Tavi Gevinson on fashion, acting and growing up in the limelight

The moment I saw the pint-sized fashion blogger take her seat in the front row of Chanel’s spring couture show back in 2010, I knew it was the beginning of the end. Tavi Gevinson was a 13-year-old kid from Oak Park, Ill., but already the precocious style maven was making waves in the blogosphere with her Style Rookie site, which she’d started two years earlier, that was attracting over 30,000 readers daily. Gevinson’s earnest and unwittingly controversial efforts were emblematic of the democratization of fashion: Even a pubescent fan who blogged from her Chicago suburb bedroom could have opinions and a voice as vital and valuable as a seasoned editor. The system had finally, perhaps happily, changed. And while cynical tongues wagged, arbiters everywhere became cognizant of fashion’s new age.
As the years have passed, Gevinson has expanded her horizons, embracing issues of feminism and pop culture. She founded the online publication, Rookie Magazine (of which she continues to be editor-in-chief). In 2014, Gevinson made Time Magazine’s list of the 25 most influential teens, and she has flourished as a public speaker and most recently, an actress. Gevinson was in Toronto recently for the launch of Yearbook Four, a publication that compiles the best of Rookie website’s senior year. I spoke with the 19-year-old dynamo about growing up in the limelight, how her parents helped ground her, and the evolution of her personal approach to style.
You were one of the first young fashion bloggers to surface in a major way. How aware were you of the impact that you were having on media and the fashion industry?
It was always really difficult to gauge and I don’t think I was very interested in knowing because I was never writing for an audience with the interest of giving them news about fashion or telling them what was cool to wear. It was all coming from a very personal place, and to protect that, it was great that I was just still living at home and going to school. And there was stuff written about me and I could look at it or I could not. I just came up at a time when the narrative of someone’s fifteen minutes running out was very prevalent. The idea of being a ‘child star’ always sounded awful to people my age, and so I was just very aware that these things are kind of fleeting and that a lot of it didn’t have to do with me; it had to do with my age, it had to do with whatever came to mind when people thought of a young internet sensation. So I felt healthily removed from it.
I’m curious to know how important a role the fashion arena played in making you aware of the big picture and of how you could use it as a platform.
I knew that I had different kinds of aspirations, but it wasn’t any type of career move at that age to use fashion as a springboard for anything else. People ask me about the decision to transition from fashion to Rookie magazine. But it wasn’t a decision. I was 14 and my interests were changing. So all of it was pretty organic. I’m a very careful person. I never did anything that I was uncomfortable with. If anything, I wish I’d been more savvy about knowing and understanding things, like asking for money when you do something. But there was so much going on that I wasn’t calculating anything.
Looking back at that world, what are some of your thoughts on the power, and perhaps evils of it?
To be that interested in personal style was great for me in the same way keeping a diary was great for me because it was a way to express myself, and it feels good when you’re outsides match your insides. And then to have that recognized in this other sphere was interesting. But you know, a lot of it was mixed. Looking back, I’m very glad that I was going to the stuff with my parents. They had no interest in the scene initially, but they became interested. They thought it was fascinating. But no part of them wanted to go to an Alexander Wang party! So I’m really glad that they were with me and coming at it from these outsider perspectives. My dad is an English teacher and my mother is a textiles artist so they’re interested in the world in very unique ways. Looking back, I’m even grateful for the initial encounters that were less than positive, because it forced me to build a really thick skin and to think constructively about whose opinion was important to me and if an opinion mattered, if it came from someone who you don’t feel shares your values. And it’s also honestly a blessing because now I live in New York and I think I would have had a weirder first year there if something like a very exclusive party was new for me and I felt super wide-eyed. Now that I can see though some of the fluffier parts surrounding the scene, it allows me to maybe see someone at a party that I can actually have a conversation with, and learn something from and make other kinds of connections.
You had a turn on Broadway not that long ago and got great reviews. Is that something that you want to do more of?
Yeah! We’re starting rehearsals in January for The Crucible on Broadway and I’m so excited, and a little scared.
You’re obviously still adamant about not just settling for one kind of arena – you don’t want to confine yourself to just realizing one dream.
No. And I feel like I learned so much more about each arena from the others. I think being in a play made me a better writer. I think working on Rookie and thinking so much about what it means to connect with someone emotionally made me a better stage actress. I just feel so lucky that I’m able to do things that are enriching for me.
Do you consciously feel the responsibility of being a role model for young women or just accept it?
It’s not a bad way to live, thinking, ‘What would I want a smart but maybe a little confused 15-year-old to see in someone she admires?’ I think it makes me take better care of myself and less willing to make concessions about other people’s opinions. I’m very lucky that the audience I’ve had has been that supporting kind of audience. In terms of my own creative expression, I feel just more encouraged to open up.
And finally on more of a superficial level – how has your approach to style changed since you first got into that world?
I don’t think that’s superficial. I go through periods where I don’t really care what I look like because I feel more focused on the work that I’m doing and I don’t want to think about it. And then sometimes it feels like the biggest part of my day is getting dressed. Probably the biggest change is that I have more of an awareness of my body than I had when I was that age, because I was totally prepubescent and would just go to the thrift store and had no concept of sizes and was just like ‘I can make anything work! What’s important is the colours and whatever…’ Now I don’t feel that way. But I still try to make sure that if I put something on and then I feel ‘Ah, it’s too weird’, then I have to wear it. Because I’ll always feel better coming home at the end of the day knowing I did that than being out and knowing that I sort of compromised based on some standard that no one even set for me.