Girls' Life magazine February/March 2022

It’s hard to believe that after almost 30 years of doing GL, there is anything new left to say about crushing. Like, shouldn’t it have all gotten easier since we started this magazine decades ago? Nope. Somehow, things seem to be even *more* complicated. Gone are the days when you’d spot someone IRL, then ask your friends about them, hoping to glean whatever intel you could. Now you can just scroll and boom: all the info you could ever ask for (their dog’s name is Baxter? Hmm…now you know). And yet, some things really haven’t changed. There’s nothing worse than liking someone who doesn’t like you back (except when they like your best friend who actually likes your crush’s best friend who actually likes you). Figuring out what to say (in person…

Ava Michelle was so undeniably perfect as Jodi Kreyman in Netflix’s Tall Girl that you might have assumed the role was written just for her (hello, she’s 6’1”). You wouldn’t be alone in that assumption, but you would also be 100% wrong, apparently. “So many people, after the movie came out, were like, ‘Oh, they wrote that for you, right?’” the 19-year-old explains with a laugh. “No, I auditioned for like six months for that.” In fact, it was Ava’s height that held her back earlier in her acting and dancing career. From the start, she was considered “too tall” for many roles. She was even cut from So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation after appearing in one episode (already 5’10” at 13, she literally stood head and shoulders…

The great thing about living in the Golden Age of Content is that, no matter your mood, there’s something in your streaming queue to satisfy your craving. Classic ’90s family shows? Swoony romcoms? Epic fantasy worlds? Name literally any genre, and the streaming gods have you covered. But sometimes your attention is, shall we say, limited—and you need some casual viewing material: the kind of shows you can binge (and actually follow and enjoy) while group texting/scrolling social media/playing with your dog/doing whatever you need to let your mind wander and fully decompress. We got you… PARKS AND RECREATION (PEACOCK) Not many shows can have multiple “I’m dead” moments in every episode *and* leave you feeling genuinely empowered and motivated to go out and be the change, but Parks and Rec somehow pulls…

WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE BY EMMA LORD WEDNESDAY BOOKS, $19 Millie Price gets accepted to an elite acting school in Los Angeles. But Millie’s dad, who raised her alone in New York, won’t let her go. Meanwhile, Millie sees her dad’s old LiveJournal page and is now determined to locate her birth mother. Can she pursue her search while flirting with a frenemy *and* making her theater dreams come true? HORROR HOTEL BY VICTORIA FULTON AND FAITH MCCLAREN UNDERLINED, $10 High school YouTubers The Ghost Gang travel to a haunted hostel in L.A. called the Hearst Hotel. They seek to dig deeper into the perplexing death of grad student Eileen Warren and connect with her spirit to uncover answers. But what happens is so terrifying that the mystery becomes an afterthought. FINDING HER EDGE BY JENNIFER IACOPELLI RAZORBILL, $19 A…

You might know 18-year-old Lexi Underwood from the sci-fi series Will vs. The Future or the Hulu drama Little Fires Everywhere (the one with Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon…casual), but her new breakout role is in the upcoming Disney+ Cinderella-inspired movie, Sneakerella. A gender-swapped, hip-hop-fueled take on the classic tale, this movie musical features Lexi as Kira King—aka “Princess Charming” —daughter of a famous basketball player in New York City and a singing and dancing sneakerhead. Lace up, fam, because in this story, the girls do not need saving. I guess you could say we’re excited? (We’re excited.) Flipping old-school narratives on their heads is kind of Lexi’s thing—and we’re not just talking about movie roles. Lexi (who also will be playing Malia Obama in the Showtime series The First Lady) has…

IT turns out copy / paste applies to your look, not just your laptop. Right now (and forever, tbh), we’re all about seeking out the trends that you can drag and drop on any outfit—then walk out feeling your most confident. These are the pieces destined to become the clothes that you constantly reach for, the ones that never even make it to the bottom of the stack or the back of your closet because they’re in such regular rotation. Ready to play favorites? PHOTOGRAPHED BY SEAN SCHEIDT. HAIR BY HEATHER WEPPLER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS USING KEVIN MURPHY. MAKEUP BY MAURIE DAVIDSON. FOR WHERE TO BUY, SEE PAGE 76.…