the most important thing.

[audience cheering]

You know, they always tell you in school,

believe in your dreams, dream your future.

Keep going.

Don't quit.

But really, like for real, that is what you have to do.

You do.

You really have to.

For real.

And so, yeah, my next question,

people always think, especially with social media,

that stuff happens quick.

Like, oh maybe she just thought

of this the other day and is now having a line

and just popped in her head.

But it's, talk about the amount of time and work and blood

and sweat and tears time away from your baby

that you spend to make

like that's why you're crying in Target.

Like that's, talk about why,

like the work really, you know,

I know it's so hard because I even have

done the same thing where I've like looked at other people

and been like, dang, like, how did they get there so fast?

And then I look them up and realize they've been doing it

for like 10 years.

And I'm just like, you know, it's social media.

It's so important to know that

the actual work is not really cute to look like,

it's not cute to take pictures of,

'cause it's honestly just,

right now it's just Zoom meetings,

like all throughout the day.

And so it's hard to share that journey of being like,

this is how much work goes into it.

It's cuter when you're like doing the content shoots,

with the product.

But it is like we don't see that,

we don't share and see that kind of middle thing

because it's like, the actual work is just not

really exciting, you know?

It's just a lot.

And so yeah, it is, it takes a lot of work.

It takes a lot of hours and,

but it's, for me, I love it.

I love doing it.

And it's because of obviously what it's all about.

And it's about me being able to be here today to talk

to you guys about how I struggle with mental health.

Like that's literally, that is just like

what it's about for me.

And so I am so grateful to have something like Frenshe

and Being Frenshe come out of such a struggle

because it's really hard

to be vulnerable in front of a lot of people.

Like, I didn't know, the first time I ever talked

about my struggles was when I did my album Symptoms.

And.

[audience cheering]

And that's really when I was like,

the first time I ever shared,

and no one was sharing at the time the mental health stuff.

And so I was really scared that I was gonna let people down

from how they know me and what they thought of me.

But it really opened a door to where other people

started sharing their stories with me on DMs.

And it just made me feel so good.

It made me feel like I wasn't alone.

So I'm just here to tell you you're not alone either.

[audience cheering]

Okay we're gonna switch gears and talk about Y2K.

Oh, no.

I wish we had a screen to show

some of your boa.

Some of my outfits.

Low rise jeans. My style.

[Danny] I mean, listen, guilty.

They were iconic.

Iconic, iconic.

So when you see some of the style,

like the things that you wore coming back, is there anything

that you see now that you're like, oh yeah, that was good.

Oh my gosh, I remember seeing Kelly Wearstler

wear a dress over jeans recently, and I was like, excuse me.

I was made fun of for that.

But it looked still good.

I don't know I love it.

But how did you approach, I mean, you were so young,

and I'm sure you probably had styling teams

or people styling you, but like, what was your sort of,

'cause your fashion was iconic.

It's so funny because I honestly have just marched

to my own drum, to be honest.

When I look back, I'm just like, it's funny

because a lot of people wanna just be like, oh my god,

what do you think in like, not here,

but like in other places,

think they might embarrass me or something.

And I'm like, no, honestly, that girl was so free.

She was such a free spirit.

She didn't care what other people thought.

Like it's been, obviously being in the business for so long

and being the spotlight, you now think about like,

oh, what you look like and what you wear.

But I was like, this looks epic.

I'm so excited to wear this outfit

and wear this boa at this red carpet event.

So I felt really good about myself.

And I think that's a beautiful,

it encaptures a very kind of beautiful thing,

innocence in a way.

So I loved it.

And being a celebrity then is so much different

than it is now.

Yeah.

I always attribute it to social media

and just transparency and it's a good and bad thing,

but you navigate out of it beautifully.

You talk about mental health

and all the things you've dealt with

and it cannot be easy being that big of a star

and transitioning into adulthood.

And so talk a little bit about that,

like how you dealt with it at the time

and how you think it's a little bit different now,

especially as an adult.

Yeah, I mean, it was so different back then.

We didn't even have Twitter when High School Musical

came out.

And so we didn't have really any of these social media apps.

It is so much harder.

I think that for me, the healthy balance that I learned

with social media is that I love social media

because I love to share and I love sharing things,

but I don't get really wrapped up in the comments

or I really don't, like, if I see,

I like to read comments, but if I see something negative,

I just kind of quickly go past it

because I'm just like, I'm not gonna,

there's a book called The Four Agreements that I love.

And so it's just like, I'm not going to attach

to that negative comment.

So I kind of like block it out.

But I also look at social media as just kind of like,

separate from being really present in my life.

So I think that it can be really good.

But I think there's obviously times

where I'm like, I need a detox from it for a minute.

But yeah, I think it's just,

it's different times, obviously.

And there's some pluses, I think a lot

of the stuff back in the day was like, we dealt with a lot

of paparazzi that was trying to get the first look

of your hair color or something really ridiculous.

