Why Cottagecore Is More Than Just An Aesthetic
Plus thrifting, smoothie bowls, and the stuff we're currently obsessed with ☕️
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Bloomer in the Spotlight 🌼
Meet Carley, a thoughtful artist and fervent embracer of cottagecore.
Carley is a high school sophomore from Illinois, who finds beauty in everything from nature to pair a painted pants. Below, we chat about her love of cottagecore (it’s more than just nap dresses), making a musical during COVID, and the YouTube channel that changed her life.
Late Bloomer: Tell me what it’s like where you live.
Carley: I moved here five years ago from New Jersey. I did not expect the idea of “midwest niceness” to be so completely accurate. People here are so much nicer and so much sweeter. In general, I feel like there’s a lot of beautiful diversity here.
LB: For school, are you in-person, virtual, or a combination of both?
Carley: I’m in hybrid right now. It’s very, very hard. It flip-flops a ton.
LB: What kind of activities are you involved in?
Carley: I’m involved in all of the art and design things at my school because I’m just very artsy [laughs]. I’m in madrigals and the marching band. We’re currently doing a musical––it’s a virtual musical. It’s really fun.
LB: How do you put on a musical during a pandemic? How does that all work?
Carley: The musical is a really big thing here and luckily, I got to do my first musical before all this went down. Basically, it’s like a little musical review. You have a bunch of people audition, then the people who got selected get solos to sing. There’s four different major numbers that everyone records their parts for and then our choir director mixes all those parts to create this beautiful, virtual ensemble. It’s really cool.
Since it’s a bunch of mixes, we’re doing stuff from Next to Normal, Wicked, and West Side Story.
LB: That’s so cool. It must be a challenging thing to do, but at the same time, you get to tap into these new creative avenues.
Carley: Our school really values our music program so our teachers put a lot of thought into figuring out how to make this into a nice, valuable experience. We have this thing called “circle”––it’s been a forever tradition at my high school––and right before the show goes on, everyone gets in a big circle, cast and crew included, and holds hands and just says stuff about each other that they appreciate. Obviously, we can’t do that now, so one of the examples of what we’re trying to do to keep that sense of community and creativity alive is that we’re getting on a massive Zoom call right before the show. We’re just gonna do it on Zoom. The musical is like a drive-in theater musical.
LB: What kind of art do you like to create and when did you start?
Carley: I’ve been creating art since I can remember. Right now, I like to make art that is very feminist and addresses social issues. I’ve been doing this series of portraits of beautiful people of color just being themselves. I’m trying to bash all of the beauty standards that society has put in place and portray people in a way that I see as beautiful.
LB: I noticed some of your portraits on Instagram including Claire Saffitz. Are you a fan of [Bon Appétite’s] Test Kitchen?
Carley: Yeah. It’s a sad thing how that went down. It was really disheartening to see that from one of my favorite YouTube channels.
LB: Are there any other YouTube channels you enjoy?
Carley: I feel like I used to watch all Bon Appétit until it went downhill and then I was like, “No, I’m boycotting you.” It just broke my heart––and they didn’t post any new videos for months––so I had to find a new channel to watch. I found two of my favorite channels that are really about romanticizing and living your best life as if you were the main character in your story. They bring me so much joy every day.
The first channel is Darling Desi. She’s so sweet. I don’t know if you know much about the aesthetics, but she’s very cottagecore and I’m very cottagecore so I can just vibe with that. She reads a ton and honestly helped me get back into reading books.
The second channel honestly changed my life. The channel is The Purple Palace. It’s a girl just vlogging her life in Paris. She’s a wonderful artist and she inspires me constantly not only as a designer and artist but the way she views life. She’s so grateful for everything that happens, including the bad, weird, and sad moments. She’s like, “I’m just learning from these and I’m getting through life with the sad and the happy moments close to my heart.”
LB: What is it about the cottagecore aesthetic that you like so much?
Carley: What I really love about cottagecore is that it’s really romanticizing your life, like every single little moment. I’ll just go and make tea in my kitchen and really think about it. I’ll put love and intent into that tea. Then I’ll just sit peacefully and drink the tea. It’s so healing and nice.
LB: For me, nap dresses are the first thing that comes to mind when I think of cottagecore.
Carley: I totally bought that. I have like, three. I really love fashion and I don’t like to buy from fast fashion, but sometimes you just need a basic. I got my three from H&M on sale. There’s this beautiful puffy one. I really love the dresses so much. I can walk around and feel like I’m in Pride and Prejudice.
LB: I know school is a big one, but in what other ways has the pandemic impacted your life?
Carley: It’s impacted me so much. I feel like when you spend every single day apart from every single other person in your life, it really helps me self-examine everything about myself in an interesting way. It sounds selfish, but I’ve realized I come first in every possible way and that I need to focus on enjoying my life the most. All the other issues in your life become so much less important issues. I learned a lesson that you really need to be there for yourself.
