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[shophotlavablog]

wrote a book largely about my mother and just our lives and how wild it was. Its a tribute to her, myself, Florida, and just life in general. It covers so many topics and my relationships, and businesses. Touring with bands, a successful fashion career. Navigating fandoms, Motherhood, Cancer, its all in there. If you are interested or know someone who might be please preorder this. Its the biggest things Ive ever done, and I can't imagine anything meaning more to me than this book. Even any future books I write will not feel or be like this.

It’s full of dark comedy and surprises. And also SO MUCH TUMBLR LOVE

[shophotlavablog]

YOUTHFUL METALS INTERVIEW

Gab Klassen (@youthfulmetals) is a queer non-binary Filipinx-American and disabled artist obsessed with nostalgia and expressive self-adornment as an act of radical mental health.

What have been you working on lately? I’m currently working on a collection inspired by my childhood experiences as a first-generation Asian American.

What are some things you’ve been doing to prioritize “me time”? I religiously take baths. It’s one of the only places I can pull myself away from screens and other people . It’s where I meditate. Spending time in the backyard with my cats also does loads for my mental health. Even just stepping out for a few minutes at a time helps.

Can you give us a small walk through on how you started out in your career,  and what younger you would need to hear to get where you are? I went to grad school to becoming an expressive art therapist, but graduated the program—in the midst of a pandemic—just wanting to focus on the expressive art part. So I took my own “road less traveled” and started making jewelry. I think my younger self would be happy to know I still f*ck with that Robert Frost poem and that I should trust my gut when forging my path.

Tell me your most embarrassing moment in your current career/relationship/ creative endeavor. Omg… it’s gotta be the time I sent Hasan Piker a necklace to his PO Box and I watched it break while he was wearing it live on stream. On the bright side, it drove me to learn how to solder jump rings. Never stop learning new skills!

What causes you stress and how to ease those stresses? Probably perfectionism and anxiety about posting my work. I make entire collections sometimes that have never seen the light of day—at least on the internet. I also sometimes create faster than I can shoot, edit, come up with cohesive themes, price, upload, write descriptions and captions, and post. But once I’m back to just working with my beads and creating pieces, I’m pretty satisfied and at ease. That’s my favorite part.

Do you think about where you’d like to be in 5 years or even 1 year or are you more of “in the moment type”? Well the thing about me is, I often start a project, go hard on it, then eventually quit. I’m committed to not doing that this time. I want to see this business grow, evolve, and expand along side the therapeutic skills I learned in grad school. I may not have become a therapist, but I’m passionate about building a mental health conscious business.

Name one hobby: 90 Day Fiancé

If you wrote a book what would the title be and why? Why Does Growing Up Feel More Like De-Evolution ~ because why do I just keep getting more youthful with age?

One thing you always tell your best friend: Meow (it’s gonna be okay)

[shophotlavablog]

Inspo: Grace Miceli - Artbabygirl

Grace Miceli is a Brooklyn-based artist. She works across multiple mediums including illustration, animation, comics, product design and murals. Her work has been featured at MoMA, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, NADA Miami, Tate Modern, SXSW and in more than 50 galleries worldwide. Her first book “How To Deal” published by Voracious/Little, Brown and Company comes out in May 2021.  

What have been you working on lately? I spent most of 2020 making a book! It’s called How to Deal and it’s full of illustrations and some writing and is the biggest and most personal project I’ve ever worked on. I’m completely terrified and also so excited for when it comes out (May 4th). I also just launched a Patreon, I’d love to be less reliant on big client jobs and work more on projects that I’m passionate about, so for that reason I’m into the direct support that the platform provides.

Grace’s Hot Lava Collab Sleepwear:

What are some things you’ve been doing to prioritize “me time”? My first few years starting out as a freelance artist I worked every single minute I was awake. I was always thinking about work, talking about work with everyone and just had no real identity outside of that. I’ve been trying to change that because having my identity so wrapped up with work made it really hard when work would slow down because my self-worth would crash, and it’s more complicated by the fact that my work is usually quite personal. Shifting my mindset has helped me to enjoy the time when I’m just hanging out with my dog and watching a movie or reading a book and not feel guilty about not being productive in a capitalist sense.