And now with social media, it's like,

that's really sucked that out.

So that's like a positive to me.

So I just feel like, yeah, there's positive and negatives.

It's always hard to navigate being in the spotlight,

but I think that I really, when I'm home, I'm me,

I'm myself and with my family

and then there's that other side of me

that's doing the stuff that I do.

But I think I just try to keep like a, I don't know,

I've just always, I think been pretty grounded.

My family's really kept me grounded.

So I think that I have, hopefully a healthy balance

of it all.

So, you're a founder, a CEO, a mom, a wife.

And so I'd love to talk to you about just like hustles,

having different things, having different ventures

and things you're excited about, interest,

we talked about home decor.

If you haven't seen her AD home tour, please watch it.

I stan.

But talk to us about how do you balance

these different things?

I know Frenshe takes up a lot of time in terms of work,

but how do you balance all the things?

I honestly don't know how it's like,

it's such a hard balance.

I'm still trying to figure out being a mom

and working, I'm still always going

to be fighting the mom guilt.

But my daughter, she's actually here tonight.

[audience cheering]

She's excited,

Oh my God, she's so cute.

She's a doll.

She's so funny.

But yeah, that's a balance here she is with me tonight.

So I think that for me, I just, like I said,

love being creative.

So I've started to interior design

and I'm doing it for clients,

which has been such an interesting thing.

But it's always going to be tough.

You're never going to do it perfectly.

And I think it's just like knowing that,

that makes it like, okay, I'm gonna be like,

this next week I've taken off completely

and I'm like, I'm gonna be such a good mom this week,

and then like, I'm gonna mom hard,

but I'm sometimes where I have to be in New York

and that's usually sometimes like once a month.

And so I'll try to take her with me.

And it's always just balancing.

It's a balancing act at all times.

But yeah, I always have that mom guilt

in the back of my head.

I would love to talk to you too

about giving yourself grace and space.

Like what does that, you have a whole brand

of holistic wellness products,

but like, for real, for you, what do you do to take,

I'm sure it's hard, but like, what do you do

to give yourself grace, take a break, relax, you know?

Yeah.

Well, Being Frenshe is based off of the rituals

that I created for myself when I was home

during the pandemic.

And so it's funny that now since I have a business

based off my rituals, how I have to make time

to do my rituals, but I have to, I just know that for me

to be the best mom that I can be, I have to feel present.

I meditate sometimes I don't meditate

every morning like I should,

but it does make me feel so much better.

If I'm feeling overwhelmed, I will meditate then

I love a good spa night in my, creating a whole spa

in my bath.

I sometimes just like, it's really just,

I think creating a little bit of,

this beeping is crazy.

It's just like kind of creating a moment for yourself.

Like after the baby's gone to sleep, it's like, okay,

I am gonna light my candle

and I'm gonna watch Real Housewives if I want to,

you know?

So it's just whatever moment that is,

just making sure it's a priority.

I love that, I love that.

And so, yes, we talked about the Frenshe interior or,

well, a little bit,

but talking about interior design business,

Frenshe Interiors, why is it important for you

to embrace the art of safe spaces and comfort

and creating that, and how can we all do that?

How can we create those spaces of safety

in our own crazy busy worlds?

Yeah, I just have always been such a homebody.

And so I love creating spaces that make me feel good.

I weirdly got into the interior design just

because my dad's a contractor, so I've always loved homes

and building homes and interior design.

But I started doing it for myself and realized

I was pretty good at it.

And then people started hiring me.

I was like, still had that question if I was good at it,

but then I'm like, oh, actually it's coming together.

But I really just think that it's about

having a place where you feel good.

And so it could be like a stool

or it could be like a lamp, it could be a color,

it could be anything that makes you feel

like just, I don't know, I love a cozy kind of zen bedroom.

And I think that that, for me, especially for someone

who has trouble sleeping,

'cause I deal with insomnia sometimes

I think it's just like kind of creating

that really comfy space.

It could just be a blanket

that feels good, you know?

Like, I don't know, I just, I love creating environments

that just, you know, that make you feel good, I guess.

Yeah, I think that's like my theme

is just making people feel good.

What's your sign?

Cancer.

Oh my god.

When's your birthday?

July 2nd. Oh, June 26th.

You're a good cancer,

You're like, you're definitely a cancer.

After you sound like a cancer.

We're both cancers.

This makes sense.

So looking back on your career, I mean, it's,

we've been working since you were three, you said?

Yeah. Oh my god.

Obviously.

- That's probably why I have so many side hustles.

I don't know how to work. I'm telling you.

Oh my gosh.

Is there anything you look back

and you wish you would've had more time to do?

Do you feel like it all led

to this good place where you're in now?

Do you feel like I should have traveled more.

I should have, is there anything you look back

and not regret necessarily, but wish you could have spent

more time doing or investing in personally?

