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Laura* had been a fully employed member of the workforce since 1985, and at her most recent job as an office administrator since 1999. In August of 2020, however, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and with no other job lined up — or even a plan to find one — she made the decision to quit. 

“For 21 years, I had been commuting 90 minutes each way to my job,” Laura tells Refinery29 “This was eating away at what little personal time I had.” She had long contemplated making a change — perhaps moving or reducing her hours — but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit, and she was furloughed for two months in the spring of 2020 that she actually committed to acting on her feelings. “I finally had the opportunity and the luxury of time to reevaluate my priorities, spend time with my family and with myself,” she says. “My partner and I really enjoyed being home together, spending time with each other and my daughter.”

At the start of the pandemic, countless workers around the country were in a similar position, and while temporarily losing your job can be stressful and dire, for some — particularly those with a certain amount of economic privilege — it can provide an epiphany. Like Laura, Olivia was furloughed from her job in digital content at the end of March 2020. After three months, she was asked to return to work in June. “Being out of the business for that amount of time — which I know is a lot shorter than some furloughed folk have experienced — really made me realize what was important to me,” she says, “and opened my eyes to just how unhappy I was.” By September, without a backup plan in place, Olivia had also quit. 

Last October, Dr. Erin Cech, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, surveyed college-educated workers in the U.S. for her forthcoming book The Trouble with Passion: How the Search for Fulfilling Work Fosters Inequality. She specifically asked survey participants — all of whom were employed — whether they had lost their jobs or were furloughed as a result of COVID, and the results were surprising. “There’s this sentiment that people who go through employment instability are automatically going to become more economically rational and that they’re going to prioritize finding a job and salary,” she explains. “But, what I found is people who encounter this kind of employment instability as a result of COVID are actually more likely to value passion and value work-family balance in a job.”

Of course, it isn’t just those who were furloughed who chose to leave their jobs without another lined up in the last year. As the world changed due to the pandemic, so did the way we work. While some companies adjusted to allow employees more flexibility, others took advantage of the illusion of constant availability that working from home created and tried to maintain productivity and profitability, even with fewer resources and reduced headcounts. Dan left his job as a credit analyst in August 2020 in part because the highly bureaucratic job felt “meaningless,” but also because the worsening economic environment had made the job even more stressful. Dan was already in pursuit of a career change and was working on another degree in order to make the switch, but he had originally intended to wait to quit until he found another job in his new field. The pandemic made his day-to-day work and working conditions intolerable. “With everything going on, including serious orthopedic problems exacerbated by the lockdown and management’s unreasonable attitude, I reached my breaking point before finding another job,” he shares. “Also, once there was a crisis and we started talking about essential workers, it made me feel even more fundamentally embarrassed to be part of an organization where about 40 people got paid six-figures each just to hop through bureaucratic hoops and write empty words in an expensive Midtown office, while people with actually necessary jobs couldn’t pay their rent.” 

For Grace, who worked in television production before quitting in July 2020, the pandemic also intensified workplace issues. For several months, she had been expected to work more hours without additional pay. “The office had been a pretty toxic place up to the pandemic — I was harassed by another member of staff for my first four months on the team without any recourse by HR, my supervisor, or his boss — so I had been aiming to get out for a while, but, obviously, the 11.5-hour days and minimal pay were big contributing factors to quitting,” she says. “Plus, the only reason I was allowed to start working from home was that, as I was told at 5:30 p.m. on March 18: ‘You may have been exposed to COVID-19 and we don’t want you getting anyone else sick.'”

Rielle, who quit her job at a media charity in December 2020, had a similar experience. As her team worked to adapt to the changes caused by COVID-19, her role steadily expanded and demands became difficult to keep up with. “The crazy workload started to snowball for me. My boss was super-impressed by how much we were getting noticed by the community and kept bringing up his expectations, and they became unreasonable. He started becoming very rude during meetings, especially when his deliverables weren’t being met. This caused a lot of anxiety for me,” Rielle says. “I felt like I couldn’t escape from work or say no to additional tasks that were falling on my plate, because I didn’t have an excuse. I was just home. It didn’t help that, because of the pandemic and my toxic boss, all my workmates were also always on edge about everything. Working remotely has definitely hindered my team from bonding and creating relationships that help in collaboration, too.”

According to Cech, the pandemic has acted as a “destabilizing moment” in most people’s lives, which has prompted or even required us to stop and think about the things that we most value in society. “There is a vein of cultural evaluation that says: ‘Get as much money as you can; get as much economic success and prestige as you can.’ But, there are all these other countervailing cultural perspectives, like: ‘Love your work even if it doesn’t make as much money’ and ‘Prioritize time with your family and friends,'” she explains. “So we’re seeing this moment where the pandemic has allowed some people to step back and ask themselves, What do I really value? What’s really important to me? How do I align my decision-making with that?” However, she also says it’s important to point out the huge caveat in all of this: a financial safety net.

Every person I spoke with about quitting their job acknowledged that privilege played a huge role in their ability to do so. Some had partners or other family members who could support them during their time off, while others dipped into savings or retirement funds. Even those who had to rethink their spending habits and tighten their budgets had enough of a cushion to get by without bringing in a steady paycheck. Brisa, who just put in her two weeks notice and plans to spend her time off taking care of herself and dealing with a chronic illness, says that one of the main reasons she was able to quit was because she still lives with her parents. “I’ve had so many complicated feelings about having the privilege to leave my job,” she says. “At the same time, I don’t have the privilege of living in a healthy body. I didn’t have the privilege of working somewhere that was willing to make the necessary adjustments for me. All these details made a difference. Ultimately, my body’s limitations and the stress of the role outweighed the experience I was getting and any other positives of the job.” 

Though the pandemic has clearly been a catalyst for many people to re-evaluate their relationship with labor for a variety of reasons, many of those who chose to take a break from work during this time of economic uncertainty were still concerned about how others would react to their decision. Olivia said she was “absolutely terrified” to tell anyone that she was quitting her job without something else lined up. “After a couple of weeks of tears that ultimately led up to me handing in my notice, my manager came across as quite sincere and understanding, but also told me that I would find it hard to get another job in the current climate and would be lucky to find something that suited my skill set,” she says. “This was something that stuck with me and did make me feel nervous and somewhat question whether I should be quitting, but I knew that I didn’t want to find another job straight away.” Though Olivia’s colleagues were supportive and understood why she had decided to quit, there was still a noticeable shift in many of her daily conversations with them: “It went from the usual ‘what are you having for tea?’ to ‘have you found another job yet?'” 

