Still figuring it out | Tavi Gevinson | TEDxTeen

Tavi Gevinson is editor-in-chief and founder of RookieMag.com wants us to be like Stevie Nicks – unapologetic about our flaws, and about reconciling all of our contradictory feelings.

Four years ago, today exactly, actually,

I started a fashion blog
called Style Rookie.

Last September of 2011
I started an online magazine

for teenage girls called RookieMag.com

My name is Tavi Gevinson.

The title of my talk is
'Still Figuring It Out',

and the MS Paint quality of my slides
was a total creative decision

in keeping with today's theme.

It has nothing to do
with my inability to use Powerpoint.

(Laughter)

So, I added this site for teenage girls,

I am a feminist,
I'm a kind of pop culture nerd

and I think a lot about
what makes a strong female character.

You know, movies and TV shows,

these things have influenced
my own website.

So, I think, the question
of what makes a strong female character

often goes misinterpreted

and instead we get these
two-dimensional superwomen

who maybe have one quality
that's played up a lot,

like a Catwoman type,

or she plays her sexuality up
a lot and it's seen as power,

but they're not strong characters
who happen to be female,

they're completely flat,
and basically cardboard characters.

the problem with this is that then people
expect women to be that easy to understand

and women are mad at themselves
for not being that simple

when in actuality, women are complicated.

Women are multifaceted,
not because women are crazy,

but because people are crazy
and women happen to be people.

(Laughter)

So, the flaws are the key.
I'm not the first person to say this.

What makes a strong female character
is a character

who has weaknesses, who has flaws,

who is maybe not immediately likable,
but eventually relatable.

I don't like to acknowledge a problem

without also acknowledging
those who work to fix it,

so, I just wanted to acknowledge shows
like "Mad Men," movies like "Bridesmaids,"

whose female characters are protagonists,
are complex, multifaceted.

Lena Dunham who's on here,

her show on HBO,
that premieres next month, "Girls,"

she said she wanted to start it because
she felt that every woman she knew

was just a bundle of contradictions.

And that feels accurate for all people,

but you don't see women represented
like that as much.

Congrats, guys!
(Laughter)

But I still feel that there are
some types of women

who are not represented that way,

and one group that we'll focus on today
are teens,

because I think teenagers
are especially contradictory

and still figuring it out.

In the 90s there was "Freaks and Geeks"
and "My So-Called Life,"

and their characters,
Lindsay Weir and Angela Chase.

I mean, the whole premise of the show.

The shows were just them trying
to figure themselves out, basically.

But those shows only lasted a season each,

and I haven't really seen
anything like that on TV since.

So, this is a scientific diagram
of my brain,

around the time when
I started watching those TV shows

I was like ending middle school,
starting high school,

I'm a sophomore now.

And I was trying to reconcile
all of these differences

that you're told you can't be
when you're growing up as a girl.

You can't be smart and pretty,

you can't be a feminist
who's also interested in fashion.

You can't care about clothes
if it's not for the sake of

what other people, usually men,
will think of you.

So I was trying to figure all that out,
and I felt a little confused,

and I said so on my blog.

I said that I wanted to start
a website for teenage girls,

that was not this kind of one-dimensional
strong character and power-men thing,

because I think one thing
that can be very alienating

about a misconception of feminism

is that girls then think
that to be a feminist,

they have to live up to being
perfectly consistent in your beliefs,

never being insecure,

never having doubts,
having all of the answers.

And this is not true, and, actually,

reconciling all the contradictions
I was feeling

became easier once I understood

that feminism was not a rulebook,
but a discussion,

a conversation, a process.

And this is a spread from a zine
that I made last year, when -

I mean I think I've let myself go
a bit on the illustration front since.

(Laughter)
But -

So I said on my blog that I wanted

to start this publication
for teenage girls

and asked people to submit their writing,
their photography, whatever,

to be a member of our staff.

I got about 3,000 e-mails.

My editorial director and I
went through them

and put together a staff of people
and we launched last September.

And this is an excerpt
from my first editor's letter,

where I say that Rookie,
we don't have all the answers,

we're still figuring it out too,
but the point

is not to give girls the answers,

and not even give them permission
to find the answers themselves,

but hopefully inspire them to understand,

that they can give themselves
that permission,

they can ask their own questions,
find their own answers, all of that.

And Rookie, I think,
we've been trying to make it

a nice place for all of that
to be figured out.

So, I'm not saying, "be like us"
and "we're perfect role models,"

'cause we're not, but we just want to help
represent girls in a way

that shows those different dimensions.

I mean we have articles called:

"On taking yourself seriously.
How to not care what people think of you."

But we also have articles like -

Oops, nope, erm um...
I'm figuring it out! Ha-ha!

(Laughter)

If you use that,
you can get away with anything.

We also have articles called:

"How to look like you weren't just crying
in less than five minutes."

So, all of that being said I still
really appreciate those characters

and movies and articles,
like that on our site

that are just about
being totally powerful,

maybe finding your acceptance
with yourself and self esteem

and your flaws, and how you accept those.

So what I want you to take away
from my talk,

the lesson of all of this
is to just be Stevie Nicks.

Like, that's all you have to do,
because my favorite thing about her,

other than like everything,

is that she has always been
unapologetically present on stage,

and unapologetic about her flaws,

and about reconciling all of her
contradictory feelings

and she makes you listen to them
and think about them.

And yeah, so please be Stevie Nicks.
Thank you.

(Applause)