You know, I don't, I actually don't

because for me, my parents, since I've been in the business

so young, the big thing for my dad was like,

she can do this, but she has to have a normal life.

And so I really got to experience going to school

and going to high school,

and I had to work at a real job until I was on a TV show,

which was Suite Life of Zach and Cody.

So I worked in clothing stores, Hollister was my last job.

Oh my god, fun fact.

Yes yeah, I worked in like five different stores.

I worked at Wet Seal, Charlotte Russo,

I think Charlotte Ruse, Wet Steel and Michelle Branch

was singing nonstop.

I will always remember that.

And Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch.

So I definitely have had my, yeah, retail.

I'll took 'em all just stop.

I was like, where should I go next?

So I think at the time I hated it

'cause I was like, dad, I have auditions

and this is so hard

and I have to learn this script and I have schoolwork.

But I'm so glad they made me do that

because I got to go to prom.

And a lot of my friends

that grew up in this business have never experienced prom

or have experienced working at a store.

And so I'm like, man, I'm so glad I got to have that.

Because I think that's also why I am,

I think why I'm grounded is because I've done all that stuff

and I'm like, man, to do what I'm doing.

Every day I'm so grateful that I get to do what I get to do.

And I'm like, that's so cool.

So yeah.

[audience cheering]

All right well, as we wrap things up, I have to ask,

I always wanna know what are you,

and going into the new year,

what are you excited about next?

Like, what's next for Being Frenshe, for Frenshe the site,

and just for you personally, are you trying to travel more

and relax more next year?

What's the goals?

Relax more sounds so nice.

I, well, we have a lot coming out with Being Frenshe.

We have a new scent coming soon

and I'm very excited about it.

We have a lot of different products coming out

with Being Frenshe, so there's so much stuff

that we've been working on

that I'm very, very excited about.

But I think I'm just really excited to just kind of,

I don't know keep seeing what the next thing is.

And I have a lot of, on the interior design side

sharing a lot of that that I've been doing

that I haven't shared yet.

That's been really fun.

But yeah, just having new experiences,

maybe traveling more with my family.

Obviously travel for work, so I'd love to go to some places.

I have yet to go to Europe with my husband.

I've literally have gone to Europe many times for work,

but I haven't actually gone to Europe

just to experience Europe.

So I would love to do something like that,

that would be fun.

But there's just, yeah, I'm excited about so many

more things coming up.

I can't share a lot, so it's really hard.

But there's a lot of fun stuff coming.

It sounds like you should go to Target

and keep your eyes open.

Keep your eyes open because very soon

there might be something new.

But she can't say, but she's excited about.

Ashley, it's such a pleasure to chat with you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys so much for having me.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

[audience cheering]

Do you mind helping me pull my down?

Get you down?

Thank you guys. Thank you.

[audience cheering]

No.

All right everybody, thank you so much

for listening in on our conversation.

Isn't she the best?

She's like, we love a normal, humble celebrity.

So Ashley is the best.

Next to the stage, I am going

to welcome our fearless leader Versha Sharma,

editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.

Please welcome her to the stage and thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

[upbeat music]

All right you guys, how was that?

Give it up for Ashley Tisdale

and Danny, our wonderful executive editor.

I cannot believe we're almost at the end

of our program today, guys.

It's gone so fast.

Did you enjoy this year's summit?

Yes.

Amazing.

I truly could not imagine a better way to celebrate 20 years

of Teen Vogue than with all of you.

I wanna just take this moment right here to say thank you

to all of our amazing speakers, performers,

and moderators for sharing their stories of inspiration,

engaging with all of you amazing people today.

We've loved meeting so many of you

and effortlessly slaying the Teen Vogue Summit stage

your stories and their stories,

are what have helped bring our magazine to life.

Truly.

I wanna say thank you to our wonderful sponsors,

Adobe Express, the Archer School for Girls,

the Body Shop, BUXOM.

Hopefully you guys got your BUXOM beauty bags,

Coach, Microsoft, the National Women's Law Center, Rise,

and the Waverley Street Foundation

for helping curate such an unforgettable

live experience today.

And a special thank you to our food trucks, right?

Lime Truck and the Burger Guys for keeping us fueled

and fed all day long.

And lastly, I really, really wanna give it up to Teen Vogue

and Conde Nast's programming and editorial teams.

They work, yes, yes.

Thank you.

They work so hard.

You guys would not believe the number of people

and the amount of effort it takes

to put something like this together.

It is truly a team effort

and I'm just so grateful to get to work

with the best team in the business.

Truly.

This is my third Teen Vogue Summit now, and I'm blown away.

And I think it's the best yet, honestly. It's been amazing.

It's been amazing.

Okay, last but certainly not least, I have

to extend a very special thank you

to all of you for joining us today,

for spending your Saturday all day and evening with us.

It is no secret that you're at the helm

of shaping our future.