Because our capitalist culture places such a high value on work, it’s hard not to pass judgment on or be seriously concerned about someone who chooses to stop working, even if it’s temporary. It simply doesn’t feel natural. According to Cech, this is partly because, for most upwardly mobile adults, there is a strong tie between who we are and what we do. This is, in part, a result of what in sociological theory is called the reflexive project of the self, which posits that we, as individuals, are projects that have to be worked on, refined, and made better. “One of the clearest instructions we’re given culturally for figuring out how to do that is to find a job that aligns with our sense of self and work at it really hard and move up the ranks,” Dr. Cech explains. “So if we don’t have that career or we don’t have that occupation as an anchor, there are not a whole lot of other things that can fill that void.” However, when people leave their jobs, which are viewed as these instruments of self-improvement, they’re often freed from the pressure to constantly produce and grow. Instead, they’re able to simply live.

“I have learned to relax for the first time in my life — this may seem like a throwaway line, but is actually THE most important thing I have accomplished,” Laura says of her time since quitting. “As an overachiever, I never felt I was doing enough, I never sat down, I never had a moment of peace, and the first few months at home, I didn’t know what to do with myself, I couldn’t sit still. I have slowly learned to be a different person, to do what pleases me, to read, listen to podcasts, make art, and do other things which I enjoy.” Olivia, too, began to do whatever she wanted. She started baking again, doing crafts, and sleeping better. “I absolutely loved having time to myself and actually feeling like I had time to myself,” she shares. “My mental wellbeing completely skyrocketed, and I felt so happy and free.” Dan feels similarly. “I like having a break to focus on myself and my health for the first time in a while,” he says. “It’s nice to not have to wear corporate drag every day — both physically and mentally.” Rielle is catching up on cookbooks she bought in the past and never had a chance to use. Grace has been spending quality time with her aging parents. “I really like being able to make my own schedule and plan things on my own terms,” she shares. 

Because of everything that has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this time has come to be viewed as a sort of cultural reset. Certainly, the people to whom I spoke — as well as many others — have experienced transformations, to varying degrees, in their individual relationships with labor. Still, Cech isn’t convinced it will lead to a lasting change in our collective attitude toward work. “It may cause a shift to a very limited extent in terms of these people having to educate their family members or their friends on why they’re not engaged in the labor force or why they’ve stopped, and I think that will provide opportunities for reflection among the people that they are in conversation with,” she says. “But I don’t know that it would make a very big shift. I think the status quo understanding of who people are in terms of identifying with a career is quite deep.”

And, because most everything costs money, many of those I spoke to mentioned that, despite getting financial support from elsewhere, the one thing they miss about being employed is having a steady source of income. Though they love their newfound freedom, they don’t enjoy the ever-present worry about being able to cover regular expenses or emergencies. That is the reason they’re all planning to eventually return to work. Olivia, in fact, recently started a new role, which is completely remote. “I feel a lot happier than I did in my last job,” she shares. Dan says he’ll probably start looking for something when he feels physically and mentally ready, likely within the next few months. Brisa isn’t in any hurry to find something else, and when she does, she expects it to be part-time or freelance. Grace, who is currently up for a few new positions that she’s hopeful will work out, has also been freelancing and taking on temp work. 

Though none of them decided to permanently stop working, their time away from the workforce, reexamining priorities has prompted changes. Rielle, who is actively looking for a new job, is being more choosy. “If I’ve learned anything in the past year it’s to be very intentional in the next career steps that I take,” she shares. “I’m really pushing myself to get a job that aligns with my goals and also being very speculative about my next company’s work culture. I’ve also learned to embrace the uncertainty, which was really hard to take.”

Laura isn’t planning to return to work until the fall. In order to assure that she’s able to work less and live more, she’s open to restructuring her assets, changing her living arrangements, and even moving away from the expensive city where she currently lives. Her mindset has been completely altered by her time off. “I have lived my entire adult life petrified about not having an income, about not being able to make ends meet, about losing what I have worked hard to achieve. What I feel has been the most profound change is that I now know there are other ways, other options — that I can make choices other than the tried and true,” she says. “I finally feel confident that I can make things work no matter what happens, and that the old model of having to work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, while sacrificing everything else, is not the only model, and may in fact not be the healthiest model… I wish I had reevaluated sooner.”

*Some names have been changed

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When I entered my 20s and many of my friends and acquaintances began getting married, there was a noticeable shift in the types of images I regularly saw on Facebook and Instagram. Every day, there was another photo featuring a white dress, elaborate flower arrangements, and family members in formal attire. It wasn’t that there were that many weddings happening among those in my social media circle, it was that many now-married people were sharing a steady stream of pictures from their big days for weeks, months, and even years after they occurred. But, why?

Wedding photos have always seemed to me to be formal and personal keepsakes of a significant day in a person’s life — the opposite of the casual photos most commonly shared on social media. To me, a wedding portrait was something to have printed on canvas or framed and hung up in a special place in someone’s home; maybe copies would be given to various family members as gifts or thank yous for their support of the couple in question. I’ve never been married, but I see these photos as a token that only the married couple and those closest to them would regularly see and therefore treasure. Nowadays, though, I can’t log onto Instagram or Facebook without seeing at least one wedding picture casually re-posted in celebration of some random occasion or just because. It’s your friend’s birthday? Post a photo of him next to you in your wedding gown with a happy birthday message. Your sister passed the bar exam? Here she is as your maid of honor with an attached note of congratulations. Your spouse had a hard day at work? Let’s remind them (and everyone else) of a happier moment. 

Don’t get me wrong, after attending a wedding, I do genuinely enjoy looking through the digital album shared by the couple, and will maybe even repost a picture of myself having fun on the dance floor or downing a slice of cake. But the prolonged public preoccupation with one’s wedding photos and the way they have become a default image for any moment deserving (or not) of a social media post is a strange phenomenon to me, reflecting how we have come to view weddings as an extended production — a performance not just for the people with whom we share our happiest moments, but for random followers, for strangers. 

Anna-Rinna, a Malaysia-based wedding photographer, recently told Refinery29 that a good 80% of her clients opt for digital-only packages when they sign contracts for her to photograph their big days. Most of those clients end up posting the photos on social media. The same goes for clients who work with Connecticut-based wedding photographer Rachel Kimberly Varanelli. “Profile pictures, birthdays, anniversaries, milestones, you name it, there is always an occasion to use wedding photos,” she shares. 

