Welcome to cultural pessimism.

cultural pessimism is an online space where I examine everything that happens where culture, media, and politics intersect — or, alternatively, it’s a blog for people who just barely missed the peak of the Tumblr era. It was born out of a desire to organize and share all the thoughts I’ve developed as I’ve found myself incessantly writing about cultural confusion and media I love and being eighteen. It will include cultural commentary and analysis, personal essays, features, and general Gen Z musings, and I’ll be publishing weekly on Thursdays. 

Some of my interests include sad girls in the music industry, purity culture, angsty millennial fiction, the word bacchanalia, liminal spaces, Americana writ large, young adult dystopia, and over intellectualizing my little life. I also will literally not shut up about how early 2000s media will tell you literally everything you need to know about Bush-era politics and I think that media aimed at children has a lot of societal value.

I’m an NYC-based policy organizer and student journalist currently on a gap year, which I’ll hopefully spend at least a little bit of studying Chinese in Taiwan. After my gap year, I’ll be pursuing a Dual BA between Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris. At Columbia, I plan to study Creative Writing on the non-fiction track and American Studies. At Sciences Po, I plan to study Politics and Government. When I’m not writing, I work on Title IX and sexual violence policy with Know Your IX and drink many iced oat lattes. 

You can find me on Twitter here, Instagram here, and Spotify here. I’m always open to essay collection recommendations :)