So we hope that Teen Vogue is gonna help you not only dream

your future, but, and for all those to come after you.

It's been an absolute honor to be with all of you today.

Okay, this is the last thank you.

Thank you.

This is the last, this is the last you're gonna hear from me

today, but we have an epic closing conversation.

[audience cheering]

And performance coming up.

I was just about to say, but you beat me.

I was gonna say, let me hear you make some noise

if you're excited for our grand finale.

[audience cheering]

Yes, amazing.

Here to introduce our last performer of the day,

please welcome Teen Vogue's senior culture editor,

Claire Dotson.

Thanks everyone.

[audience cheering]

[upbeat music]

Hello.

Good day so far.

Yeah.

I'm Claire Dodson.

I'm the senior culture editor at Teen Vogue

and I'm so excited to introduce our final speaker

and performer.

[audience cheering]

She is a critically acclaimed multi hyphenate where to begin

she had her breakout role as Regina George

in Mean Girls on Broadway

and from Broadway to Hollywood.

She starred in Sex Live's of College Girls.

[audience cheering]

She'll be in the forthcoming Mean Girls musical movie.

[audience cheering]

And her music has really stolen the show.

So this year she came out with her debut album Snow Angel.

[audience cheering]

It had the biggest first week sales

for a debut female album in 2023.

So it's valid.

And she's here fresh off of the US leg

of her Snow Hard Feelings tour.

[audience cheering]

Renee Rapp everyone.

[audience cheering]

Yes oh my god.

[audience cheering]

So true.

Yeah, agreed.

Hey guys.

[audience cheering]

[Claire] Wow I love everyone's energy, they're so excited.

Good group.

Good group.

Hell yeah.

So I went to your show in Brooklyn

and saw you sing One Less Lonely Girl

dressed as--

[audience cheering]

Oh yeah dressed as Justin Bieber to Lola Tongue and--

Yes.

Yeah, as I was watching, I was like, what?

Like queer girls and Justin Bieber.

It's a thing.

Why do you think that is?

What made you wanna do that?

Well, when I first signed to Interscope,

like my pitch of myself was bisexual Justin Bieber.

So thank you very much.

So I don't know, he's just always been a staple to me.

Like that was my one like boy crush as a kid.

Like I was like, that boy is so cute.

And now I think it's 'cause he looks like a lesbian.

[audience laughing]

Which is hot.

Agreed, agreed.

He does.

Yeah.

Okay in all that you've done as a multi hyphenate,

you've always stressed that music is the focus.

Yeah.

How do you think that has focused your career,

led your goals up until now?

Like what do you think about that?

I was talking about this yesterday

because I think it was always the thing

for me like that was, oh hey,

it was always the thing for me.

Like that's what I was gonna do.

But I used to be really insecure of weaving my kind

of different career paths together.

I thought that it was gonna be something

that put me in a box, which probably hearing

a bisexual white woman being like, put me in a box.

It's probably a crazy sentence to listen to.

But I was like

I just like, I want to do what I wanna fucking do

and I wanna sing but I also really wanna do

these other things for whatever reason.

So I've always been big about like, I can do anything

'cause I'm very stubborn and very competitive.

Yeah.

Yes.

And it served me well and it's also a mind fuck.

But yeah, it's fun.

I love that.

Yeah I'm curious about your childhood you grew up in.

Yes.

Good segue, right?

Yeah, I just went to hypnotherapy this morning.

Come on.

Yeah, let's get into it.

Let's get into it.

Yeah come on.

You grew up in Huntersville, North Carolina.

I sure as fuck did.

Yeah.

How do you feel your hometown shaped you?

How did you decide you needed

to kind of leave it to pursue your dreams?

Well, where I grew up, my mom would always tell me

you don't turn right out of our neighborhood kind of thing.

I grew up in like the south like that

and don't take your friends

and turn right out the neighborhood

'cause it's not safe for you guys.

So I grew up in a really volatile kind of place.

It was basically like me farm.

There was an old store, it's called the Old Store

and it's like a shack.

And the lady who works there super homophobic,

but she makes bomb ass fucking candles.

And so I still go every Christmas.

So I'm like, the vanilla candle is different.

She's super homophobic.

She hates me.

I am stuffing her pockets, which is crazy.

I don't feel shame for it though.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, the candles are fire.

But yeah it was like such a hick kind of part

outside of Charlotte and I think like,

I didn't really become super comfortable myself

or whatever that looked like for a really long time.

I'm kind of figuring that out now too.

I'm like, I've been gay for a while,

but for a minute as far as I'm concerned for a good minute.

But yeah, I never talked about it for so long,

which is crazy 'cause I talk about it so much now.

I definitely wanna come back to that.

But first I wanna ask you.

Were you talking about how I'm gay?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I wanna ask you about,

you were on Broadway for six months, doing Mean Girls.

[audience cheering]

You've described--

My cult, yeah.

That truly, truly, yeah.