Recently, though, Varanelli has been doing something a little different when it comes to making deals with clients. “I have been promoting albums a lot more lately because I believe that they are such an important keepsake,” the photographer explains. “People rarely purchase a wedding album these days because everything is just posted on social media. I believe that albums are so important because they are what we pass down to the next generation. It’s the beginning of a family legacy and it’s the love story being told through images.” COVID-19 has made more couples receptive to this suggestion. The pandemic has changed the way many couples think about and use their wedding photographs because, of course, the way we celebrate weddings has had to change. No one has observed this shift more closely than wedding photographers themselves.

Last year, Shelby Phillips, a queer artist and Manhattan-based photographer who specializes in weddings and equine portraiture, had 13 weddings postponed to 2021. Now, some of those are getting pushed back to 2022. Varanelli only photographed six of the 30 weddings that were originally on her books for 2020, and Anna-Rinna has been shooting about 20% of what she was shooting pre-pandemic. Margaret Wroblewski, a destination wedding and elopement photographer based in Washington, D.C., Oregon, and Colorado, lost 50% of her income and had to go on unemployment. Chicago-based photographer Julie Merica has had to decline more wedding gigs in the past year than ever before because the clients weren’t planning to practice social distancing. It’s been tough, but like so many others across industries, these photographers have adapted. They took on side-hustles, expanded their offerings to include family portrait and headshot sessions, and worked with some couples who have gone ahead with their weddings despite the pandemic. Wroblewski, who had switched to working full-time as a photographer in March of last year, immediately before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, especially, emphasizes how difficult this time has been, but even she says there’s been some beauty to come out of it. “I think there’s also an upside to it,” she shares. “As an artist, I think being in a situation like this brings out a lot of creativity in order to make the most of everything.”

“People are still getting married,” Merica says. “So I’ve been actively working if they have accommodations in place that make me feel comfortable. I’ve focused on outdoor venues with smaller guest counts. I’ve shot several backyard weddings and even a few front yard weddings because Chicago is cramped.” The other photographers I spoke to have also shifted to exclusively shooting “minimonies” that include no more than 25 people and are often held outside. Some have even been the only person besides the couple and officiant present IRL during Zoom ceremonies. These small celebrations not only allow for the two getting married to concentrate on their love, they also often make it even more straightforward for photographers to capture photos that reflect that love above everything else. 

“What I have loved is that there are certain couples who push forward with their wedding date because they simply want to be married. Those intimate ceremonies are absolutely beautiful. They are so full of genuine love and affection,” Varanelli says. “Smaller weddings and elopements mean more time to focus on the relationship… COVID has allowed me to work with couples who don’t care as much about the celebration, they are just eager to belong to one another ’til death do they part. I think that’s one of the most beautiful and powerful things of all.” Merica has also seen a bit of a change that she’s embracing. “I’ve honestly been enjoying the more focused and highly stylized weddings that are less about entertaining guests and more about celebrating the union of two humans,” she shares.

Though giving up big wedding gigs has been a blow to the business side of things, many of the photographers I spoke to say they have always preferred shooting smaller weddings, so artistically speaking, this move to more micro-weddings is a welcome one. “My style caters to smaller and more intimate ceremonies in general, so honestly, COVID is bringing me more and more weddings in my wheelhouse,” Phillips shares. “This is not to say that 300+ person weddings aren’t intimate and that I won’t shoot them, but I think my style, which is very photojournalistic, attracts couples who are having smaller parties because they value intimacy over grandiosity.” Wroblewski feels the same. “I love small weddings. I could shoot on every single day,” she says. “Small weddings allow the bride and groom or the brides or the grooms to really focus on each other and their relationship. They can take the time and space to be with one another. Big weddings can be so hectic: Getting-ready pictures are from 10 a.m. to noon, and then they have this amount of time to do this, and then we have to go take family pictures. It can get a little too chaotic.” 

As wedding celebrations have changed since the start of the pandemic so has some of what couples want out of their wedding photos. “Many of my clients are now asking for one photo in their masks because they want to remember that they got married during a global pandemic,” Varanelli says. “They want to show their kids ‘where they were’ in 2020. I think a lot of people want to remember what it was that they overcame when the world was shut down.”

Clients are also choosing to get those photos in different forms in order to make sure they don’t forget their wedding that went down during these wild times. “I think there has been a shift in how important photographs are to people,” Wroblewski explains. “I feel like the pandemic changed a lot of people’s perspectives about life and how short it is, so people have been treasuring photographs a little bit more, which is awesome because I love clients who love pictures and print them and hang them up or curate physical albums.” According to Merica, some are going even further to ensure their wedding photos stay safe. “My last two wedding clients ordered several backup USBs to store their photos. That rarely happens,” she says. “I think it’s this feeling of paranoia that ‘anything can happen,’ which was confirmed by COVID-19, so people are being far more security-based in their planning and finalizing.”

This is quite a departure from the way many of Merica’s clients have previously treated their wedding photographs. “Social media has become a highlight reel for so many, I find many couples have lost sight of the why. I have spent so many years following trends and watching clients cover my work in their favorite Instagram filters only to have them contact me years later in search of the original edits available on the USB they misplaced,” she says. “The importance of a good wedding photographer isn’t to look like you had a better wedding than everyone else, it’s to capture the magic of your own for a lifetime.” After a long period of that sentiment getting lost thanks to the wedding industrial complex and the pressure to show off on social media, the pandemic has caused a return to the way wedding photographs used to be regarded. Moving forward, though, it’s unclear how permanent this reversal will be.

Wroblewski thinks many people’s relationships with money will be forever altered by the hard times brought on by COVID-19 and that will have lasting effects on how they approach wedding budgets. “People will still get married no matter what, but it’s changed a lot about the industry and what people will put their money towards,” she explains. “Many people are now really tight on money and can’t really afford a $50,000 wedding or afford to have 200 guests there. It’s crazy how much people spend in the wedding industry, so I think it really has changed some client’s perspectives about what they want to spend money on.” Still, there will always be those who are set on big bashes. “I have clients who will keep pushing their dates back until they can celebrate it with all their loved ones, family, and friends.”

It seems like small weddings with intimate photos that are truly cherished will remain the norm at least for the upcoming wedding season, but it’s not the only trend photographers are seeing as a result of the pandemic. “A lot more people are reaching out now about elopements for 2021, and I’m not mad about it!” says Varanelli. “I can’t wait for those elopements because I know that they’re going to be such adventurous ceremonies.” According to her, COVID-19 has pushed a lot of couples to think outside the box when it comes to wedding planning, and she’s thrilled to be given the opportunity to discover new ways to capture these intimate weddings. “We’ll get to venture out to locations that wouldn’t normally have been thought of as options pre-COVID,” she says. “Ski slopes, out of state, mountain tops, backyard weddings, you name it! Clients are coming up with fresh, exciting ideas, and it’s giving us photographers life!” 

