I miss In Touch magazine, a good Cosmo spread, and when everyone had their own opinion — on coffee, at least.
Back when everyone was a boy band, but they were all different bands.
When we all had thin eyebrows, but we didn’t want to look like each other. We wanted to look like ourselves, just with thin eyebrows.
Back when you drank whatever kind of coffee you liked, not because some random went to a coffee shop, told you it was the best, and then turned around five minutes later and said it was the worst. When girls would die of embarrassment showing up to a party in the same outfit. Back when if you liked something, it didn’t matter if someone else liked it.
You liked it, and that’s all that mattered.
Can we go back there? Or can we at least pretend?
I once sent lattes to an influencer I loved and still love, and they asked me what they should say. Like a script. Like what I wanted people to think about my lattes. I was kind of taken aback, because I’m really just a regular girl. And I don’t lie about pretty much anything… outside of not telling my friend they look older. Girls don’t need that negativity.
But I’ve always understood my lattes were for who they were for. And I never wanted to pretend they were for everyone.
One of the many lessons working in the restaurant industry taught me was that everything isn’t for everyone. I could sell my lattes until my breath runs out to someone who only drinks hot black coffee and still not get a sale. That’s just the way it goes. And I’m okay with that.
So why is everyone pretending to like the same shit?
Honestly, I think of it a little differently. I think people are craving community. I think it has nothing to do with actually liking something and more to do with wanting to be surrounded by, or in community with, other people. To be blunt, people are lonely. So, when I think of it like that, I shut up. Because everyone deserves community.
That’s what I’m trying to create with Lattly. A space for people to be themselves but still feel like they are a part of something. Yes, I just sell lattes, but I know the way I feel sitting in my apartment, drinking a latte, watching one of my comfort shows. I feel safe, but also a part of something.
The time before the internet was everywhere was a really special time. But I think it was special because of the bonds we created in real life, the ones that still live today. But we’re here. And this is where we are.
Here’s to 2026.