You described it as kind of making you very resilient.

And I'm curious how you think about that experience now.

I think it made me resilient in a lot of ways.

I think that Broadway performers

and theater performers at large

are pretty much the greatest entertainers on the planet.

[audience cheering]

I think that historically this whole thing has been

like, oh, theater kids are the quirky,

like ah, kind of people.

And it's like, yeah, we are.

And also don't fucking come for us.

Very competitive.

Very cute.

Typically sexy, very talented.

So, Broadway was so fun and also I think was like bootcamp

for me for life, which is strange,

but it really was like, it was a lot of work.

It was a lot of work.

It was a lot of mental work.

I was also really young around people

who are much older than me and had a lot

more life experience than I did just based off of years.

And I also had to deal with a bunch of people

that I no longer have to deal with.

So good riddance, goodnight.

Yes, goodbye and go.

But yeah, I think it made me resilient in so many ways

and I'm so, so grateful for it.

Yeah I've been reading, I mean, some interviews

where you've talked about some weird slash bad things

you experienced on set

and you've been open about having an eating disorder.

How do you think about your body now?

I mean--

[Claire] What does anyone think about their body?

No, no, I understand.

I mean, I think a couple things.

Like, I think that my relationship with my body

and eating disorders at large is very complicated,

which I think a lot of people's are.

It's something that's like, I think of it

and I hope this isn't insensitive.

So if anybody thinks it is, just raise a hand

and I'll be like, my bad.

But I think of it like alcoholism in a way.

It's an addiction.

It's something that is ingrained in your psyche

and in your subconscious.

I think the only difference, however,

is that you cannot just not eat.

Like you can not drink.

You can decide.

I mean, it's not that simple of course,

my father was an alcoholic before I was born,

so I have a lot of experience

with people with addiction,

but it's not something you can avoid.

You must eat to survive and also just be a full person

and to enjoy life and eat to like,

oh, I don't know, wanna fucking eat.

You know?

So it's very complicated.

It changes all the time.

And I think right now, I'm not gonna say I'm doing amazing

and it's all better.

It's incredibly not.

And I think it's just gonna be like that for a while.

But that's fine for me if I'm safe

and I'm not putting myself in danger,

then I consider that a win

'cause I've been not in that place before,

so this feels good.

[audience cheering]

No, agreed.

It's definitely, yeah, like an ongoing thing.

It's just-- Yeah.

You have to live.

Absolutely.

And I know from a public perception, media standpoint.

How do you, yeah, how do you reckon with

what you can control versus what you can't?

I mean, it just kind of is that like I can control

what I can control and I can't control what I can't.

And like, I don't think that I make peace with that.

I think I make more peace with that being 23 than I did

when I was 18, 19.

But I see the shit that people say,

I see the things that I get tagged in.

Like, I'm not silly and I'm not stupid.

I'm on my phone like y'all are.

You know what I mean?

So like the conversation specifically for me,

and I also understand that I experience this

on a very privileged level to be clear.

But the conversation around my body is fucking stupid.

I'm like, just shut the fuck up.

I'm like, you're so obsessed.

[audience cheering]

You are clinically so obsessed.

And I get it and I get it.

I know I look good, you don't need to talk about it.

But yeah, I mean it's ridiculous.

It definitely hurts my feelings on a certain level.

Like, I won't say like, it doesn't bother me

and I'm doing great with it.

I think it's harmful.

I think it's stupid and I think it's ignorant,

but also again, you're obsessed, like shut up.

Yeah, totally agree.

Love that.

Your time on TV brought you more than success,

also brought you one of your best friends.

[audience cheering]

The two of you recently partnered

on making music videos together.

You've made videos in the past.

What is it like to collaborate with your best friend?

It's the best.

It's the best.

I think probably the greatest part of work for me

is I am very fortunate I have agency to be able

to decide who I work with now.

God bless you.

And I, yeah, that's right.

I make those decisions and I don't,

I try to not allow people in my spaces

and work environments that are going

to harm myself and my friends

'cause I've had those people before

and I do not plan on seeing those motherfuckers again.

So the best part about it is working with my friends

and is watching my friends succeed and do their thing.

And also watching my friends, no, she doesn't Aliya,

but watching my friends like fail and keep going.

Like that's, and vice versa.

Like if I flop, they're like duh.

You know?

But it's nice to be able to do that together

and to decide who I work with

'cause yeah, you work with some people.

True.

You gotta have friends to flop with and--

Friends to flop with.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Okay Snow Angel.

She's.

She has experienced so much success.

People love it.

Like, when you released it, what was that day like?

Like did you know that it would,

do you think it would get to this point?

And you can say yes if you think you did?

No, I like, yeah, absolutely.

And also my eating disorder is gone.

No, I think I honestly don't even remember

what I was doing that day.

I just remember being, all my anxiety went into

we had a party that night

and for whatever I like placed all my anxiety in that party.