And, after years of seeing the same old shots of rows of people dressed in coordinating outfits and matching stiff smiles, photos featuring a couple exchanging vows while skiing through fresh snow might even be exciting enough to warrant regular posts on main for years to come.

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At the start of the pandemic, you couldn't scroll through social media without being bombarded with images of your friends' beautifully baked bread loaves, made-from-scratch sweet treats, and pantry meals that somehow look truly gourmet. Because many of us suddenly had plenty of time on our hands over the past several months, cooking was embraced by many as a gratifying and useful hobby. But what about those that don't know how to cook?

You can avoid feeling this very specific brand of mid-quarantine FOMO by learning how to cook and bake right now with help from videos, virtual classes, and certain social media accounts. With these resources, you'll not only have a way to feed yourself that doesn't require ordering take-out, but you'll also have your own masterpiece meals to share on Instagram.

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. The product details reflect the price and availability at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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On March 11, 2020, many of our lives were forever changed. No, I am not making reference to the pandemic, but rather something much more pleasant and amusing — the ideal antidote to everything else that was happening in the world back then. That was the day that Architectural Digest posted its instantly iconic Open Door video with actress Dakota Johnson, in which she gives viewers a tour of her Los Angeles home. Though her house is beautifully designed and decorated, that’s not what made this video a sacred text for internet aficionados. Instead, it quickly went viral after it was released for a couple of unexpected reasons. First, was Johnson’s charmingly chaotic persona, which was showcased for all to see as the actress hid piles of “weird” books, spoke about the psychology of dish-collecting, pointed out how no one can actually sit at her outdoor table made of wood from Winston Churchill’s yacht, showed off her weed-filled herb garden, and off-handedly mentioned where her dead cat, Chicken, was buried in her backyard. No wonder so many of us watched this again and again, eyes ever-widening. And then there were the limes.

While this particular episode of Open Door is filled with many delightfully puzzling moments, perhaps no moment was more memed than the one that unfolded at the video’s five-minute mark, as Johnson stood in her gorgeous green kitchen, looking around almost as if it were an unfamiliar space, spotted the platter of limes directly behind her, reached out a hand to touch them, and uttered the simple but strange phrase: “I love limes.” In case her love for limes wasn’t clear from the first time she said it, she then went on to reiterate, “I love them. They’re great. I love them so much, and I like to present them like this in my house.”

“I love limes” instantly became pop culture canon. Johnson’s matter-of-fact delivery of such a random pronouncement shook viewers. She wasn’t saying she liked the taste of limes, nor did she provide details about why she loves them, what she does with them, or even how she came to discover that she liked the aesthetic they provided when displayed around her home. No, she just loves them. They’re great. Dakota Johnson loves limes so much. Good for her, but no wonder we were all left baffled yet captivated by this powerful love that also had a total lack of context. It was a strange moment, but then again, nothing was so strange as what we were about to embark on as the pandemic shut down our lives.

Nearly one year after Johnson’s Open Door made waves, this peculiar moment that acted like a talisman for those of us who are very online, even though it almost felt like a troll has been revealed to be exactly that — a lie. Last week, the actress appeared on The Tonight Show and admitted to Jimmy Fallon that she did not actually love limes or think they were great. The truth was revealed when Fallon played a clip of Johnson saying, “I love limes.” The host asked his guest, with feigned earnestness, “What do you do with all those limes?” She responded, “I actually didn’t even know that they were in there.”

Johnson, who also explained that the platter of limes was just set dressing, then told Fallon that she’s actually allergic to limes, explaining it all in the most Dakota Johnson way possible: a confusing tangent about how honeydew melons make her tongue itch. Fallon, trying to get her back on course, asked, “But limes do the same thing?” She stared off into the distance, pondering the follow-up like she wasn’t expecting the question, then said: “Kind of.”

Johnson’s hesitation and her tangent about honeydew made me wonder if the actress was once again trolling us all. At this point, I wouldn’t put it past her. Are lime allergies even a thing? Or was she just expanding on her web of lime-lies so we’d get tangled up in our obsession with her for yet another year? According to Dr. Purvi Parikh, allergist and immunologist with Allergy & Asthma Network, getting an itchy mouth after eating limes totally is a thing. “An actual life-threatening food allergy to lime or citrus is possible but very rare,” she tells Refinery29. “What is actually more common is something called oral allergy syndrome which is when a citrus fruit causes oral itching because it has the same protein in it as a pollen you are allergic to.” This is different from a true food allergy as it doesn’t progress to anaphylaxis, Parikh told us, saying, “Also, usually once the fruit is cooked, it can be eaten — for example, in key lime pie.” 

When I told Dr. Parikh about Johnson’s issues with honeydew melon, which to me seemed wholly unrelated to this lime thread many of us have been so dutifully following, she told me the two reactions were likely related. “Yes, the melon also causes oral allergy syndrome due to its cross-reactivity with ragweed pollen, the big fall pollen.” So, despite Johnson’s distracted delivery, this all checks out.

As for the limes being part of the interior styling for Johnson’s AD shoot and Open Door video, that, too, seems to be the truth. Mieke ten Have, a New York-based stylist, design writer, and consultant, was the one who styled Johnson’s home for the spread, according to AD. While she and AD would not provide comment on the limes, I have reason to believe — you know, aside from Johnson’s word since that clearly cannot be trusted — that ten Have is responsible for their abundant presence. After the AD story was published last March, Pierce & Ward, the interior design firm the actress worked with on her home, shared some of the images from the shoot. In one photo of the kitchen — the exact backdrop of the now-infamous “I love limes” moment — Pierce & Ward tagged one Mieke ten Have as the platter of limes. Reader, when I made this discovery, I screamed. This already ridiculous rabbit down which I had fallen so deeply clearly has no limit. 

In another image shared by the design firm, they tagged the stylist again — this time as a cutting board laden with, you guessed it, sliced limes set upon Johnson’s kitchen table. Why tag ten Have as the limes? It’s almost as if the designers wanted to make it quite clear that they were not the ones responsible for endangering Johnson — or at least making her itchy. And there was something to be worried about. It was a lot of limes. From what I can tell based on Instagram images and paused frames of the Open Door video, there were at least 16 limes around that room and even more additional citrus fruit exhibited around her home. As Johnson told Fallon, “It was hard to just ignore them.”