Can you give us a small walk through on how you started out in your career, and what younger you would need to hear to get where you are? I studied fine art in college and was making way more conceptual photo/video and installation work. When I graduated and didn’t get any of the art world “dream jobs” I had applied for I realized I needed to figure out how to keep making art every day but more affordably, so that’s why I started drawing. I could get my supplies anywhere, I used printer paper and Crayola markers for years. Before I moved to NYC I had no choice but to find my community online because I was living in more rural and suburban areas, so I would post everything I made on Tumblr and then eventually Instagram and along the way have been so lucky to meet and become connected to the people and brands I’ve worked with over the years. It took me about 5 years living here (working lots of different jobs: artist’s assistant, front desk at galleries, retail) before I could transition to working for myself and to be totally honest it’s still a struggle a lot of the time. I think that I would like to tell my younger self to focus less on chasing after that big brand or those more fleeting moments of of being associated with a big name or fame. My definition of success has changed so much over the years and now what really matters to me is being able to create work that is honest and personal and that people say connects with them or helps them to feel seen. Shifting away from it being about me and more about us.

Tell me your most embarrassing moment in your current career/relationship/ creative endeavor. I know I’m probably the only one who actually cares but every time I send an email before its done or include multiple smiley faces or exclamation points it’s all I can think about for hours. Working on not being so obsessed with what everyone thinks of me but it’s hard when you want those people to hire you!

What causes you stress and how to ease those stresses? I still find myself caught up in having a scarcity mentality a lot and wanting to control everything about my career. Like so amazing amazing things can be going on in my life and I will stay fixated on that one potential client who never emailed me back. I’m really trying to stay excited and grateful about what I do have and not worry so much about what isn’t going perfectly according to my perfectionist brain.

Do you think about where you’d like to be in 5 years or even 1 year or are you more of “in the moment type”? I am always trying to figure out the balance between staying present and living in the moment and then also acting responsibly and planning for my future. I would like to set myself up with a life where I can do both, maybe move somewhere that allows me to be less stressed about work and money all of the time so that I can be more present?

Name one hobby: Baking

If you wrote a book what would the title be and why? (If you want to talk about your new book here that would be great :)) I named my book after a movie starring Mandy Moore that I watched as a teen and didn’t even really like! But “How to Deal” just felt right, I like that it’s casual and even though it’s technically prescriptive I start out by saying I’m not an expert, just someone trying to figure it all out too.

One thing you always tell your best friend: Be nicer to yourself, you’re doing the best that you can right now.

[shophotlavablog]

Inspo: Lizzy Alvarado

Lizzy went from an internship at Steakworld to a career woman at depop. One of my favorite Lizzy stories is that she used the tips from a post I made on tumblr about” how to land an internship” ON me and got the job.  Now She is the the marketing manager at Depop and constantly making waves. She is always inspo for Hot Lava design and aesthetic so I wanted to highlight this hustler to inspire everyone to seize the moment and make it happen for yourself.

Q: What have you been working on lately?

With my job everything has turned digital, which has been a crash course on how to do an event in digital format. So, I’ve been doing a lot of [Instagram] lives with different artists and trying to bring the energy that I used to do with my work IRL to digital, so it’s kind of been a challenge, but it’s been fun.

At home, kind of just nesting it up. I feel like every few weeks I realize how long we’re going to be in quarantine—so I, like, redo my house a different way, so I think it’s kind of nice because since quarantine started I’ve really settled into my house. I have a lot of house plants and cats, so I’m kind of like trying to keep everything alive.

Q: What are some things you’ve been doing to prioritize “me time”?

I think by making myself a challenge. Right now, me and my best friend are doing this workout challenge, where we FaceTime each other and do the workout at the same time. It’s been my mental and physical entertainment, and gives me something I have to be held accountable for, like trying to workout and having a goal.

