the 24-year-old writer and actress
Here, Gevinson talks candidly about reopening the Rookie chapter of her life, why it closed in the first place, and, yes, her role on theI started talking to Audible at the beginning of [2020] about doing something. I had really liked doing thepodcast a few years ago, but that was more interviews within shorter segments by our contributors.
I know why I needed to shut it down, and I'm glad that that happened. On one hand, it was so painful, and on the other hand, one of the best things I've ever done for myself. But between Audible and this Rookie print sale that my friend Savannah and I organized in the fall, which was an art fundraiser to raise money for the Movement Voter Project, I was like, “For someone who really wanted this to be over, you seem to keep finding ways to have those connections again.
In a way, I wish I'd been that willing to be open earlier on. I'm like, “Oh, surely if you had just posted like, ‘Hey, we're struggling. Donate to our Kickstarter,’ donations would have poured in.” I didn't realize how much shame I actually had about how it was going behind the scenes, and I wish I'd felt a little more able to share that with people. But that's also our culture. The irony is that I never made money from Rookie.
I don't know. My friend was like, "Cool. Now you can just be, like, a skate brand, and you can do these little one-off things." I don't actually have anything else in mind beyond this show. So enjoy this one because it might be the only one! I'm not really thinking about that.