Like, I was like, oh my god, like do we have, mind you,

I'm not even planning it to be clear.

I don't know what even happened,

but I think I was just trying to avoid my own

internal fear of it not performing the way I wanted it to

or people not resonating with it or people making fun of me

because I'm pretty resilient.

However, I do hate when people make fun of me

and it makes me so sad.

And I'm very good at acting like it doesn't bother me,

but it does.

And that sucks.

So I was very scared, but I didn't put my anxiety

into that place.

I redistributed it, which I'm not so sure is correct.

However, that's what I did.

Yeah.

Coping mechanisms.

We love 'em.

Yeah she's cute.

Okay going back to being gay.

Oh.

[audience cheering]

I mean, we love watching Leighton

on Sex Lives of College Girls, a icon.

Me too.

I mean, how do you think, like, you've talked

before, but how do you think that role,

like shaped the way you think about your queerness?

Like having agency over how you're.

So much, in the biggest way that I couldn't even describe

if I tried with everything in me.

I came out to a couple of my friends

and some people in my immediate life when I was 14,

so almost 10 years ago.

But I think I hated myself still.

I hated that.

Like I was just, this is gonna be so vulgar.

I'm so, I'm not sorry, but I was just having

this conversation the other day with a friend of mine

and I was like, yeah, I remember saying that like,

I was dating this guy and I was like,

my first thought before saying, oh, I really like him.

Like, my initial thing in the back of my mind was like,

I would never have sex with that man, but I like him.

[audience cheering]

And I was like, in hindsight,

I'm not sure what we were doing.

I'm like, was that a tell?

Sexuality is fluid and it changes every day.

But yeah, I just, I don't know, I despised myself

for a really long time and I think College Girls

was so wild because all of season one I was just going home

and like, I was in a heteronormative relationship

at the time and I was just having these panic attacks

and I was like, I'm not gay enough.

Or I'd be like, ah, I think I'm like, not even close

to being any kind of thing

in a heteronormative relationship.

So what am I doing with this?

I was like, oh my god.

I was like, what is going on?

Respect, whatever.

But yeah, it was so confusing.

I think the most interesting part is like,

it has made me really proud to be myself

and it's also made me like,

it's given me the best group of friends

because now I love my sexuality so much.

I love it so much and it makes me so happy.

And now I have this community of like a bunch

of queer friends and lesbian girls

and I'm like, these are the only friends I want.

Last night my friend was like, oh,

will you invite some cute boys over?

I was like, I don't know them.

I was like, I'm so sorry I don't have any,

I don't have 'em.

But I love it.

It's so fun.

It's so fun.

I think the one mind fuck

was like all of a sudden everyone in my immediate

and very personal life all of a sudden

was like super supportive of me being gay

when it was public and accepted and really palatable.

So that makes me uncomfortable still to this day,

but I'm like, I guess I'll take what I can get.

All of a sudden everybody's like, yes,

we love this about you, go kiss girls.

And I was like, you were just saying

that I was, you were calling me a slur.

I'm like, you're calling me a slur.

But yeah, we live and we learn.

No, I love that.

It's nice to get to the joy part

amidst everyone's reactions,

but like being bisexual is really fun.

It's so fun.

It's so fun.

I love it.

I love being gay.

[audience cheering]

You are fresh off the US leg of your tour.

[audience cheering]

What do you think you've like learned about

yourself over the past few months?

Like as a performer, as a person?

It's therapy time again, sorry.

Sorry.

I've never smoked a day in my life.

I think that I've learned so much.

I've definitely become better with setting boundaries,

and things.

I become better at saying what I need

and also being like, yeah, no, you actually,

you don't get to violate my time and personal space.

And that's no disrespect whatsoever.

This could be with my family, with my friends, whatever.

It's just like, I actually deserve that.

And I have autonomy over my own time,

which I don't think that I was doing before.

I was like notorious in the people pleasing department,

which is surprising because I'm quite scrappy.

But yeah, I think that was the biggest thing it taught me.

And also it just taught me like to just

move around a lot, man.

I've become very hermit, I like being in my house.

I like being at the crib.

I like doing my thing, having my routine.

I had no routine.

None.

The only routine was going out and it was so much fun.

But, but yeah,

I feel like I got better at being myself

and not apologizing for asking for things that I need.

Like, some happiness and some fucking peace.

Yeah.

[audience cheering]

The young ex-wives club.

Yes, huge.

[audience cheering]

Started as a lyric from Colorado as you all know.

But.

Yes she's beautiful.

Having a fandom name is really pop star rite of passage.

So excited for you.

Happy for you.

What is it like to see people resonate with your music

and have people here who really see themselves in it

and get to celebrate it with you?

It's, my dad sent me a poem

that I wrote when I was 12, like yesterday maybe,

I think I was in the car yesterday

and it was in my English block three

is what it was called, I guess.

I don't even know.