Recently, I took a week off. Even though were working from home I don’t think it’s the same as when you’re working; you always have to take a little break and reset and a lot of my coworkers and myself have not given ourselves that, because we’re working at home, when are we going to take that time and just sit? But recently I took a whole week off and I didn’t answer one Zoom meeting or do anything. For me, that reset my whole mindset and gave me time to just think about the reality of the position we’re all in, and my reality, like what I need to do instead of living in limbo of half doing things because I’m waiting for us to be out of quarantine his life for now just telling yourself that you need to adjust at least until like January or something for now and just set my dates back, pushing things back as things happen.

I feel like I’ve been working later and more sporadically when I’m working from home because you can just check your messages or your computer whenever, and you can get up and see the dishes are piling up and spent two hours cleaning your kitchen, and then you have to make up for it, and then you’re working until nine or something, so it’s definitely a balance figuring it all out.

Q: Can you give us a small walk through on how you started out in your career, and what younger you would need to hear to get where you are?

I started off by doing a PR internship in NY that was focused on beauty products. It was there that I learned a few hard truths like the "top 10 best products for glowing skin" mentioned in vogue was actually just a list of products that various PR agencies were able to pay off editors to add. It just didn't sit right to me and I didnt end up staying at the agency after my internship, but it did spark something in me about promoting products that I did like and that aligned with my values: sustainability, female owned brands, etc.

One great thing about my time in NY is that's where I happened to meet my boyfriend on one fateful night out at Max Fish which is usually the opposite of the place you meet your soulmate lol. Anyways fast forward a few months and  I ended up moving to LA for said boyfriend and had to completely start over. I had no connections in LA, no friends, and at that point was still too early in my career for my resume to stick out of a pile. The start was rough and I had to get PT jobs to make money while I figured out what the fuck I was going to do in this new place where people usually move to with very specfic big dreams.

Now to the good part, the part where HOT LAVA started it all for me. Rachael loves this story and I didn't actually admit it to her until several months after working for her. Basically I had been reading her advice column Steaktalk for a long time and she had a post about how to get a job. Literally she broke down how to set up your resume, cover letter, and mentioned ways to set yourself apart from the rest. Well I used it to apply for an internship with her and it worked! Once I had that experience in LA under my belt I was able to transition into a brand manager for The Cobra Shop which was right next door to the HL office and eventually I started working for Depop as a Marketing Manager which is where I am today.

Q: Tell me your most embarrassing moment in your current career/ relationship/ creative endeavor:

That’s a tough one. I feel like when you’re first starting out, everything feels embarrassing. I remember the first time I came to Hot Lava—I didn’t do anything I can think was embarrassing, but like, being embarrassed of my existence of just not knowing how to interact with people. Because when you just see everything online, when you finally meet people in person, sometimes it can be really overwhelming. It’s kind of funny to just be embarrassed for being yourself sometimes, but I feel like you grow out of it.

Q: Do you think about where you’d like to be in 5 years or even 1 year, or are you more of the “in the moment type”?

I am more of a person who is in the moment. I do think of where I want to be in five years but I don’t hang onto that title too much, because I think if I think, “In five years I want to be a CEO,” and right now I’m just a marketing manager, in my head I’m like, “What am I doing? I’m just out here everyday not doing that.”

I feel like I live in the moment as far as knowing that, if you are in the moment, it’s going to pay off in the future. If I do work on whatever I’m supposed to be doing at the time, or whenever I’m given the opportunity to do that, then yeah, it will pay off in the end.

I don’t think my career really started to move until I was able to accept being in the moment. For me, when I think about my jobs and how I got to being hostess in New York, to being a dog walker and now to becoming a marketing manager, I don’t think I was able to do that until I was able to say that I just need to live in the moment and get that job to make money right now.

