photos taken somewhere between endings and new beginnings (ft. lipstick stained teeth, 48 hrs at the last dance, and little glimmers keeping me somewhat sane in a godforsaken world)
📸: slide 1 taken by @alex.nibley , 4 by @stacieabuhler , my favorite gals!!!
historians will call it my luckiest November yet (ft. days in, nights out, Dalibor working his magic, and warm light filling in and connecting this year’s broken spaces)
writer’s retreat ~retweet lool~ at the birdhaus with my sweeties! (ft. Jennica making some of the best food I’ve ever tasted, the ghost of yoked baby, Mac’s beautiful poetry, readings that made me feeeeeel things, and so many cuties that I love making art and spending time with!!!)
If you listen carefully, you can hear me talking about my admiration for Robert Rodriguez in the background of about 80% of these pictures.
Austin! AHHH!
Writing “I Wasted My Tears” was one of the most cathartic and joyful experiences of my life. I wrote it for my 16-year-old self and for every queer and trans kid growing up in rural communities in red states who are trying to find a place where they belong, even if that place is within the walls of their family home.
When I initially sent my script out this year, I was most excited to know that, no matter what happened, people would be sitting down to read it. I hoped that it would move someone in the same way it healed a part of me. I never imagined getting a finalist call, and all weekend, meeting other finalists, semifinalists, and second-rounders made me realize how big of an honor it is.
11,500+ scripts submitted, and IWMT was one of six finalists in the Drama Feature category. I don’t know what those odds are in terms of numbers, but I do know I feel incredibly lucky.
Thank you to every person who said hi, swapped loglines, and stumbled down Sixth Street after 1AM with me. I’m so inspired and honored to have shared this festival with you all. Thank you to the panelists, many of whom have been longtime heroes of mine! And the world’s biggest thank-you to the programmers and readers at @austinfilmfest who sat with my script and decided I deserved to be here. I will never forget this moment!
Really excited to share that my script “I Wasted My Tears” is a FINALIST for the Drama Feature category as well as the Josephson Entertainment Award and the Big Indie Pictures Fellowship at the Austin Film Festival. GUYS!!!! AHHH!!! If I didn’t have the words before, I definitely do not have them now!
A HUGE thank you to everyone at @austinfilmfest and to the readers who spent time with my script and saw something in it. This piece is really special to me, and seeing it reach other people at this level means more than I can say.
See you all next week! ♡🐄
#AFF25 #austinfilmfest #affwritersconference #AFF32
moments of transition between decades & seasons & cities & hair colors (unseen: getting arsenic poisoning from metal detecting at the great salt lake lmfao oOPS)
continuity king 👑 also so so so proud of my boy @themimiknowles for his acting debut in his second short film @thedopestshitievermade ! keep your eye out for this one, it’s really special!!!! (two photos by me all the other beauties by @laurachipchap !)
I really don’t have the words for this, but my feature-length Drama “I Wasted My Tears” is a semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival, also known as The Writer’s Festival! This means my script placed in the top 2% of over 11,000 submissions.
I am also in consideration for the Big Indie Pictures Fellowship, Donner’s Company Award, and Josephson Entertainment Award. AHHHH???!!!!?! This is my first placement in a screenplay competition ever! It’s a script so close to my heart! And it’s one of my dream festivals! Dusting off my cowboy boots and will see you soon Austin ♡
#AFF2025 #AFF32 #austinfilmfest #affwritersconference
Some of my earliest memories were sitting in the backseat of my mom’s car listening to Never Had a Dream Come True by S Club 7 with my arm stretched out, palm facing open in the empty seat next to me, as if someone could take it as I daydreamed out the window.
I’ve always loved love so much, and have always yearned to cultivate a life full of it. I am so lucky that when I told my friends I wanted to have a wedding for my bday and that everyone could choose their role, that everyone showed up in a way I couldn’t have even imagined. We had drunk uncles, zany aunts, five mysterious fathers who really wanted to sing ABBA while we waited for a paternity test, old art school roommates, wedding planners, jealous exes, and nine brides and grooms with written vows in hand.
Last night was one of the silliest and most tender nights I have ever experienced! The perfect blend of chaos and sincerity, which is the sweet spot my heart loves to live in. I think it’s so important to tell people around us what they mean to us, and equally important to do it between belly-ache fits of laughter, and I am always amazed at the people so willing to meet me there.
I love you all so much. You tender little freaks. Thank you for everything. 💒🤍
so much to say! this past year has been one of the hardest of my life but somehow the most bearable because of the people I have in it! chronic health issues are weird. healing complex PTSD is even harder. but everyone who has been here and loved me through it all just gives me so much hope and excitement for the next chapter of my life. Ty for all the bday love today! It’s so exciting to feel so celebrated! Lots of big changes on the horizon and just feeling really held and grateful through it all 🤍 (ft. baby ash and my sweet friends who have been my muse through the past year)
