COOL FRIENDS

Caroline Calloway

By
Coolstuff Team
•
September 3, 2021

Meet Caroline, a writer, artist, and influencer living in Manhattan. Most recently Caroline has launched Snake Oil, which according to the New Yorker, “really works!” We caught up with Caroline to talk about her debut book which is coming when it’s ready and why she loves the New York creative community.

How did you start writing?
I have always known I wanted to be a famous memoirist. And although I've famously never written a book (yet) (pre-order SCAMMER lol) I've been writing my entire life. When I was seventeen I had my Dad take me down to the local courthouse to legally change my name from Caroline Calloway Gotschall to Caroline Gotschall Calloway because "Caroline Calloway will look better on the covers of my books someday." I kid you fucking not. I almost don't even know how to answer this question because there has never been a time before I was writing stories about my life, never a time when it began.

‍What’s your favorite part about the New York creative community?
My favorite part of the NYC creative community is when I can connect with an accomplished artist on a really vulnerable, really HUMAN level and I can feel myself being impressed not just by their artistic output but by the goodness of their character as well. Not all accomplished artists are good people and not all of the people I hold up as the gold standard of goodness are necessarily artists, but damn. Isn't it a beautiful feeling when the two overlap.

‍What’s inspiring you right now?
The thing that's inspiring me most right now is me and I don't only say that because I'm a memoirist! I've always struggled with wanting people to think I'm cool, but earlier in the summer I saw some fucked-up, misogynistic shit that--for a month or two--I was too insecure to speak out about because the guy who was causing the abuse was considered so "cool." Well. Five days ago I did a reading where I performed a piece about his bad behavior (you can watch that piece on my Instagram page here) and my story has caused WAVES in the downtown artistic community. A few people (ahem, straight white men) took his side or didn't want to get involved, but I have been so heartened and ignited by how many more people (all of them cool, some of them even straight white men) stood up in support of me and the other women he's tried to get away with verbally abusing. I was scared. I did the right thing. I'm inspired by me.