I knew I thought I could do something great but I wasn’t able to do anything great until I was able to sit myself down and handle the basics like, get a job—not “the” job, but a job, and just do OK at that, get your money right, and get to the right place. And slowly I was able to start looking for internships and then I was able to get one. Then it just grew from there.

I feel like if I was living with my head in the clouds, thinking about the future, I wouldn’t have been able to do that because I wouldn’t have accepted just getting a basic job for now.

Q: What causes you stress and how do you ease those stresses?  

Prioritizing my work/home life tasks stress me out, especially working from home RN if you have a deadline but also a pile of dishes to do it's hard to ignore that when you aren't able to leave the house and ignore the home life stuff. I try to read self help books, make lists, ect. The biggest help is self talk and just reminding myself that the world won't just because your todo list isn't complete.

Q: Name one hobby:

I really like going out and riding my bike, so finding places are safe right now has kind of been the thing. I don’t go mountain biking or anything, I like riding my bike in a nice/safe area. I also don’t want to be in the city, so I’ve been looking for national parks nearby and local areas where you can do a 14 mile bike ride or something. I used to live in New York and I would ride my bike everyday, so I used to ride 25 miles a day, but now it’s like 12 miles I’ll make a whole day out of it.

I also really like music, but it’s sort of like a personal thing. I write songs and work on stuff, but I’ve never thought of it as something I’d do in reality. But, I’ve been doing that a lot more since we’ve been in quarantine.

Q: One thing you always tell your best friend:

I mean I tell her everything. I literally have become attached to Facetime with her daily since quarantine started. It's kind of a nice thing because she lives all the way in Texas so being stuck inside has brought us closer. I used to call her every couple of days and give her the highlight reel of my week but now it's like every 3 hours and life is so boring stuck inside that no detail is spared.

Q: If you wrote a book what would the title be and why?

Scared for No Reason: Why Doubting Yourself is Your Downfall.

I feel like there are already many books about this subject but I haven't found one I really connected to specifically. One of my biggest realizations in life is how much fear has stopped me from doing things I am actually really passionate about or interested in. I am still on the road to ultimate confidence (giving myself a deadline of reaching age 30 for this), but a lot of things changed in my life when I pushed past the fear and doubt that is a big part of my inner voice. A few examples are applying for internships that have led to my career (thanks Hot Lava), talking to my boyfriend who I have now been with for 5 years, walking up to a brand's creative director and telling them I can produce content for them and making that my side gig. The point is none of this would have happened if I was listening to that fear voice in my head saying I'm not good enough, pretty enough, or qualified enough.

Q: What's your favorite Hot Lava piece and why?

My fav Hot Lava piece recently would have to be the bike shorts or zebra dress just from a design perspective. I think the team really hit the nail on the head and created trending pieces in a unique Hot Lava style. My all time fav piece and first piece I ever bought is the surf top! I purchased the first one HL ever produced the night it launched in 2014 or 15? Its white and has an eye! But I love the cut the most. I have it in black and lime green too. It's just the perfect top, a contrast of modesty with the high neck but also sexy with the tightness.

What's on Lizzy's Playlist:

[shophotlavablog]

Inspo: Lulu Bonfils

Instagram: @louisvuittoncrocs

You have seen Lulu grace your instagram feeds and Savage Fenty runways alike. She is sugar sweet and real when she’s speaking about the ups and downs, and frankly BS,  of her industry and her life with chronic illness. Lulu has been Inspo since I met her, so it was only natural that we asked her(art major) to draw a tee for the line. Happy to roll this new blog area out with an interview with her.

Hot Lava: What have been you working on lately?

I haven’t had a formal job in a long time, so regular working days for me are few and far between. Lately, I’ve been filling all my time with drawing, cooking, cleaning, building things, learning how to take care of plants, doing brand collaborations, and prioritizing spending time in nature. I’m also trying to figure out the whole elimination diet thing. 
 What are some things you’ve been doing to prioritize “me time”?