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A post shared by Pierce & Ward (@pierceandward)

Perhaps some people are disappointed that Johnson’s lime lies were revealed, but I think her decision to come clean that her wild proclamation of “I love limes” was not, in fact, legitimate is really the best end to this saga. The sketchy details around why she doesn’t even eat limes make the resolution all the better. All of this is exactly why the internet can’t get enough of Dakota Johnson, especially during these times. She is chaotic good in its most pure form. As we deal with so much evil, disturbing, and discouraging chaos day after day, it is utterly refreshing to be hit with some fun and inconsequential drama. And it’s not the first time she’s provided us with just that. Never forget that, at her best, Dakota Johnson even exposed Ellen DeGeneres as someone who lies about birthday party invitations. So if this is Johnson at her worst, she’s what? Lying to YouTube audiences about liking limes, simply because she was bombarded with bowls and bowls of them, and didn’t want to be rude? I’ll take it.

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We're all doing our best to stay inside to keep ourselves and others safe right now. This new self-quarantining reality means infrequent grocery store runs that are all about buying in bulk. Keeping our pantries well-stocked with the snacks we're finding comfort in while social distancing and the ingredients we need for all the cooking projects we're taking on to pass our now-expansive free time, however, calls for a little more order than we usually apply in our kitchen cabinets. Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin of The Home Edit, the team responsible for so many celebrities' enviably organized pantries, are just the people to tell us how to set up our kitchen storage during this time.

According to the duo, every organizational project should start with an edit — unsurprising information, given their brand's name. "Remove everything from the space, wipe down the shelves, group items into like categories, and check expiration dates," they explain. "This process will also help you realize what items have gone to waste, and what you shouldn't purchase again." Shearer and Teplin suggest dedicating a few minutes every week to doing a mini-edit of your pantry as a way to ensure long-term organization. 

Once you've assessed what exactly it is you have crammed into your pantry and kitchen cabinets, the women of The Home Edit say it's time to transfer them to clear containers. "The original boxes, bags, and jars that items come in can add to the clutter," they tell us. "Instead, swap them for more functional solutions."

Finally, Shearer and Teplin emphasize the importance of making sure all the food items and ingredients in your pantry are easy to locate when you need them. That means making sure items are visible and labeled. Ahead, The Home Edit team shares the storage products they use to make finding and utilizing food products a breeze.

At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.

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“Tinned fish-heads” is how Caroline Goldfarb — TV writer, podcast host, and the woman behind the wildly popular @officialseanpenn Instagram account — refers to the ultra-niche fan club that has, in recent months, emerged both online and in real life. How does Goldfarb know what to call the very if-you-know-you-know, sardine-loving group? She’s one of them. 

Earlier this year, Goldfarb quarantined with her friend Becca Millstein, and the two spent that time building Fishwife, a direct-to-consumer brand that officially launches today and is dedicated not only to serving the existing community of tinned fish-heads, but also introducing even more people to the beauty of preserved seafood. Millstein, who works at a music management startup says that her years of working in the fast-paced, innovative music industry made her feel like launching a business was an approachable — but still exciting — endeavor as she rode out the pandemic. The two were also helped by Goldfarb’s extensive experience in direct-to-consumer online sales through the OfficialSeanPenn merch store. “I love selling merch online,” she says. “It’s a fucking passion of mine.” When it came to deciding what they’d sell, the answer was obvious: tinned fish. 

Goldfarb comes by her “deep, undying love for all things tinned fish” honestly. “My mom would send me to school with sardines on the regular, and I would get so made fun of,” she says. “I have a Persian mom, so I just grew up eating all kinds of things that my American friends didn’t eat. Tinned fish was always a super staple in our house, specifically sardines.” Millstein, on the other hand, turned into a tinned fish-head later in life. “I became enchanted by tinned fish when I was living for a brief time in Spain,” she shares. “While I was there, I traveled around and went to Portugal, and there’s just such an insanely artful culture around conservas there.”

Millstein is not the only American who discovered a new side of canned seafood while traveling — specifically to Portugal, where in the last five years, it seems like everyone you follow on Instagram has gone. Perhaps, you even went yourself. That tourist boom, according to Anna Hezel, senior editor at TASTE and canned fish fan, is exactly why this specific food has gained popularity in the U.S. recently. “By traveling into this culture, Americans were learning how to eat tinned fish in a new way,” she explains. Hezel points out that many Americans, including herself, grew up using canned tuna in dishes like tuna sandwiches and tuna noodle casserole. These trips to Portugal, though, taught many to think beyond those basic menu mainstays. “So many Americans were introduced to the idea of how fun and casual it is to open a bottle of wine and then open a special little can of fish that they’d been saving for a while,” she says.

Goldfarb and Millstein echo that sentiment. “Here, people think of it as this stinky food or this food their grandma ate in the Great Depression,” Goldfarb explains. “When you go overseas to Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, it’s chic! You’re being served this beautiful can of $18 cockles at a happy hour in a small town in Northern Spain or you’re visiting a specialty shop in Paris dedicated to selling different flavors of tuna.”

Because the rise of tinned fish-heads in American was inspired by European adventures, up until 2020, the trend was fairly exclusive. Cool foodies were buzzing about it, gourmet grocery stores were stocking it, and according to Hezel, restaurants specializing in preserved seafood, like Sardine Head in Portland; Saltie Girl in Boston; and Maiden Lane in New York, began popping up in the hippest areas of the country. What changed the way even more Americans thought about tinned fish, however, was — surprise, surprise — the coronavirus pandemic.

On their website, the co-founders of Fishwife refer to tinned fish as a “future-facing” food. One big reason for that is how we grocery shop, cook, and consume food in this COVID-19 era. “We’re thinking about the way we stock our pantry differently,” Goldfarb explains. “You can’t just go to the market to get fresh food every single day. You have to be more mindful with the way you plan your meals, and tinned fish is a really reliable, cost-effective food that can sit in your pantry for two years and only get better if you ask me.”

Convenience, reliability, and nutrition are so important during this time, and canned seafood offers all of that. “A lot of us are, for the first time, eating three meals a day at home,” Millstein points out. “It’s hard to prepare myself a healthy lunch and a healthy dinner every day. It just takes so much effort and cost, but with tinned fish, it’s simple. I just had tinned trout on some crackers for lunch, and it’s like this incredibly nutritious, super delicious, filling food.” Goldfarb agrees, “I’m working from home, but I feel busier than ever before. With this modern lifestyle, it’s often not realistic to cook a full meal when you only have a 20-minute break between Zoom meetings, so there’s something very futuristic and future-facing about the convenience of tinned fish.”

