Faye Odesser, Writer & Advice Columnist

💭 Thoughts on the luxury of online privacy, Danessa Myricks Beauty, and finding inspiration in Virginie Despentes.

Faye Odesser is a New York City based writer who focuses on the intersection of style, culture, sexuality, and technology. Much of her work seeks to dissect cultural attitudes towards femininity. As a teenager she co-founded and served as editor in chief for the online publication Teen Eye Magazine; currently, she writes ‘Role Model in Training’, an advice column for shado Magazine. You can find her work in publications including High Snobiety, Sunday Times, Teen Vogue, and VICE, and you can find her skulking around East Village in a short skirt. 

🎯 Current focus

I’m on the editorial staff for SPASM MAGAZINE – which can broadly be described as “NOT A LITERARY JOURNAL. BUT A VERY SEXY CULTURAL PUBLICATION.” Our first issue will be printed imminently and I can’t wait to see how the world loves it. Zoey, Ricci, and Afsana, the co-founders, poured so much sexy genius creativity into it. The curation, the design… everything… just a stunning example of print media excellence. 

🎥 Seeking Mavis Beacon

One of my best friends, Olivia Mckayla Ross, recently served as Associate Producer for the documentary ‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’, a documentary that “poses critical questions regarding anthropomorphization and the consumption of marginalized bodies in the tech industry.” It left me in tears after I watched it: it’s a beautiful, entertaining, moving work that offers a necessary framework for every internet user. 

🔐 The luxury of online privacy

The first decade of my career, it felt really important for me to be an open book; now, I’m thinking about the luxury of privacy online. It comes from the acceptance that social media is inherently inauthentic. I’m majorly dialing back what I share.

📚 Finding inspiration in Virginie Despentes

My all time writing inspiration is Virginie Despentes. She’s devastatingly brilliant. I’ve reread Baise-Moi and Pretty Things more often than I can count on both hands. Her novels make you flinch. The way she writes about sisterhood (literal and metaphorical), style, anger, and sex! After reading it your brain goes into overdrive and you feel buzzy and alive and you have to remind yourself you’re not living between her pages. Flawless fiction. 

💅 Space for femininity and expression

I’ve been pole dancing for years, but the past eight months or so, I’ve really locked in. My studio is filled with the nicest, coolest, most stylish, strong dancers, strippers, and athletes. It’s a space for femininity and expression. Anytime I’m not practicing I’m looking forward to my next class. 

👙💋 Buttress and Snatch & Danessa Myricks Beauty

For me, it’s all about technical mastery and self expression. All I really want to do is dress like a video game/cartoon/anime character with high quality pieces that are beautiful and unique. Lingerie shop Buttress and Snatch and cosmetics brand Danessa Myricks Beauty are the best of the best. Buttress and Snatch makes slow tailored, fine lingerie, and their silk pieces especially are so romantic and jaw-dropping. It’s high fashion, it’s stunning, it’s made with intention and care. I got to attend a Danessa Myricks live demo and got to hear how much time and effort she put into crafting her products. The result is practical, masterful cosmetics that are intuitive to apply and look perfect on the skin. I won’t rest until my entire closet/cosmetics drawer are filled to the brim with both. (On that note… any makeup/lingerie brands that want to work together should indeed email me immediately.)

💄 Can’t live without… 

Cliche, but I probably couldn’t live (happily) without two black eyeliners (one, two), red lipstick, and a good pen with thick black ink. I write in softcover, lined Moleskine journals because I’m a snob. Also my friends. And wired headphones.   

Follow Faye on Instagram & Linkedin and check out her website here.

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