I think the past couple months I’ve been focusing all my time on me time, relationship time, friend time, and family time. Though, I find all those things fall under me time. I’ve been doing every hobby of mine that makes me happy, learning new skills like home improvement, practicing new mediums in art, building things with my mom, and spending time on things that my job typically prevents me from doing, like redecorating my home.

Can you give us a small walk through on how you started out in your career, and what younger you would need to hear to get where you are?

I never sought out working in my career, but I did recognize there needed to be more bodies like mine in fashion. I was scouted at an opening party for the brand Me and You at 15, and from there was offered to do headshots at Cast Partner in Brooklyn. After taking headshots, they email blasted my photos to every agency in New York and I ended up signing to Wilhelmina NY and London shortly after and my career started from there. I was shown things in the fashion world that I was naive to & my eyes were quickly opened to how vicious and brutal the modeling world was to people. If I could tell my younger self one thing about my career it would be that you need to know who you are, your morals, your beliefs, your boundaries and your needs. No matter how hard people push for you to succumb to their wants, you must always assert your needs and boundaries because you will be put in compromising situations that test them. And everyone does not need to like you!! That is a sacrifice you have to make in the process of asserting your needs.Tell me your most embarrassing moment in your current career/relationship/ creative endeavor. I think the most embarrassing/hardest moment in both my career and relationship was when I got sick with a month long intestinal virus in Barcelona during a work trip. I got sick the day after I arrived and luckily my boyfriend was there to bring me back and forth from the hospital to the hotel. I was so ill immediately that I wasn’t able to do any of the work that I was flown out to complete, which is the epitome of embarrassing for me career wise. On top of that I was openly shitting my brains out next to my boyfriend, which also is super embarrassing. It was definitely a horrific experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone & I’m still struggling with gut issues from it almost 2 years later! Luckily, we had been together for 2 years at that point so pooping in front of him wasn’t the scariest thing.

What causes you stress and how to ease those stresses?

Basically everything! I’m an over-thinker, to a fault. When I think so much to the point of anxiety & panic, meaning I’m ruminating on a thought to the point of obsession, is where the real stressing begins. I think almost everything happening in the world/America is extremely stressful for everyone in every way possible, and with very long term and life impacting issues. My only tactic to get myself through this is self soothing through activities, talk therapy, and speaking to myself. Each of us has activities that are meditative, calming, and force us to slow down and resist ruminating on harmful thoughts or things we can’t change. This is my main tactic for staying sane through everything that’s been happening. Making sculptures, drawing, cooking, exercising, are all forms of self soothing for me and they're the main ways I feel I can get through extremely hard emotions and thoughts to process.

Do you think about where you’d like to be in 5 years or even 1 year or are you more of “in the moment type”?

I tend to over-plan and get stuck on ideas of executing a perfect 5 year trajectory for myself & I realize it’s an anxious tendency that doesn’t best reflect the life situation I’m in. The modeling game is an extremely unstable career, as are many freelance gigs, and I’ve learned to lend myself to a schedule thats out of my control, for the time being. I never dreamed of modeling as my own career choice, however it is at the center of my universe, next to my own passions and interests. So I think the idea that I could plan my future has gone out the window since I started working in a career that chose me, rather than the other way around. I know my end goals and I know what activates my interests, and I think for the time being, that’s all I can rely on for future plans.

How do you stay true to yourself while executing other people’s creative?

I think of my job as momentarily fulfilling others creative ideas, so my motivation as I work is to act as a tool to best emulate what they are trying to create. Then, when I’m off the job, I’m thinking of my own ideas for drawings/sculptures. I think being in other environments where I am used to create an atmosphere/world inside another person’s ideas helps me expand and consider new ideas of my own. Being in tune with others creative endeavors helps get my own brain juices flowing.

QUICK QUESTIONS Name one hobby: Baking/cooking! I’ll never get tired of learning new recipes and techniques. If you wrote a book what would the title be and why? How to be a Model Without Letting It Ruin You What are you listening to right now: The entire Chromatica album everyday

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