But yeah and he sent me this poem that I wrote in 2012

and it was like, it was also the most head poem like ever.

But it was really sweet and it made me cry

'cause in the poem it was basically just like,

I wanna be a singer so bad.

And I want to connect with people

'cause the only time that I feel understood

and not too much and not too emotional

is when I'm singing and writing songs

and performing on stage.

That's the one.

And I was writing all this at 12 and I was like, oh my god.

Like, she was so sad.

But it feels in a real way, to be honest.

I felt very lonely.

And this was the thing that gave me company

music was always my best friend and singing

was my best friend 'cause that was the one time

that I was rarely told that I was doing too much.

And I was told that a lot in my life.

And I got referred to as a ticking time bomb.

And like, yeah, it was not fun,

but music was always the thing.

It was always the thing.

So I think like going to playing shows

with people I think who either feel that on a similar level

or just understand in their own way

is really reassuring and comforting

because it's the only community

that I've ever felt like I had.

And so now we kind of have this great community

surrounding like you and young ex-wife and.

[audience cheering]

And that's, it's really nice and really comforting.

Love you too.

Next up, you have the Mean Girls musical movie.

[audience cheering]

Coming out in January, 2024.

How is your portrayal in the movie

differentiated from playing it on Broadway?

Like what does that experience changing?

I don't even really know.

I mean, I feel like, I don't know.

No I think it's just inherently different

because when I did it on Broadway, I was 19

and now I'm 23 and I'm much more comfortable in myself.

I also feel like I'm much more of a screen actor.

Like I think that's actually where I go artistically

as opposed to stage acting.

I like tiny things and I like subtleties

and reading behind somebody's eyes,

which you can't really do on stage.

It's much more dramatic, which is also really sick.

But I like the intimacy of a camera.

I like the intimacy of a camera.

And I think especially for a character like Regina

and Mean Girls, like you need all those nuances

so that you don't hate that character 'cause she is a bitch

and you have to make her a likable bitch.

So that's like a task in and of itself,

which I have so much experience with.

And yeah, it's very exciting.

I think it's more honest for me

and it's also very gay.

[audience cheering]

Just 'cause I'm doing it.

Like there's nothing really that's coming out,

but she just like looks a certain way.

[audience cheering]

There's like a up down.

Yeah it's always there.

I mean, my last question is just

what are you thinking about next?

Like what are you setting your sights on?

Where's your head?

Next album.

[audience cheering]

Yeah, next album.

Yeah, next album.

We've already started in on the yeah, I'm very excited.

Very excited.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Yeah.

They want you to rest.

Oh.

Take a nap, take a nap should they say.

Yeah.

I didn't really work much last week.

[audience cheering]

I didn't.

I was doing other shit.

[audience cheering]

I was being a little club rat.

It was very fun.

I love it if you see me out.

No you didn't.

No you didn't.

Yeah.

Well thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

This was great.

Appreciate it.

Are you ready to take us home?

Would just love to.

I love that.

[audience cheering]

Okay, we're gonna go reset the stage.

Renee will be back in a couple minutes.

Hang tight.

Cool.

Thank you guys.

[audience cheering]

I do.

Oh, I did it.

Did I have problems with my sound?

Guys the girls are back.

[audience cheering]

Oh, we're back on our, okay.

Hey crazy.

I'm good.

[audience cheering]

♪ Tasted the blood in my mouth ♪

♪ And left you there to bleed out ♪

♪ It didn't feel like a dream ♪

♪ Woke up and you looked so cute ♪

♪ Don't think I could love you more ♪

♪ So what the hell does it all mean ♪

♪ I'm takin' everything I see as a sign and ♪

♪ I know it's crazy ♪

♪ But what if it's right ♪

♪ I'm here again ♪

♪ Talking myself out of ♪

♪ My own happiness ♪

♪ I'll make it up 'til I quit ♪

♪ I wonder if we should just sit here in silence 'cause ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

[audience cheering]

♪ If I see a blue car today ♪

♪ We'll probably have to break up ♪

♪ So I close my eyes while I drive ♪

♪ And if it rains, then it rains ♪

♪ And we'll be over by May ♪

♪ That's just the deal that I made ♪

♪ Where ♪

♪ In my head ♪

♪ I'm taking everything I see as a sign and ♪

♪ I know it's crazy ♪

♪ But what if it's right ♪

♪ I'm here again ♪

♪ Talkin' myself out of ♪

♪ My own happiness ♪

♪ I'll make it up 'til I quit ♪

♪ I wonder if we should just sit here in silence 'cause ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ I'm here again ♪

♪ Talkin' myself out of ♪

♪ My own happiness ♪

♪ I'll make it up 'til I quit ♪

♪ I wonder if we should just sit here in silence 'cause ♪

♪ Ooh, shut the fuck up ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

♪ Ooh, I think I talk too much ♪

[audience cheering]

We've been off tour for like two weeks.

