Piera Luisa Gelardi, Refinery29

💭 Thoughts on finding the humor in life, Pom Pom Squad, and playful coats in the winter time.

Piera Gelardi is co-founder of media brand Refinery29 and its superfun pop-up 29Rooms and she writes NoomaLooma: a guide for living a more playful, creative life. She’s all about bringing more creativity and play into every space she enters and loves hopping on stages like SxSW and INBOUND to entertain and inspire audiences. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and 6-year-old daughter where you can find her cooking vibrant vegetarian meals, performing in storytelling shows, obsessively making Spotify playlists, and hosting noodle & doodle nights.

🎯 Current focus

I’m writing a book which is exciting. It’s called “The Playful Way” and it’s a guidebook (of sorts) to living with more meaning, connection, and creativity. It will come out in the near-ish future (the book process is looooong).

My toxic trait is that when I’m excited about taking on an undertaking I rarely consider the fact that it might be difficult to pull off. I Elle Woods my way through life: “What, like it’s hard?!” I just go for it and then inevitably discover the difficulties and am completely shocked! I’m not a writer by trade but when I decided to write a book I just thought “this will be fun!” Turns out, it’s actually kind of hard but SHHHH I’m pretending it’s not and doing my damndest to keep the process playful by writing in different places, trying different approaches, making the process social, and taking dance breaks. Since the book is about being playful, this feels mission critical.

🃏 Always finding the humor in life

Levity and humor are on my mind lately. It’s a personal goal of mine in 2025 to amp up the comedy in my life both as a coping mechanism (gallows humor, babe!) and because I think it’s a more effective way of dealing with life shenanigans. Seriousness gets WAY too much credit as a strategy for solving things IMO.

Because this has been my obsession, I’ve been geeking out learning about the archetype of the fool, listening to Jungian podcasts, and even took a clown class. The cool thing about fools is that they challenge authority through vulnerability and humor, often bringing truth to light and knocking the powerful down a notch.

It’s terrifying but I’m contemplating taking a stand-up class so that I can lean into looking stupid, let down my “cool kid” armor, and find the funny on the other side.

🎶 "Downhill" by Pom Pom Squad

I can’t stop playing this song "Downhill" by Pom Pom Squad because it’s so fun and speaks to my 90s Riot Grrrl-loving punk side and pop girlie soul. I am shocked that it’s not a chart topping pop hit! Everyone I play it for gets it stuck in their head.

🎨 Tapping into your innate childhood ability

I think the cartoonist and writer Lynda Barry is the cat's pajamas (I just wanted to use this flapper-era phrase ha). My friend Sam got me into her work (thanks Sam!) and I love the creative exercises she shares that tap us into our innate abilities to draw and tell stories. So many people say “I can’t draw!” but every kindergartener can draw and you were once a kindergartener, right?! She finds ways to tap into that joy and innate ability we had creating in childhood in a way that evades our adult defenses of self consciousness and perfectionism. She’s a play genius.

I religiously do her Four-Square Journaling Method and find it to be a really joyful practice for noticing more and excavating the little moments that make our lives rich and storied. (I sometimes replace “Heard” with “Story - a small humorous or story worthy moment from the day.)

Also discovered this video while grabbing links for this — Lynda Barry on Letterman in 1988 using humor to diffuse a moment where he’s rude to her “I’m right here dude!”.

💒 Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy at The Shed

It’s my 20th wedding anniversary in a few weeks and I’m looking forward to getting re-married at the art amusement park Luna Luna in the André Heller chapel. Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy is an exhibition now open at The Shed that first appeared in Germany in the 1980s with artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Sonia Delaunay and it featured a wedding chapel where visitors could “marry” whoever or whatever they wished — including an open invitation for same-sex couples to wed (a radical, political act in 1980). They brought the exhibit and the chapel back and anyone with a ticket to the show can get married in there. The ceremony they do there is a combo of meaningful and totally silly, including a ring toss onto your partner’s arm instead of exchanging wedding rings.

I wanted to do something fun and a bit meaningful for our anniversary but also am too overwhelmed to plan my own event so I’m going to dress up, invite a few people to join, and get re-wed at the exhibit. The only wedding fantasy I ever had was to get married by Elvis impersonators and this feels just as playful with even more significance.

📵 Brick

My favorite way to consume content is not consuming that much content right now lol. I’m working on a bunch of creative projects and when I’m in my own creative zone, consuming too much other content gives me too many ideas and diversions! It’s hard enough for me to stay focused. I also can’t read novels or watch plot-driven shows because I get too addicted to knowing what happens next and will stay up until 4am finding out. I even spent $50 bucks on the Brick: this piece of plastic that locks me out of social media and news. It helps me a lot. Also, I know it sounds ridiculous but I recommend looking at social media with a pen and paper in hand to take notes with. It makes it more active, less passive — from mindless scroll to treasure hunt for inspiration and learning. Student of everything style.

🧥 Playful, warm coats in the winter time

In the winter I can’t live without playful, warm coats! I’ve had the S.A.D.s (aka seasonal depression) since I was a teenager and one of my workarounds is getting outside no matter the temperature to take myself on Wonder Wanders (mental health walks disguised as treasure hunts) so I need good coats for that. Also, winter is gray in NYC and dressing colorfully in the winter in NYC is a public service that I take very seriously.

I have a fun patterned one from Marimekko that’s getting a lot of play right now, my go-to Muppets Take Manhattan coat, and a rainbow patterned one from Celia B that people yell out the windows of cars to compliment me on!

Follow Piera on Instagram & Linkedin and check out her Substack here.

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