A few weeks ago, I was part of a panel about transformational networks for WACL’s 100th year. WACL is a club of senior female leaders in advertising and communications on a mission to accelerate gender equality in our industry. This event was incredible, hosted at Sky’s campus in Osterley. The most dynamic, inclusive, brilliant and polished event I’ve been to in ages. It was what events on Ugly Betty would be, but rarely are in real life (shout out to Utopia for programming). Brilliant, unique, diverse speakers and attendees celebrating best practices and wanting to share experiences to create progress for all of us. The electricity in the room was palpable.
Part of our panel was about how to deal with ice breakers and confidently project your best self in scary situations where you don’t know a soul and you can feel like the least interesting person in the room. Debbie Klein spoke about always having two drinks which helps you not look solo or get trapped in cyclical conversations as you can point to the drink and say you have to deliver it. (I did this last week and it immediately made the initial contact easier). I spoke about becoming allergic to small talk in lockdown. That I would much rather really connect with one person than take twelve cards and do the surfacey thing.
Photographed by Bronac McNeill
And how much I like weird. I love passion. I don’t really mind what lights you up; as long as it makes your eyes wider and you can’t wait to explain why it is fascinating. I’d much rather learn about your sea glass collection than more of the same small talk. I have friends who met on a Depeche Mode appreciation site twenty years ago. I don’t care at all about Depeche Mode, but moving to another country to meet a man you spent hours dissecting songs with two decades ago, that’s what I want to hear about. The more unexpected the better. I like contradictions. I like defying expectations.
The twenty thousand women that follow me on twitter about women’s safety and police reform get a shock every autumn as I am absolutely obsessed with my Philly sports teams. To the point that when I broke up with my very long term partner, he said not having to do middle of the night games was the best part of our breakup. I’ve often joked that one of the reasons I don’t date Americans is because I can force English men to espouse my teams.
This afternoon, I was chatting with Daniel Rachel in the green room at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival. We were talking about my work with Reclaim and then I just followed him into his talk about his book: The Lost Album of the Beatles. And after hearing him talk about his love for the Beatles and listening to hours upon hours of tapes of them practicing and recording and interacting right before they broke up, I wanted more. It was a window into his enthusiasm and it was contagious. He reminded me of one of my best friend’s Michael and what his face does when he’s excited about something. You can tell what he looked like as a little kid. If he is excited about something, it’s impossible to watch him talk and laugh and not get drawn in.
At the end of the talk, the interviewer asked Daniel if he is bored of the Beatles yet, given the huge amount of research and the million times he has heard everything they have recorded together and separately and Daniel looked at him like he had two heads. Like it would compare to being bored by the majesty of the Northern Lights. I love watching enraptured people. Curious people. People that want to recruit you into what they love because your life will be enhanced if you experience just a little portion of their love for whatever they are passionate about.
My best friend Gina absolutely hates competitive sports. She jokes about my sportsing. She can’t fathom that I spend a million hours caring what men in another time zone do with a ball; but relates to how obsessed I am. Understands how much it moves my world. Although one night my Garmin watch notified her of a two am incident, that’s how much my heart spiked after I clapped after one particular home run.
I love who I am when the only thing I am worrying about is my Philly sports. It’s my nostalgia, patriotism, my simple distraction. I love feeling entirely at home at a Philly bar in London where I have my own table, where they know I don’t drink anymore and bring bananas instead of eating cheesesteaks and love me anyway. The obsession is simple. The passion, the need to watch it live at 2 am, the camaraderie, the shit talking. That I define myself as a mouthy Philly sports fan, that I welcome other Philly fans into my world, if only for one night. That I would never date a Cowboys or Ohio State fan. I flew home for game five of the World series even though most people here don’t know what that means.
I just lit up typing this talking about my fandom. If I meet you, I want to know what lights you up. I want to know what makes you look like an eight year old on Christmas. What makes you gesticulate? What can’t you contain? I would much rather hear about your obsession (even if you have outgrown it) than your career path. I love weird. Celebrate and embrace passion, nurture your kids obsessions, nurture your own passions. I just love watching enraptured people talk about what they love. Tonight was brilliant because I listened to Daniel for an hour and bought his book, because when talking about songs, he played fake drums. He wasn’t too cool to not only still love the Beatles, but to share that love with us. I came home and put on the Beatles and started reading.
Please be weird. Please be curious and shout about it. Lean in to weird. It makes you interesting. It makes you unforgettable. Tonight was brilliant for the glimpse into Daniel’s process and obsession. And it made me want to share it. I bought Michael the book.
I’ll be at Stoke Newington Literary Festival at 4 pm tomorrow.
I wish I could attend, you give out such good vibes and just learning that you like “weird” is brilliant!!
Weird is great!!! We are all unique and the appreciation of weirdness is absolutely amazing! I love all of your tweets, we share the same passion and your energy is refreshing. Keep up that passion and I think the acceptance of “weirdness” brings contentment and encourages us to be who we are no matter what! Self acceptance is key to happiness, this should be shared by all! So much respect for you, take care and stay amazing 💕
One of the only good things about Twitter is the ability to link in with people who are weird about the same things you are, but also see the myriad ways people you thought you knew are weird in unexpected ways! Obviously fan sites/ message boards have been around since the internet began, but Twitter has it all in one place.