Our Friend of the Week - Ellie Ridge

Your City: BerkeleyYour What: The chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's. YOU'RE WELCOME.

FRIEND OF THE WEEK: 11 QUESTIONSWEBSITE: THE WHAT LISTINSTAGRAM: @ELLIEKATEXO

1. Nickname: Eggbert. Egghead. Duke Ellington.2. What’s your short story? Born to two mega cuties who are still doing their best. Went to an art high school in San Francisco for creative writing but couldn’t hang due to extreme social anxiety (according to me) / inordinate sophistication and maturity (according to my mom). Graduated at sixteen and got accepted to UC Berkeley (#1 public school in the country, whatever). Currently a junior at school (I like it), and an editorial intern at The What (I love it). Can be found: cuddling my boyfriend’s Puggle, writing weirdly intimate personal essays, and incessantly re-watching The Office.3. What’s your jam? Country ballads. I am what I am.4. What motivates you? 1. A crippling fear of failure (50% jk).  2. My mom who is badass and could have been literally anything she wanted, but chose to be my mom.5. Who do you think you’d have great friend chemistry with? Lena Dunham is everything I aspire to be-- smart, funny, doesn’t give a shit, unapologetically female. I feel like she is too good for the stupid mainstream media. But not everyone can be as enlightened as Lena and I…6. What qualities do your favorite friends have in common? Honest. That’s number one. And being honest to me means no façade, no act, not trying to be cool. Just saying all the weird, real, ridiculous stuff that you think and feel. And usually those people end up being hilarious, because real life is funny, and crazy, and bizarre. Trying to be cool makes your heart icy. But being honestly yourself puts other people at ease, and that’s how you build real connections and friendships.7. What’s the smartest, most inspiring, awesome thing you’ve read, watched, or listened to? Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m a sociology major, and this book borrows pretty heavily from sociology. That’s my favorite subject, I love it so much. Outliers shows how successful people are primarily products of their environment, not their individual merit. How crazy of an idea is that? Our whole culture is based on this “work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality. But in reality, it’s so much more complicated than that. This book gave me so much more of an understanding of class and race and the power those invisible social structures have over our lives.8. What whets your appetite? I eat pizza like thrice a week. That’s not a joke. I feel guilty about how not guilty I feel.9. What’s next on your To Do List? Graduate college! Dudes, this is so much harder than I thought. It’s been a real kick to the ol’ ego. But also incredibly humbling, informative, etc…Also, I haven’t said this out loud yet, but I want to visit Thailand (yeah, I know, the typical white-girl-pilgrimage-to-enlightenment. Sue me). I’m overwhelmed by the prospect of planning that trip, but I’m hoping if I pull a “The Secret” style put-it-out-into-the-universe, it’ll manifest somehow. Not that I believe in that kind of thing, but like, if I did…10. How are you friends with Gina + Amy? I interviewed to intern! Thanks for picking me guys ;) Learning so much already. Also thanks for making me your friend of the week. Genius move.11. Who would you nominate for our next Friend of the Week? Not that my mom is my only friend but…