#you are what you love

[maysecond]

made a new desktop wallpaper for myself <3 i love the little folder icons on the postcard

[who-is-pepsi]

at the end it always comes down to these two

[starswhogaze]

I wanna be defined by the things that I love.

[111lustforlife]

ultimately, we are what we do.

not our thoughts, not our wishes, not our regrets or excuses. in the end, only our actions define us, because those are the only tangible ones.

use this to your advantage.

[crinkle-eyed-boo]

Honestly these two.

[tandonshows]

We're talking all things Steven Universe on You Are What You Love!

Mei Rothschild (@speremint), creator of the Webtoon original "Brimstones and Roses," joins You Are What You Love to discus the animated classic, Steven Universe. 

We talk about how the show took steps for diversity on screen, how Steven's exploration of his own heritage represented a diasporic experience, and how the show broke ground in both style and subject matter. Tangents include how diverse media is held to an almost impossible standard, why adults aren't allowed to enjoy things for the sake of enjoying them, and the constant embarrassment of being alive.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

[nomaptomyowntreasure]

10 years ago, I got out of an emotionally abusive relationship. I hit rock bottom. Listening to you are what you love not who loves you on repeat, making it a mantra, single handedly helped me get back on my feet. Thank you, forever.

[midnight-lyrics]

I wanna be defined by the things that I love

Not the things I hate

Not the things that I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of

Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night

I just think that

You are what you love

[alqamar-andyou]

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

[gukuuuu]

🤍

[sad-drake-lyrics]

i'm fraudulent, a thief at best a coward who paints a bullshit canvas things that will never happen to me but at arms length, it's tim who said i'm good at it, i've mastered it avoiding, avoiding everything but you are what you love, tim and not what loves you back and i'm in love with illusions so saw me in half i'm in love with tricks so pull another rabbit out your hat

[marissakumari]

This week on You Are What You Love, Sequoia Simone joined me to talk about how A Very Potter Musical started the domino effect of what her life turned out to be today. We talked a ton about how growing up watching YouTube content shaped us -- and how it helped us become creators in own right. 

If you’ve listened to the episode, you know that we also talked about the unique way online creators have of being personal to their viewers, and that some of our experiences meeting those creators were, in fact, perfect. I talked a little bit about meeting Philip DeFranco, and how kind he was to me. I dug up the photos I referenced, and looking at them again just reminded me where I was at the time. 

The live event I mentioned was in 2013, which was pretty far in to my gap year between high school and college. Almost all my friends were living all over the country, and I’d lost the idea of consistency and honestly, community. Phil’s show was a constant for me at that time -- I’d been watching his videos all throughout high school and middle school, and when I was suddenly mostly by myself, I had a daily friendly, energetic face on my screen. 

And having that kind moment from Phil in person has stuck with me. It helped me when I needed it, and it sparked an urge to give that same kind of help with my own content.  To be a creator means that you are, ultimately, giving people a break from reality, and hopefully a kind face. You don’t know what’s going on with the person on the other side of the screen, but if you make something good enough, you might give someone a break, and a minute to breathe. 

If you want to catch the whole episode, where we talk about AVPM, the Vlog Brothers and Nerdfighteria, and becoming creators ourselves, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or find You Are What You Love on your favorite podcast app here. 

[tandonshows]

I was talking to someone recently about why I started my podcast, You Are What You Love, where I interview people about the most influential piece of media in their lives. Sometimes that becomes a conversation about fandom, sometimes it becomes a conversation about building their personality, and sometimes it becomes a conversation about the hardest, darker points of their lives, and how they got through them.

Me, I'm a writer. I can say that now and mean it. But growing up, I had a hard time recognizing that. I rejected it wholeheartedly, actually. In high school, my english teachers told me I had a talent for it, encouraged me to apply to summer programs where I'd hone my skills, and tried to get me to see the magic behind it all. But I couldn't really connect with it, take their thoughts seriously, or envision a career where I wrote professionally. In my spare time (which there never seemed to be enough of) my top three activities were: reading, consuming as much television as possible, and engaging with people about both of those things.