According to Hezel, tinned fish’s convenience, nutritional value, and long shelf life aren’t the only reasons it grew in popularity during quarantine. “I’ve noticed, in my neighborhood, a bunch of restaurants have started selling select retail items, so I’ve been seeing canned fish pop up at more and more of those restaurants,” she says. “Often, it’s stuff that’s a little harder for consumers to find at grocery stores, like some imported stuff from Spain and Portugal and cans that only restaurants would have access to wholesale.” In an effort to support local restaurants, as the foodservice industry continues to suffer through the pandemic, customers have taken to buying up these tinned fish offerings. 

While quarantine created the perfect scenario for even those who weren’t tapped into foodie culture or never traveled to Europe to try out and embrace tinned fish, there was still a gap in accessibility — not everyone has those local restaurants around the corner that sell hard-to-find preserved seafood. That’s exactly where Fishwife comes in. “We want everyone to understand that this should be a staple in their pantry,” Goldfarb says. The brand’s direct-to-consumer setup makes it easy for you to keep your kitchen cabinets stocked with tuna, trout, salmon, sardines, mussels, and more. 

Getting Fishwife to a place where it could ship canned fish to the masses, however, took some time. Once Goldfarb and Millstein made the decision to try and launch a direct-to-consumer tinned fish brand, they set out to find canneries. That turned out to be a whole hilarious process. “Thank God it was quarantine, and we had time because we dug our heels in,” Goldfarb says. 

The two started by borrowing a trick from Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, founders of the online artists marketplace Witchsy. “Look, this is an old-school industry. A lot of people warned us the international fishing trade can be very shady, and we’re two young women who are novices in this game, so we created a completely fake man named Richard that we pretended worked for our company and cold-emailed these giant canneries in Portugal and Spain that have been making sardines for hundreds of years under his name,” Goldfarb explains. Thanks to “Richard,” who they presented as “a representative of an up-and-coming fish brand based in Los Angeles,” responses came quickly.

But getting the canneries to take them seriously wasn’t the only challenge. The co-founders had to put in the time to find a canning partner that would work with them on minimums so they wouldn’t be forced to order 100,000 cans of sardines at once. They also wanted to work with a cannery that used sustainable practices and produced high-quality products. “Many 5 a.m. Skype calls later with people being like, ‘Where’s that Richard guy?’ we found an amazing factory in Galicia,” Goldfarb shares.

Because their love for tinned fish was, in part, inspired by the conserva tradition in Europe and because the fish from that area tastes unbelievable, the Fishwife founders were thrilled to be working with a supplier in Spain, but they also wanted to be involved in making canneries a part of America’s domestic economy again. That proved difficult because most major canneries in the U.S. have closed. After Fishwife’s soft launch in August, however, micro-canneries in Alaska and Oregon and fishermen and women in Northern California began reaching out about potential partnerships. It was a win-win since many of these folks had lost sales to restaurants because of COVID-19. 

The old-school fishing and canning industries got a totally modern makeover as many of these partnerships between Fishwife and its suppliers took place over social media. “We started reaching out to fisherwomen and men on Instagram and asking them if we could buy their fish and then connecting them with this really amazing and flexible cannery in Oregon that we started working with,” Millstein explains. Goldfarb’s Instagram prowess came in handy during this process. “Truly, can you imagine DM-ing fisherwomen on Instagram? Not to get too into the weeds of it, but I remember at one point I was on this Instagram account called like ‘fishermen taking naps’ or something — it was literally an Instagram account of just fisherpeople on fishing boats taking naps — and I was just scrolling through it, finding people’s handles, going to their accounts, and being like, ‘Hey!’ It was crazy.” Through all that, Millstein and Goldfarb found a tuna fisherman in the Humboldt area and Katfish Salmon Co, owned by Alaskan fisherwoman, Kat Murphy, both of which they now work closely with.

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While Fishwife’s mission is to introduce tinned fish to a wide audience through its direct-to-consumer model, the co-founders were sure to incorporate one aspect of the food that appealed to those bougie buyers who discovered the art of conserva in Europe. When there was that explosion in tourists visiting Portugal a few years back, Hezel says many travelers purchased sardines and other canned fish as souvenirs because of how they look. “People were bringing back these beautiful cans and celebrating them as their own aesthetic objects,” she shares. 

That gorgeous packaging that European tinned seafood is known for served as inspiration for Fishwife’s branding. “We have the Sun-Maid raisin girl and other classic iconic American packaging, but in Spain and Portugal, they have tinned fish ladies,” Goldfarb says, “We wanted to bring that history, those bold colors, and especially that feminist iconography to our brand. We wanted our own cool fish lady.” To make that happen, they worked with Danny Miller, an L.A.-based illustrator and designer known professionally as DanBo, who has historically worked on album art for indie musicians.

Together with DanBo, the two founders ended up with branding that had a connection to the vintage aesthetic so many tourists had already been drawn to. Thanks to a healthy dose of humor and whimsy, however, the branding also makes Fishwife products approachable for those who haven’t experimented with tinned fish before. “We want to appeal to young hip Gen Z folks but not alienate older generations. Because it’s fun and playful and beautiful, we feel like everyone can love it,” says Millstein. Goldfarb agrees, “Repackaging tinned fish and making it something accessible, fun, sexy, something that people of all generations can relate to was so key. For all the people that love tinned fish because they grew up eating sardines or because they traveled to Portugal, there are also a lot of people who are new to it and unsure of it. For them, seeing a package that brings them in and begs them to be a part of this movement is so important.”

So far, it seems to have worked. In August, Fishwife launched a Beta Box to test the market. Both Millstein and Goldfarb call the response to that test “overwhelming.” “People really responded to the branding and really responded to the story. So many tinned fish-heads are coming out of the woodwork to say, ‘Yes, tinned fish should be cool, tinned fish is sexy, tinned fish deserves to go viral,'” Goldfarb shares. “We have more than 500 people on our waiting list.”

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“Coffee is a connector,” Amanda-Jane Thomas, co-founder of Sip & Sonder tells Refinery29. “No matter where you are in the world, people say, ‘let’s grab a cup of coffee,’ and that means we’re going to sit, have some time together, and connect in some way.”

At first, Sip & Sonder might simply seem like just another coffee house, but what Thomas and her friend and business partner Shanita Nicholas have created in Inglewood, California is actually so much more. “We have so much going on, and coffee is an amazing conduit for all of it,” Thomas explains.