LB: In non-pandemic times, what kind of stuff do you like to do with your friends?
Carley: We really like thrifting because I like to revamp a lot of the clothes I thrift. I love the idea of cheap, ethical clothing. It’s just super fun to be able to shop with your friends and be able to afford it.
LB: Do you have a favorite thing that you’ve ever thrifted?
Carley: In Pittsburgh, I went to this really cute little thrift shop and they had these beautiful, beautiful overalls. I’ve never found a better pair of just perfect overalls. I wear them all the time. They’re my painting overalls and there’s paint all over them but it’s a look [laughs]. They’re the best basic I ever bought.
One of my main things is that I paint on clothing. Often, it’s whatever comes to mind or whatever’s bothering me society-wise. There’s a lot of hate right now. I painted this wonderful pair of pants that say, “Give love, not hate” across both legs. They’re my favorite pair of pants. I love them so much.
LB: What’s bringing you joy right now?
Carley: I really love smoothie bowls. I’ve been drinking smoothies non-stop every single morning since the very beginning of freshman year. It started with smoothies and now it’s smoothie bowls because they’re just so pretty. In the base of the smoothie, I always have a banana, which makes it super creamy. My family is lactose intolerant so we either have soy milk or almond milk. Usually, my favorite is strawberry but I also love a classic berries and peaches. Sometimes, if I’m feeling extra healthy I’ll put some kale in.
There’s a brand I’ve been obsessed with lately called Lazy Oaf. I just bought the coolest shoes––I saved up so much money. They’re these beautiful sandals with flowers on them. They’re chunky, bright, neon green.
A few of Carley’s favorite things:
Men I Trust: My favorite chill band! They create the most relaxing music ever. Whenever you just need to escape whatever issues or anxiety you are feeling in that moment, Men I Trust can lead you into a clearer headspace.
Fake flowers: They are the perfect way to make a room more colorful and beautiful! My favorite place to buy fake flowers is IKEA.
Disco: My favorite thing to do is put on some disco and just dance my feelings out!
20-minute workouts: Lately I have been finding myself sitting quite a lot and just getting my body moving has been helping my mental health so much. My family has a Peloton so I like to ride on that! I also really really love core and cardio workouts.
Anne with an E: If you want historical cottagecore, this is the show for you! It is so peaceful and fulfilling for the soul.
tysm, Carley! 🌼
Beyond the Algorithm 🔮
Just for funsies, here are four things Late Bloomer readers are currently obsessed with.
1. Milk tea and boba: “It's so delicious that I find myself literally craving the taste daily. One of my top recommendations would be brown sugar milk tea with brown sugar boba, and the second would be dragon rose tea with lychee slices and dragonfruit boba.” ––Chloe Pressley, 18
2. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton: “It’s set in Australia so it feels like a little piece of home for someone who lives abroad. It’s the perfect novel about growing up and facing difficult circumstance, beautifully written and I finished it in less than a week.” ––Alyssa Lotter, 17
3. Bridgerton: “The show is about two individuals who pretend to fall in love with each other and go through many ups and down in there misgiving relationship they portray to the public but deep down inside both of them have hard feelings for each other. The romance and connection between them is absolutely beautiful. It makes me reflect on my own love life and question who I really ‘burn for’ (one of the lines from the show).” ––Casey Gentile, 17
4. Y2K aesthetic: “I’ve always considered myself as someone that pays attention to new fashion trends, with that in mind, I’m currently obsessed with the whole Y2K aesthetic that’s going on. Low-rise jeans, cute colorful tops and little handbags––love it all! I don’t mind a bit of nostalgia but I’m convinced that there’s a new fresh way to this trend. It’s fun, funky with all the mixed patterns and colors, and just perfect for summer. The 2000s are back and hopefully staying.” ––Diana Rodrigues, 20
ICYMI 🗞
The Junior Iditarod is the longest race in Alaska for competitors under 18. Young mushers take on the wilderness spanning 150 miles over two days with the help of 10 dogs. 🐕
Virtual tips are helping content creators make $$ during the pandemic. 💸
A fascinating profile of Trisha Paytas, the YouTube star you can’t look away from. 👀
In the meantime… ✨
We watched the excellent Billie Eilish documentary over the weekend. We’re also still thinking about this piece that delves into the devastating toll the pandemic has taken on young people.
And here’s a song to get ya through the week:
P.S. We wanna hear from you! 🐌
Want to nominate a friend (or yourself!) for “Bloomer in the Spotlight”? Got a burning question for “Plz Advise”? A brilliant recommendation for “Beyond the Algorithm” or an idea for something else?
Get in touch at latebloomernewsletter@gmail.com 💘