What Tavi Gevinson has done with her personal brand and the brand of her website/publishing empire is nothing short of astounding. Making her success even more remarkable is her age, accomplishing all this at just 16.
In every interview I read about her, I continue to be impressed by her wisdom, work ethic, outlook, and values.
Case in point: this piece she did with Adweek. Go read the whole interview; it's fantastic.
One of the highlights for me is this take on not looking back. I think it applies to creatives:
There were a lot of comparisons made between Sassy and Rookie. How do you think you speak to your readers vs. how Sassy did in the ’90s?
Our medium allows us to put out more content, which means putting out more points of view. I haven’t looked at my issues of Sassy since before I started Rookie just because I thought Rookie needed to have its own life. And it’s hard to compare because we have a lot more leeway. We don’t really have to please advertisers the way that a print magazine did.
Or her opinion on balance, passion, and work:
Outside of Rookie and going to school, do you even have time for a personal life?
Yeah! After I get off the phone with you, my boyfriend’s coming over [laughs]. I just don’t really have time to slack off, which is fine, because I feel really unhappy when I’m idle or when I procrastinate. Everything that I do is either something that I love or necessary to doing something that I love. There’s a lot of decision making, but for the most part, I’ve kind of figured out a way to do everything I want without exhausting myself.