Dear Writer Director Letter #76
This one's dedicated to the great Internet artist, Coco Mocoe.
Olivia circa 2006.
Dear Writer Director,
The Internet is about to see the rise of the nerdy girl who did her homework while doing her own thing outside of school. It is about to see the downfall of the prom queen who stepped on anyone she could to get to the perception of being at the top. This is all thanks to the invention of AI.
AI can imitate the surface of anything much like the girls and the guys who studied the people they aspired to be and just mimicked their mannerisms and confidence at every step of the way. What AI cannot do is live life deeply: strive for something it wants, fail to get it, learn, and grow from the process. People who risk something, who put themselves out there, who face humiliation and survive it always become interesting, dynamic, frankly, alive people. Creativity is born and nurtured out of struggling to survive and having to make it up as you go. Creativity is now the most valuable commodity on earth.
Olivia circa 2025.
As long as I have been aware of myself as a human being, I have observed comparative analysis as the norm. It has always been an alienating system to me. Why is that? Well, I grew up with my grandparents. I’m mixed race, Middle Eastern and white, with a white Mom. We were lower middle class, and then through my mother’s hard work at her corporate fashion job, skyrocketed to upper middle class and Manhattan when I was 18. Then I became working class at 23 when I moved to Chicago and started a theatre company. There were no examples of anyone like me in media, and no road map to imitate to speak of. I grew up with no pressure to make myself into anyone in particular. I knew I loved Baz Luhrmann, a total fellow odd ball, and how he worked, but other than that, there were no social norms I was painstakingly studying. I also never aspired to get married, have a family, or have kids. All I wanted was to get to the city, be an artist, and one day, make commercial art my way for the world to see.
When I was in Screenwriting Grad School, I made sure to do a quarter on TV Writing because it seemed like people were working in that arena, but the way TV Writers are taught to think about genre, character, and frankly: imitation felt completely alien and forced to me. To give a fellow writer a note like: “It’s kind of like Fleabag but not as good” felt so insane to me. What the hell does that mean? The comparative note approach just read to me as mean girl gatekeep-y. The underlying assumption of thinking like that is “genius is elsewhere.” It’s not in this room. I recently read a book called “The Gap and The Gain” which gave me new words to this phenomenon. When we’re in the gap, we’re concentrating on how far we have to go, which is self-defeating. The Gap mentality fosters a sense of never measuring up to some distant, unknown ideal. It’s a subconscious way of speaking that I have seen limit and handicap so so many artists whether they are actors, writers, directors, musicians etc. To focus on the gain means to focus on what you and you alone are doing, to pour into that, and to watch as you flourish more and more each day. It’s not about who’s the coolest in the scene. It’s not about being the it girl. It’s about becoming more and more yourself, and nobody else.
The Internet is about to see the rise of the nerdy girl who did her homework while doing her own thing outside of school. It is about to see the downfall of the prom queen who stepped on anyone she could to get to the perception of being at the top. I remember when the popular girls discovered I could sing in second grade and then invited me to be a part of their Spice Girls like girl group. It was hilarious because I was the only one of them that had a voice. It was such a formative experience for me to have a queen bee type try and ride on my substance coat tails. I hated it, and I didn’t put up with their bullshit for long. In that environment, I felt this pressure to conform. I felt like I was expected to just vibe and not shine as bright as the matriarch. There was this underlying tension that if I made one wrong move, I’d be gone. I decided to dip before that happened because living a life like that felt stressful and fleeting rather than powerful. I knew that was not the way I was meant to exist in this world.
Dear Writer Director, if you were the nerdy one, I bet somebody took credit for your work at some point. I bet it made you angry in the moment but look who’s laughing now. It is your time to step into your power and no longer hide in your room in fear. You’re what’s wanted. People are tired of corporate girlies proclaiming the same buzz words. We’ve followed the trend loop or comparative analysis paralysis to its zenith. Now I understand what Tina Fey was trying to say with Mean Girls this whole time. Nerdy girls are truly the prophets among us. At the dawn of 2025, I’m thinking about all the nerdy girl musicians, filmmakers, and speakers who fell on partially deaf ears. The film “She’s All That” can really go to hell.
The nerdy girl is far more than just a fucking clown.
She’s gonna rule the world, and everyone’s going to enjoy it a lot more.
Olivia and her piano studio at Interlochen circa 2007.
Love,
O