Surfing, Skateboarding, Music, Photography, Travel, Culture and general antics of the youth on the run.

Girl We Adore: Chelsea Elayne Young Thug, MOB grip and Tech shame. Photography by Darren Ankenman

what youth girl we adore chelsea elayne photographed bydarren ankenman

What’s your full name?

Personal brand guideline to never disclose my full name online ;)

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I’m from a suburb outside LA and live in Franklin Village.

What exactly is your day to day job as a social media strategist?

Anything from crafting a brand’s voice to directing the creative of what’s being posted to shit posting on twitter.

Being a social media guru, what can you say about the importance of social media today?

From a brand perspective it’s absolutely necessary that you have a strong presence, obviously. From a personal perspective – meh. Depends what you want out of your account. Not gonna lie though, being found on tumblr (cringe) is how I got a bunch of freelance writing gigs in college.

What is the best piece of advice you could give to someone who is trying to gain a [respectable] audience?

Stop trying to make memes.

How in the F*** did you end up on MOB grip tape?

Lmao I was at the San Diego swap meet with my boyfriend and we we passed a booth and I was like holy shit that’s my ass on that grip tape. I shot with Van Styles a few years ago and I guess he did a collab with MOB? I was never contacted about it. My boyfriend was mortified. We walked away but then he realized if he didn’t buy it, some kid would have my ass on their skateboard. We went back and bought it, then he made me carry it around all day as a scarlet letter. Anyway still waiting for that check to be cut.

Has anyone ever recognized you from it?

Haha not from the grip tape specifically, but from social media yes.

Tattoos have clearly become a big part of your self expression, when did you get your first?

I was 21, it was a graduation gift from my parents. Now they try to roast me as a way to dissuade me from getting anymore.

What makes a good tattoo/what is your personal favorite?

My guy @duncanlemmon makes a great tattoo haha. I think my favorite is the scorpion on my leg that he did, or the rose on my upper thigh.

How would you describe your sense of style?

Grown-up tomboy? Something like that. My mom calls me “a little scruffy” but I take that with a grain of salt because if she styled me I’d look like the 2017 version of Summer from the OC.

Where do you find inspiration?

I try to look offline for inspiration, not in a tech-shame “get off your phone and go on a walk!!” way, but mostly because a large chunk of visually interesting books haven’t been digitized. Also we exist in aesthetic bubbles online that are sometimes hard to escape (for example, every fucking feminine brand we see on Instagram is branded with millennial pink, a fig leaf plant and proxima nova typeface).

What are you listening to?

Title Fight, Trapped Under Ice, Young Thug, The War on Drugs, Vince Staples.

Where do you go to find new tunes?

Spotify, Soundcloud.

What modern album have you been most impressed with?

Young Thug’s Beautiful Thugger Girls.

Check Chelsea out on Instagram here.

Photograpy by Darren Ankenman.

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