We're already back on.

[audience cheering]

Yeah this one is uptempo too.

For sure.

If you even care.

[audience cheering]

Also, you guys are so fun for standing up, very sick.

No pressure.

[audience cheering]

♪ First to arrive, last to leave ♪

♪ What's misery without company ♪

♪ It's hard to laugh when it's hard to breathe ♪

♪ It's white outside but red underneath ♪

♪ Feel the tip of my nose ♪

♪ It's burning but it's ice cold ♪

♪ I'll make it through the winter if it kills me ♪

♪ I can make it faster if I hurry ♪

♪ I'll angel in the snow until I'm worthy ♪

♪ But if it kills me I tried ♪

♪ If it kills me ♪

♪ Smiles hide what secrets keep ♪

♪ Can't tell a lie if you never speak ♪

♪ Look in the mirror, she looks like me ♪

♪ But half alive and twice as weak ♪

♪ Feel the tip of my nose ♪

♪ It's burning but it's ice cold ♪

♪ I'll make it through the winter if it kills me ♪

♪ I can make it faster if I hurry ♪

♪ I'll angel in the snow until I'm worthy ♪

♪ But if it kills me I tried ♪

♪ If it kills me ♪

♪ I tried so hard ♪

♪ I came so far ♪

♪ I met a boy ♪

♪ He broke my heart ♪

♪ I blame him 'cause ♪

♪ It's easier ♪

♪ But I still look ♪

♪ For him in her ♪

♪ The seasons change ♪

♪ Addiction's strange ♪

♪ I loved back then ♪

♪ What I hate today ♪

♪ I wish I went ♪

♪ A different way ♪

♪ But if I went back ♪

♪ What ♪

♪ I would do the same ♪

♪ I'll make it through the winter if it ♪

♪ But why does it go slower when I ♪

♪ I'll angel in the snow until I'm worthy ♪

♪ If it kills me I tried ♪

♪ If it kills me I can ♪

[audience cheering]

Guys big round of applause for the girls.

[audience cheering]

Okay we have one more song to do for you.

But before I don't get to do this anymore

'cause we're not on tour,

but it's my favorite part of every show.

So big rounds of applause.

Okay.

On, well, you get me Dre on bass, Josh on drums.

Drums.

These are drums.

Terrance on keys.

Terrance also did all of my arrangements for tour.

So everything that you hear and see he did.

And Josh on guitar.

[audience cheering]

Oh, thanks.

Hot.

Thanks then.

All right one more song.

You guys know Coco Jones?

[audience cheering]

She's here.

She's not here.

She was here earlier.

She's not here.

But we just, we just put out this song last night

and this is Tummy Hurts

and the remix with her on it is better than the original.

And she's hot as fuck but this is the original one.

[audience cheering]

[upbeat music]

♪ Maybe I should try religion ♪

♪ 'Cause what ♪

♪ Jesus, you're hard to rely on ♪

♪ I never find you in the kitchen ♪

♪ Couldn't even pay rent for three months ♪

♪ Oh, I heard you, I get it, you're broke ♪

♪ But oh, you always had money to smoke, though ♪

♪ Now my tummy hurts, he's in love with her ♪

♪ But for what it's worth ♪

♪ They'd make beautiful babies ♪

♪ And raise 'em up to be a couple of ♪

♪ Fucking monsters, like their mother and their father ♪

♪ Eventually, 2043 ♪

♪ Someone's gonna hurt their little girl ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ I just want some recognition for having good tits ♪

♪ And a big heart ♪

♪ I can't believe I let you hit in ♪

♪ In hindsight, that might be the worst part ♪

♪ Oh, I taught you everything you know ♪

♪ But oh, I guess boys, they come and they go ♪

♪ Now my tummy hurts, he's in love with her ♪

♪ But for what it's worth ♪

♪ They'd make beautiful babies ♪

♪ And raise 'em up to be a couple of ♪

♪ Fucking monsters, like their mother and their father ♪

♪ Eventually, 2043 ♪

♪ Someone's gonna hurt their little girl ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ Like their daddy hurt me ♪

♪ Now my tummy hurts, he's in love with her ♪

♪ But for what it's worth ♪

♪ He's her problem now ♪

♪ Baby, and she'll stay with him ♪

♪ 'Cause she made with him a couple monsters ♪

♪ Like their fucking what ♪

♪ Mother and their father ♪

♪ Yeah, eventually, 2043 ♪

♪ Someone's gonna hurt your little girl like you hurt me ♪

[audience cheering]

Guys big round of applause for this incredible band.

[audience cheering]

Big round of applause for Barbie AKA Coco Jones.

[audience cheering]

Big round of applause for Teen Vogue.

[audience cheering]

I love you guys very much.

Thanks for coming and listening to me.

Wow, I love you.

You're very cute and this is very fun

and I'm so fucking happy to be home.

[audience cheering]

[upbeat music]