Jake seemed too good to be true. He was.
This story begins, like so many modern tales of love and horror, on Tinder. Jake (not his real name) and I matched on Halloween.
He was patient while I spent a few weeks traveling, popping back up on the app periodically to ask me out. “No luck on Tinder in my absence?!” I wondered.
“Hahaha. Negative ghost rider,” he responded. “I’ve been on a Tinder hiatus lately. Coincidentally around the same time you left. Weird.”
We talked and laughed easily over Home Alone–themed drinks at the Sitting Room in Queen Anne. He’d just moved from Portland and said this was his first date since arriving in Seattle. He’d spent the past several years focused on becoming a firefighter and had moved around a lot for seasonal work. He was finally ready to plant some roots—and ideally find a long-term relationship.
Visit the link in our bio for @haleyshapley ’s full essay.
Illustration: @peter_ryan_illustration
GIVEAWAY! In honor of International Women's Day, I'm giving away two copies of my forthcoming book STRONG LIKE HER from @GalleryBooks , a cultural history that focuses on women and physical strength. (Learn more at bit.ly/stronglikeher.) This is your opportunity to read it weeks before it's out in stores!
To enter:
1) Follow @haleyshapley
2) Tag a friend who you think would like the book
3) Bonus entry: Tell me in the comments what makes you feel strong
Giveaway ends at 11:59 Pacific time on 3/10 and is open to U.S. residents only. This promotion is in no way sponsored or administered by Instagram. By entering, entrants confirm that they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.
Hey look, it’s me — on the cover of a magazine! 😍
Huge thanks to Brooke Clark at @studiobportraits for the beautiful photos, and to the crew at @425magazine , including @lisapatterson_ and @zoe.branch . I’m honored and humbled to stand alongside this year’s group as part of the 2020 Women to Watch! 💕
We’ll all be speaking at a virtual event in September — for more info and tickets, visit 425magazine.com. 🎤
It’s my college graduation anniversary, and I’m not sure how I got this old — I’ve lived almost double the life since this photo was taken! 👩🎓 (I am also only a year younger currently than my mom was in this photo. 🥴) In some ways it seems like just yesterday that I was packing all my things and saying bye to Philadelphia, and in others it feels like a lifetime ago. One thing that hasn’t changed? The side part. And now that I have a giant scar down the middle of my head, we’re gonna keep rockin’ it.
Send Photoshop help plz for the food in my teeth and scar tape on my arm. 🤦♀️ Thanks to @hty.booth for the photos, @gozgirls for hosting the event, and @armoire.go for the fun outfit!
What a fun evening learning more about @gozgirls , an organization that creates confidence-building programs for middle school girls. (Definitely a time when that is so needed, by my recollection. 🥹) We wrote letters to girls, recorded messages to our past selves, shredded limiting beliefs, got headshots from @hty.booth , and more.
Thanks to @armoire.go for the 🔥 outfit as usual and for being a sponsor of the event! You can never go wrong with a satin jumpsuit.
Proud to be part of the crowd of 36,128 fans watching the USWNT take on Japan — a record in Seattle for attendance at a standalone women’s sporting event. Thanks to @roughandtumblepub for the tickets! ⚽️
It never stopped raining 🌧️ and I was about 2 inches away from the drums 🥁, but it was a great atmosphere! 👏
(P.S. You can learn more about the team’s fight for fair pay in my book STRONG LIKE HER. 📘)
Seattle is a sports city. And I can be a black-tie girlie every now and then. ✨
🏀🏈⚽️🏒🏉🏟️⚾️
Had the best time at the Sports Star of the Year Awards. Shoutout to the @seattlesportscommission and @maramote on producing a great event!
What do you do when you’re hosting an event that not enough people RSVP to, so you have to cancel, but you already paid for the room rental and a dozen donuts? 🍩 You go get your donuts and make a tourist take a photo of you in your empty room, of course.
Yes, I did purposely color-coordinate with the space, and I wasn’t about to change the plan just because there was no one there to see it. 💗
But I’m a Gilmore!
Explaining all my similarities to Rory to people born in the 2000s:
Them: “Do you feel like you were influenced by the show?”
Me: “I feel like the show was influenced by me.” 😂 (Until the end of season 4! I take no responsibility for anything after that and have never stolen a boat.)
