Page 12 - Real Style Spring 2019

BOOKS
GABY DUNN
JOURNALIST, ACTOR, COMEDIAN, PODCASTER AND AUTHOR, DISCUSSES HER BOOK, BAD WITH MONEY.
BY RODERICK THEDORFF
Real Style: Where did you initially get the idea for Bad With Money?
Gaby Dunn: I had been approached to do a podcast, and I had written this article called “Get Rich or Die Vlog- ging”, which had gone viral, so I pitched a money show. I was like I’ll ask really basic questions. I’ve grown to a place where I’m not sitting in my car crying about being queer, but I’m still really upset about not having money. And that is the thing that would actually be scary for me to talk about, and then, I just did it.
RS: Mixing humour with financial advice is really unique. Do you think it’s something that can catch on?
GD: I hope so; I think nothing else is resonating. I think a lot of people have lost touch with what the actual cir-
cumstances for young people’s lives are. I think the only way they can know and the only way your friends can help you is if everybody is being honest, and if everybody is being transparent and talking about it and it’s really uncomforta- ble. I think you have to expose the wound in order to be able to sys- temically make any sort of policy or wider change that could actually help people. If you’re pretending
there’s no problem, or if the problem is individual- ized, that doesn’t really serve anyone. Or it serves a small amount of people that could take that advice versus actually making changes that could have a triple down effect to student loans and healthcare and things like don’t get a coffee.
RS: The book was written with Millennials and Gen Z in mind, but do you think it will connect with other groups as well?
GD: I hope so. I think boomers and Gen X were very much told ‘you have to do it yourself, pull yourself up by your boot strap, be a good employee’ all that kind of stuff. I think there’s an instinct from
people, boomers and Gen x, to mock younger people, kind of openly, the instinct is to shut them down and say ‘you guys are dumb you don’t know anything’, and so I hope that it resonates. I would hope people don’t get defensive and hope they read it and think about their kid or their younger sibling or their student or whoever and their experiences and actually listen rather than say ‘I had it tough so you must have it tough, it’s not fair that only I did’.
RS: This book is really personal at times. How hard was it for you to talk about these things?
GD: There were things that were hard to admit. I’m sure people will mock them. I’m sure there will be some sort of annoying troll who’s like carping on one aspect of something or another but I also know from experience that I’m in a privileged place to share that stuff. I’m able bodied, my job doesn’t require me to look a certain way or keep my mouth shut. I’ve always thought I should be loud about it because there’s some kid in the middle of
12 Real Style Spring 2019
PHOTO, GABY DUNN INSTAGRAM