She was only 13 when she started her fashion blog and not much older when she found herself seated next to Anna Wintour at New York Fashion Week, but Tavi Gevinson is already far wiser than her 15 years.
The kooky teenager whose whimsical flair and sartorial prowess stunned the fashion world when The Style Rookie reached nationwide fame, has come of age and changed her perspective on an industry she once considered 'magical'.
Nowadays, the editor-in-chief of online magazine, The Rookie, and Chicago native insists she isn't ungrateful for her success but says: 'I'm not going to go to a show where everyone's acting all snobby, and pretend like it's glamorous. It's kind of pathetic. It's like high school.'
Despite being a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, Gevinson's references and tastes suggest that she is a far more experienced young woman than one might expect.
In a video interview with StyleLikeU, the clotheshorse opened up her room, her wardrobe and her mind, sharing her thoughts about the 'very adult world' of fashion and how she views her style.
Standing in a bedroom cluttered with clothes, accessories, books and objects, she picked out her favourite pieces naming Stevie Nicks, an old Courtney Love album and the 'deconstructed bride' idea as cultural references.
Changing into an array of brightly coloured outfits throughout the session, the blogger explained how The Style Rookie was a way to 'aesthetically catalogue' her things in a more efficient manner than she had already been doing using notebooks.
Bare naked ladies: Tavi's fashion sense leaves her teachers speechless and her admirers complimenting her on her courage to wear whatever she feels like no matter how wacky or unconventional
All time favourites: Tavi's brightly coloured jacket was a thrift store find and she regularly shops on sites like Etsy. Showing off one of her dresses she called it the 'deconstructed bride' look and referenced Stevie Nicks
'Everything in this room means something to me and has so many different associations aesthetically...That's how I organise the world. So having a blog seemed the most convenient way to do that,' she explained.
The daughter of an English teacher and tapestry artist, she was always encouraged to be creative and to read from a young age. She also frequently performed in school plays and musicals.
Exploring the idea of character and costumes, she believes, is what motivated her interest in clothing as a liberating expression of identity.
Modelling a shirt with naked ladies on the collar, she opined that fashion isn't about 'being pretty' but rather about 'having fun and being expressive'.
When Tavi used to get picked on for her wayward fashion choices at school she would come back the next day wearing something even kookier
The fashion maven cites Rodarte as a favourite label whose designers aren't afraid to have fun and whose shows compell the normally stiff audience to let their hair down and enjoy themselves
While it seems Gevinson has not fallen into the trap of low self esteem, as is common for her age, she recalls confessing in a blog post that she wanted to be pretty and how she worried that that might that make her a sell-out.
However, her feminist blogger friends assured her she could be both pretty and remain committed to her ideals about fashion and self.
Of her own unique style, the fan of severe black eye-liner, thrift stores and sites like Etsy told StyleLikeU: 'I think people admire people who look weird, who dress interestingly because they wish they could be that courageous.
Compulsive catalogue: Tavi was already archiving her ideas and expressions in notepads and collecting mementos in her room before she had a blog on which to share her thoughts
'Everything in this room means something to me and has so many different associations aesthetically...That's how I organise the world,' Tavi explained in her interview
Junk? The sophomore fashionista who still lives at home in Chicago talked about Los Angeles as a perfect blend of canyons, Joni Mitchell and tackiness
'People would always say, like "I love your outfit I could never wear it" which kind of sounds like a backhanded compliment but I think a lot of the time people just meant "I really admire that you have the courage to wear that."'
'In middle school it was hard to dress weird but I kind of relished in it,' she continued adding that if she got bullied for being different she would go back looking even quirkier the next day.
That determination and strength of character is still very much what drives Tavi today. As editor of The Rookie she aims to read all the feedback on her site so that the magazine develops the way she wants it to.
And in the meantime she has even bigger dreams. The perfect movie about her life so far she confessed would be Virgin Suicides meets Freaks and Geeks.