But all of that was hard to recognize as anything more than a hobby or a release. Because I was also pretty good at math and science. And that was the type of thing you could get into college for, make a career out of, build a life around. I was one of the captains of my robotics team, had my first professional programming job at 15, and my senior year, took AP Calc, AP Physics, and applied to a ton of computer science programs all over the country. And when I got in, I had this weird moment of pause.

I'd already taught myself most of what I'd be learning in the first 3 years of school. The program I was thinking about going to said I could test out of classes and take graduate level courses for my undergraduate degree. One of them was theoretical mathematics. When I thought about that I thought "God, why?"

So, I took a year and worked. I worked in programming. Did lots and lots of code. And the thing was, I'd never hated math or science. I liked the way it all made sense, the way everything had a right or a wrong answer, and the way problems had one solution, but multiple ways to get there. If a robot wasn't doing what you wanted it to do when you pressed the corresponding button, it was because you did something wrong in the code. If a program spit out the wrong answer, it was something you did wrong. And when you got it right, there was a satisfying knowledge that you had, in fact... gotten it right.

But in that year, I was miserable. The satisfaction of getting an answer right didn't fulfill me. It didn't make think about the future. It didn't keep me up at night. It was something I was good at, but not something that made me happy.

And I turned back to the thing that did. I tore through books. I watched TV in the background at work. I wrote. A lot. I shared that writing with people. With strangers. They told me it meant something to them. That it gave them a break. That it made them feel something.

And slowly, I realized what my teachers in high school were trying to tell me. Writing was just as valuable as math and science. Math helped the world turn, kept bridges in the air, helped build programs that made life easier. But writing helped us understand ourselves. It helped us remember why we were alive.

I just couldn't hear that over the other, louder part. The part that we all hear: that's a wonderful hobby, but what would you do with a writing degree?

I get caught in that back and forth all the time. What is writing doing for the world? Could I be putting more good into the world if I had stuck with robotics, or programming, or math? Does putting stories out into the world make enough of a difference?

I have to talk myself back into being a writer a couple of times a month. Have that crisis about whether it's going to mean something in the long run. Wonder whether the time I spend telling stories could be spent making a different kind of change in the world.

And I just wanted to convince myself, convince all of us, that it does. That you would be putting something into the world no matter what path you chose. That doctors and lawyers and computer scientists play their part, but that they couldn't if they didn't have a release. If they didn't have art to escape to, to learn about themselves with, to connect with people over. If we forced all of our artists to be engineers, if I forced myself to be one, someone who was meant to do that might not have the art they needed to get through the day.

Every episode of You Are What You Love reminds me of that now. Listening to people talk about the one thing, the one book or movie or tv show or comedy special or poem etc, that changed them -- that gave them solace, that taught them to stand up for themselves, that made them believe they were worthy of love -- reminds me every week that we are nothing without art. That art is just as valuable as math and science. That engineers can't function without artists, that books can make us feel safe, tv can make us feel loved, movies can make us feel bold. And I hope I don't forget that ever again.

[tandonshows]

in wild fan grows up to be a creator news, Apple Podcasts has linked You Are What You Love and Richard Speight Jr & Rob Benedict's Supernatural rewatch podcast. the algorithm can feel the superwholock seeping out of the RSS feed.

(In all reality, this is most likely because when asked the question "what piece of media influenced you the most?" two separate guests have responded with Supernatural, so we have about 3 hours worth of gushing about those Winchester boys, but it's still pretty wild. Rob's storyline as Chuck/God was one of the first big meta twists that wowed me and I'm always striving for those moments in my own writing).

You can listen to both of the supernatural episodes of You Are What You Love on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts here.

[nomaptomyowntreasure]

save rock and roll. honestly, it's not my favourite song by far but back in 2013 I got out of an abusive relationship and literally playing "you are what you love not who loves you" on repeat until I believed it made me drag myself back on my feet when I was at my lowest so even if this isn't my favourite song, it's one I will always hold dearest.