7Q: Tarreyn Van Slyke
Seven Questions with Social Media Strategist, Cartoon Writer, and Creative Thinker Tarreyn Van Slyke
7Q is where I ask a creative person I admire seven questions. Today’s guest is Tarreyn Van Slyke. Tarreyn is a multi-hyphenate creative living in Los Angeles. She spends most of her time in social media, consulting brands, and talent on their digital presence, creating content for TikTok and Instagram, and writing the bi-weekly newsletter From Tarreyn. In her free time, she loves traveling the world, eating sandwiches, visiting every analog film photo booth she can find, and hanging out with her husband and cat.
Tarreyn’s newsletter, From Tarreyn focuses on leading a more creative, joyful, and intentional life. It’s one of my favorites — highly recommend.
1. What’s your earliest memory of wanting to live a creative life?
If I’m being honest, I don’t remember ever thinking there was any other option. I grew up in a highly creative household—my mother was a Painter, and my dad was a playwright—so seeking expression and validation through the arts and creative projects was the only way I knew how to do things. I vividly remember being on stage for the first time at seven years old and feeling that adrenaline, that kinetic energy of live performance, and the connection with the audience and thinking, “Yes. I want this forever.”
2. Do you have any routines, rituals, or processes that help you get into the zone creatively?
I do! Because most of my work is on screens (social content, video & photo editing, writing), I like to recenter with tactile things. I love to journal – it helps me clear the cobwebs and jumpstart my thinking for the day. I do bullet journaling and junk journaling, too. I’m also very specific about my environment—nice-smelling candles, the right lighting, and listening to music (without lyrics) while I work are all helpful to get me in the right headspace. And I also almost always have fresh flowers in view.
3. What’s the project that got away? OR your dream project that you’ve not yet been able to make happen?
Oh gosh, there are so many dream projects. I love collaborating with people, so I have a lot of dream partnerships in my head that all have nothing to do with each other. I’d love to design a wallpaper, launch a collection of themed analog film photobooths in public spaces, work on a massive-scale floral installation, create a line of journals and notebooks. (To name a few.) And I suppose I’d have to join the long list of folks who want to start a podcast. My goal is always to help inspire creativity in others, so most of my dream projects come down to some form of that in one way or another.
4. In another lifetime, what is a job you’d love to do but think you’d be shit at? A job you would hate but would be excellent at? And a job you’d love to do and think you’d be excellent at?
I would love to be a fashion designer, but I don’t have the patience or imagination. I’m so inspired by the astounding things people can come up with using fabric and I love how beautiful clothing makes people feel, but aside from not having the skillset, I think the pressure and scrutiny attached to that industry would drown me. I’m pretty organized, and I love making spreadsheets, so I think I’d be really good at project management, but it would completely chip away at my soul. Maybe this is a bit delusional, but a job I think I’d enjoy and be good at is being a talk show host. Probably a cozy daytime one, not late night.
5. If you could give any piece of advice, encouragement, or wisdom to yourself when you first started, what would it be?
Put your blinders on. Stop comparing your work and worth to others, and just keep making stuff. There were so many abandoned projects throughout my 20s that if I had stuck with them, I truly believe they could have gone somewhere. Dealing with the fear of putting yourself out there is real. I think I’ve let insecurity incapacitate me sometimes and prevent me from pushing through the challenging phase to the reward. Creativity is great and all, but commitment, confidence, and consistency are what produce results.
6. What’s a thing you wish existed for you to enjoy as an audience member (but isn’t a thing you’d ever make)?
Honestly, I’m always hungry for more media featuring interesting women in period costumes: Little Women, Marie Antoinette, The Favourite—that kind of thing. I was totally obsessed with the show Dickinson, and I could've watched five more seasons. Let’s get the Joe Wright miniseries on Marie Curie or a Yorgos Lanthimos movie about what happened to Amelia Earhart.
7. What’s something (a show, a talent, a tool, a song, place, recipe — truly anything) you’re loving right now that you think more people should know about?
I just went to Japan for the first time this spring and returned with major annoying exchange student energy, like the kid who studies in France for a semester and starts wearing berets every day. I know that saying Japan is amazing is not a hot take, but there are so many elements of their culture I wish we had here. There’s a patience and care that goes into every detail, no matter how small. I love that they embrace imperfections with the ideas/practices of Kintsugi and Wabi Sabi. I love a lot of ideology in both Shintoism and Buddhism, and I was blown away by all the rituals at shrines and temples. The Virgo in me also loves all the order and pragmatic elements (So clean! So orderly!) And the food… oh my GOD, the food.
Thanks for reading! Leave a comment below to let us know what you liked. And… who should I interview next? lmk in the comments :D
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