This winter, we uncovered in Teen Vogue‘s Emily Weiss a new species we’ve since dubbed “super-intern.” But it seems Weiss’s knowledge of rare florals and obscure couturiers is already old news—here in New York, there is always someone younger, prettier, and more willing to start a blog than you are. In this case, that person is super-Super-intern Tess Brokaw (she says she’s a distant cousin to Tom Brokaw).
Brokaw has Weiss beat in terms of age (she is 18 and taking a “senior spring” from prep school Brearley) and Internet presence (her gossip-laden blog, Hear Everything, Say Nothing, has become a cult hit among the fashion elite in two short months). She’s hit up almost every major fashion event this spring, including the Kate Moss Top Shop launch and the CFDA Gala at the Met—in a dress borrowed from Teen Vogue, natch. She is on a first name basis with top models, already thinks the exclusive Manhattan party lounge The Box “is overrated,” and has been known to spend the stray evening “relaxing/drinking/hanging out” in Kate Bosworth‘s hotel room and later blogging about it without reservation—all while living with her parents and flashing a fake ID when the situation demands it (remember, we said she’s 18). After the jump, a short portrait of the socialite as a young girl, in her own words.
Tess Brokaw
Education: Brearley High School for Girls. Will attend Lake Forest University in the fall
Internships: Two. Teen Vogue and Development NYC Model Casting (an agency helmed by Douglas Perret of Confessions of a Casting Director fame)
Neighborhood of residence: Upper East Side, with parents
Basic outfit: “Tights and a minidress. I am very into eclectic shapes.”
Magazine appearances: One upcoming. Brokaw says she’s in a planned Vogue spread about teenagers on the rise in the fashion world. “When Lauren Davis called me and asked me to be in the shoot, I was like, uh … Yes?” she tells Radar.
Maximum number of celebrity names dropped in a single blog post: 25. After the CFDA Met Gala, Brokaw blogged about everyone she encountered from “Harvey Weinstein slightly sketchily watching me dance at Mr. Chow’s” to “complimenting Karl Lagerfeld on his jewelry in French!”
Reasoning behind writing a not-so-anonymous gossip blog: “In the most optimistic way, I am a narcissist. The whole thing is an exercise in adolescent narcissism. I get to go places that people don’t get to go, and I bring my camera. And then I write about what I see.”
Ways in which her life is like a movie: “You know in Almost Famous where they say ‘it’s all happening’? It kind of is for me. I am in the top row at Misshapes. I am out with models and actresses who remember me! I am pretty much living the dream, and I want to do as much of it as I can”
Goals: “I don’t even know what I’m going to do, but meeting all these people can’t hurt, right? I think I will major in communications, and when I come back I can just go through my Filofax! I’ll be like that cliché—people after college who move to New York and do a little of everything. But I want my power to be more concentrated.”
Advice for young socialites: “I’m treated like an adult now, and if you want that you have to always be polite and know that someone’s watching you. Not quite watching like SocialiteRank, but people are judging you, always. I always try to call people ‘lovely’ when I meet them. Because who doesn’t like a compliment right away?”