About this item
One of Publishers Weeklys Best Books of 2019 A journey through the many ways to live an artistic life - from the flashy and famous to the quiet and steady - full of unexpected insights about creativity and contentment, from the author of The Good Girls Guide to Getting Lost.Rachel Friedman was a serious violist as a kid. She quit music in college but never stopped fantasizing about what her life might be like if she had never put down her bow. Years later, a freelance writer in New York, she again finds herself struggling with her fantasy of an artists life versus its much more complicated reality. In search of answers, she decides to track down her childhood friends from Interlochen, a prestigious arts camp she attended, full of aspiring actors, artists, dancers, and musicians, to find out how their early creative ambitions have translated into adult careers, relationships, and identities. Rachels conversations with these men and women spark nuanced revelations about creativity and being an artist: that it doesnt have to be all or nothing, that success isnt always linear, that sometimes its okay to quit. And Then We Grew Up is for anyone who has given up a childhood dream and wondered "what-if?", for those who have aspired to do what they love and had doubts along the way, and for all whose careers fall somewhere between emerging and established. Warm, whip-smart, and insightful, it offers inspiration for finding creative fulfillment wherever we end up in life.
About the Author
RACHEL FRIEDMAN is the author of Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood (Penguin Books) . Publishers Weekly called it one of the best books of 2019. She is also the author of The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure (Random House) . It was chosen as a Target Breakout Book and selected by ' readers as one of the best travel books of 2011. She's written for The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, New York, BUST, Bitch, Creative Nonfiction, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Bon Appetit, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Gadling, Guernica, Al Jazeera America, The Hairpin, and Nerve, among others.