Yes, there’s a coffee roaster inside Sip & Sonder’s flagship location and baristas who serve “traceable and sustainable” coffees, teas, and pastries to shop regulars. But, there’s also a production studio and event space with regular programming that encourages community engagement. Even in a COVID-19 world, Sip & Sonder has found ways to bring people together. When we spoke to Thomas and Nicholas in October, their space was about to be used as a flex voting center ahead of the election, perfectly reflecting Sip & Sonder’s slogan: “For the Community, For the Culture.”

In this edition of Talking Shop, Thomas and Nicholas tell us all about how they went from working together as attorneys at a big New York City law firm to opening a coffee shop on the other side of the country. The co-founders also share how important it is for entrepreneurs to identify what their businesses stand for, and reveal an unexpected moment that made it clear all the hard work they put into opening Sip & Sonder had been worth it.

Refinery29: Walk me through the process of launching Sip & Sonder
Amanda-Jane Thomas: It’s funny how Sip & Sonder came into existence. We are both practicing attorneys, and we met working at our first law firm in New York. When you’re working as an attorney at a big Wall Street law firm, it’s pretty busy — you’re working around the clock, burning the midnight oil. I was passionate about the law but knew that there was something else. I think that’s something we all can relate to no matter what our age is, but especially in our twenties, where you’re doing something, but you’re always wondering: Is this it? Shanita felt that as well. Just meeting as two coworkers and learning that about one another allowed us to have the time to develop and communicate with each other about what our passions were outside of the law. We gave each other the time and patience to figure that out.

Right up until Sip & Sonder, I personally was feeling like, This can’t be it. I’m working around the clock, I don’t see my family and friends, I live and eat dinner and breakfast at the firm. This isn’t it. I think that desperation and that patience of communication, long story short, led to us realizing we had these passions outside of the law that were actually so well-aligned. Shanita has a deep passion for coffee, which is the crux of our business, and I’m into space and production, so that’s how Sip & Sonder was born.

Shanita Nicholas: In the beginning, because we had those passions that were so aligned, we were able to put pen to paper and start drafting through a business plan and looking at everything from location and our market to our competitors in the area. We chose Inglewood because we did a lot of work within that space through our nonprofit, LA Black Investors Club, so we already had the connection to the community. We wanted to see how we could be more involved here and work with the community to build something more.

AJT: Because there are so many moving parts when you’re starting a business, you have to identify all of them and then come up with a plan of attack for each. There are those more logistical, operational aspects, and then there’s “what do we stand for?” That’s something that can be easy to lose sight of, but it’s also something that requires a lot of attention if you’re trying to build an actual brand. If you’re a consumer-facing brand, consumer confidence in who you are is everything; consumers have great memories. We are consumers, so we know all the ways we think about the brands we love and the brands we don’t. We had to think about what it is about those brands we love and the reasons that we love them and then think about how that connects to the business that we have. That’s something that’s separate from the financing, construction, and hands-on operations. It’s that broader, ephemeral, intangible, existential stuff that’s also super important and ever-evolving.

When we embarked on the process and got our space in 2017, we were like, “Okay, in five months, by the end of the year, we’ll be able to open.” Then as each of those targets crept up, we were like, “Okay, we’ll push it three months. We’ll push it five months.” Now, in retrospect, it’s so funny that we really thought we were going to open the space in three months, but it’s that idea of not really having fully appreciated all the things it takes as well as all of the delays that are inevitable with certain timelines. 

Have you received any funding for Sip & Sonder? If so, what kind?
SN: We self-funded most of the space. We had an early-on filled-out loan from the Small Business Administration. That was a decision we made together. It was a tough decision, but I think in retrospect, it put us in a place now to look at options, which I think is really great… We learned construction because we were self-funded and didn’t have the money to bring in a big general contractor, so we quarterbacked a lot of the buildout. 

AJT: To be completely honest and transparent, that took a while. Capital is huge. That’s that elephant in the room, when you see a business that’s able to pop up from seemingly out of nowhere, there was some capital there. Wherever it came from, the sources may not be known, but there was capital. Not having that — as well as us both continuing to work full-time because we were self-funding — it all took a while. Taking on this project of becoming entrepreneurs and coming up with a business plan and handling all those ancillary needs like becoming a general contractor or getting deep into the design… I’ve never thought of myself as a designer — that’s not my passion — but we became interior designers. We had to wear all those hats.

Did either of you attend business school? Are there skills from law school or practicing law that helped you in the process of launching and running Sip & Sonder?
SN: I did go to business school, but there’s really nothing that prepares you to actually run a business. Beyond law, I also have a degree in engineering, and that came in handy because we were doing a lot of construction work. There was one time, we were talking with our landlord about plumbing issues. I walked through and explained the issues to him, and whether or not he understood, I don’t know, but I said it well enough that he gave us the allowances. So it’s those sorts of things, and of course, it’s all-day law.

AJT: I think our backgrounds definitely were and are a huge asset to us being able to navigate it all. We are our own attorneys for the business and so much of starting and running a business is paperwork. Whether it’s getting a space or financing, there are documents upon documents upon documents, and that happens to be something that we were already doing all day — reading through documents, negotiating, and making it all work. I think coming from our corporate backgrounds enabled us to be able to wear all of those different hats. Corporate law is about servicing the business world. While we didn’t have tangible experience with plumbing or with electrical, in terms of the things needed to push us forward, it helped that we had negotiated on behalf of clients a million times. We were now doing it for ourselves.

SN: It even helped with the waiting. I’ve called the IRS a thousand times throughout my career and just waited until they answered, so I knew what to expect when waiting for responses from government entities. I think having that awareness was really beneficial and a little less frustrating — there were still frustrating moments but a bit less frustrating — because we knew that sometimes the red tape is there.

You mentioned that you’re both still practicing. How do you balance your law career with your entrepreneurial pursuits?
AJT: I’ll tell you about pre-2020 because 2020 is its own situation. But, pre-COVID, I honestly don’t know. There are never enough hours in the day, and to be completely honest, once Sip & Sonder and our other endeavors entered the picture, there was a feeling like there were balls being dropped. We practice on our own now, but we were employed by law firms. We were really proud of that, took it very seriously, and wanted to be high-performing. We wanted to continue to be top-tier attorneys, but there was obviously a pull on our time. When people ask “how did you do that?” it was a lot of those early mornings, late nights, and working around the clock, which inevitably has a burnout. I think we both experienced that because we needed rest and didn’t have time for ourselves.

