august ins & outs.

Ask A Girl is an advice column on beauty & love, in all its forms, & anything you might debrief at a Sunday brunch. In other words: on girlhood. Explore here. Or submit an advice letter here!

IN.

“Neck sunscreen: Our necks age the fastest, primarily due to a lack of skincare. I read it somewhere on the internet, so it must be true, right?” - Anonymous, 20, San Jose, California

“Do the bravest thing you want to do: That way, if it doesn’t work out, you have somewhere safer to fall back to.” - Anonymous, 33, New York City

“Kiwi (skin on; important) on toast with sunflower butter and cinnamon. Sitting on your friend’s lap in the car. Trader Joe’s multivitamins.” - Emily, 31, Washington, DC

“Fashion: I mean as a mindset. Fashion is newness simply for the sake of newness. There’s no reason your skirts need to be a few inches shorter or yellow is in this season, other than that it sells. Consumerist? Maybe. But I’m so bored right now, I’ll take anything novel.” - Anonymous, 37, London, England

“That John Adams quote ‘I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet’: Some families just keep churning out merchants, though.” - Anonymous, 27, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

“Superstition: As reliable as anything at this point.” - Anonymous, 16, Chicago, Illinois

“Hunger: Not just for food, but for life. I think the two are intertwined. I have noticed that when I do not eat well or enough, the world begins to feel dull.” - Anonymous, 22, Santa Barbra, California

“If you speak a second or third language, you should never tell anyone so then you can jump scare them: I did this once, and then I revealed that I spoke Mandarin just after this guy spent a whole car ride ranting out his heartbreak to our friend in Mandarin. I still talk about it, if you can’t tell.” - Anonymous, 23, Los Angeles, California

“Watermelon with lemon and tajin. Long days. Long naps.” - Anonymous, 28, Spain

OUT.

“Feeling like I have to be a vigilante on the road and exact justice for bad drivers.” - Emma, 22, Spartanburg, South Carolina

“Polite smiles: I want ugly smiles. Show me all of your teeth. Show me the little fleck of lettuce still stuck from lunch.” - Anonymous, 25, Portland, Oregon

“Thought daughters: I read a book while waiting in line yesterday, and it felt performative even though I really just wanted to read my book. I’m so tired of intelligence being ‘cool’ again. Why don’t we do the thing instead of endlessly talking about the thing? I’m sorry, but the smartest people I know are often deeply uncool and totally uninvested in the aesthetics of intelligence.” - Anonymous, 19, Toronto, Canada

“Google maps: I think we’re more observant when we have to navigate on our own. It forces us to remember.” - Anonymous, 21, Stockholm, Sweden

“Lifestyle influencers: Because I no longer think being rich is, in and of itself, interesting.” - Anonymous, 28, Paris, France

“Meta glasses: I don’t care how many influencers wear them. You’re not going to make surveillance tech cool.” - Anonymous, 19, New York City

“Overhead lights.” - Rachel, 22, Boston, Massachusetts

“‘Increase your surface area for luck’ advice: And then they tell you to go out in the world and take risks. Since when was that revolutionary?” - Anonymous, 32, Houston, Texas

“Lists: I am done with things that are easily digested. I do not want to read another ‘things I consumed this week’ or ‘nine ways to reclaim your attention.’ Give me a long rant. Give me stream of consciousness. Give me that dream you had about flying.” - Anonymous, 24, Montreal, Canada