I think that’s something that entrepreneurs need to realize more. It’s so easy to pour yourself into your business because if you don’t do it, who will? But you are not your business. You are a person that needs to care for yourself. So, in terms of professional balance, it’s really hard to find. For most of my years of practice while building Sip & Sonder, it really was just making it work. I know that that might not be a satisfying answer, but it was a lot.

SN: This question makes me think of this one time we had a city permitting meeting. It was one of those things that took months to get, and if we couldn’t make it, it was going to be an issue. I think Amanda was still in New York at this time, and I had a deal closing. For some reason, they didn’t have chairs at City Hall, so I was sitting on the floor waiting for the number to be called, typing furiously and hoping that the partners didn’t realize that I was doing this other thing while trying to close the deal. It’s those moments of trying to bounce between the two because we hold ourselves to a standard of if we say we’re going to do something, we want to do it well. 

Now, it’s all about prioritizing and restructuring. We’re going to do what we’re doing well and take care of ourselves. We have a lot of open communication between the two of us, and that’s one thing I really appreciate about our partnership. I can tell Amanda, “For the next two days, I need to go out to the woods.” We have carved out time for one another and even force each other to carve out time for ourselves. I think that’s so important. It’s something I didn’t know that I was going to need, and I’m so glad that I have it.

Speaking of getting support from others, how many employees do you have at Sip & Sonder?
AJT: Before COVID, we had a team of 10. We make sure everyone’s trained to be a barista even if they’re at the front. Sip & Sonder needed to be able to run itself. To be successful as a business, the founders shouldn’t have to be in the building. Behind the scenes, we were obviously still working because we were still a small business in early stages, but on the ground, open seven days a week from morning to night, we had a team here that was amazing and really represented the brand. 

Once COVID hit, we did close temporarily. We had to furlough our team and some team members moved back home. Now, we’re back open with limited hours for storefront pickup only. We have done some new hiring, and our team is now eight. They’re amazing individuals both in what they do here at Sip & Sonder and in just being so dynamic in their interests. We actually look for that when we’re hiring. I think that with a lot of corporate jobs, based on our extensive experience in corporate America, it’s almost like you’re supposed to pretend like you don’t have other passions and you need to eat, sleep, and breathe what your job is. Certainly, you should take your job seriously, you should want to perform at a high level, and you should want to represent your company well, but we’re also all dynamic people. We have other passions and interests and actually being able to be honest about that makes for a more dynamic workplace. That’s something we’ve encouraged at Sip & Sonder by hiring people who are unique and allowing them to bring different interests and skills to the table. 

SN: Because we really spent so much time getting the ethos of our company and the culture of our company just right, even before the interview process, people come to us because they want to be engaged in a brand that has our mission. So I think we’re lucky to have a team that is so amazing, but we have also worked hard to create and outwardly project what we are trying to do with Sip & Sonder and that has attracted individuals from the community that are aligned with that. Looking back to those early days, I really appreciate the time and effort we put into making sure our brand is clear and how we view our relationship with the community is clear because that influences how our team is going to do and behave within the space as well.

What has been your biggest business challenge so far in running Sip & Sonder?
SN: I think one of the most recent ones, which has been hugely impactful, was the initial decision to close the space at the top of COVID. It was at a time when we could have remained open maybe for another month or so, but we knew if we didn’t do what we did, our ability to sustain for the long run was going to be put at risk. We needed that time to gameplan without physical operations. Looking back, it was the best decision, but in the moment, it was pretty difficult. That night was a sobering one.

AJT: I definitely agree. To add another, more broad one, the challenge of financing has been huge. As entrepreneurs, you have a vision, and as I said earlier, making that big vision happen takes capital. Because the creation of who we are as a brand was so important to us, we wanted to remain hands-on and retain control as we built the business, which meant we were bootstrapping. That difficult decision is certainly not something that’s unique to Sip & Sonder and our story. It’s a challenge. It’s by no means an insurmountable one, but it’s a huge consideration. The challenge of financing is also an ongoing one — you want your business to grow — and it’s one that’s only been made more complicated by COVID. 

What about your biggest business win?
AJT: The first thing that comes to mind is something we heard from two different families in the community. We have our regulars and families that come in and we chat, and on two occasions, parents have told us that their children were playing make-believe, and they both were pretending that they had a coffeehouse called Sip & Sonder. That is like the biggest win because it’s exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing. That that can be a narrative these young kids — three-, five-, and seven-year-olds — have is everything. It’s that moment where all of the pitfalls are worth it. I think the universe gives us those moments so we can be like, Okay, we can just keep doing what we’re doing.

SN: That was particularly special because, for myself and Amanda, it’s a reflection of what we saw growing up and the representation that we had. And, of course, we know how important representation is. To say you have a coffee shop is to say that you own a business and you’re an entrepreneur, and to have that connection at that age, it’s just really special.

What is your ultimate goal with Sip & Sonder?
SN: We’re focusing on really building out our coffee brand, so we have our roaster in house, we started doing e-commerce over the summer — that was always part of the plan, but quarantine really sped up that process — and we’re growing into connecting across the diaspora to source coffee, which goes back to the sustainable, traceable ethos of the coffee brand. So we’re continuing to build out production there and really be a brand in that way, offering a consumable product that people connect to, understand the story behind, and are able to go around the world with. It’s really exciting for us to grow that. 

AJT: That’s a tangible way to see how people are experiencing Sip & Sonder wherever they are in the world, whether they’re at home, at the office, in a hotel, or at a museum. What we’ve created here is the flagship physical location with creative studio space, but through growing our operations, building out wholesale accounts, and getting into different retail, we’re now growing the lifestyle part of the brand with coffee being experienced and consumed widely.

We’re actually getting ready to launch a holiday line that’s called “Be You With Us,” and it’s about the ways that you can be truly authentic and be who you are while with us. That goes to what Sonder is — it’s the realization that everyone is living their own lives. It’s crazy, hectic, beautiful, there are ups and downs, but there’s still a point of empathy and connection. So you can be yourself but still be tapped into this experience that you’re sharing with others through our coffee, products, programs, and content.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

In Refinery29’s new Talking Shop series, we’re chatting with owners of up-and-coming small businesses about their experiences launching, the big challenges and wins they’ve faced, and of course, their products and services. Discover new spots to patronize, while getting an intimate look at what it takes to run a small business in today’s economy. Do you run a small business or do you want to recommend a small business you’d like to see featured on Talking Shop? Tell us more about it here.

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