In Rookie Yearbook Three, edited by the inimitable teen mogul Tavi Gevinson, Grimes shares her secrets to becoming a girl boss. But the spacey, synth-pop musician definitely isn't your typical girl boss. Or rather, she's not that kind of girl boss -- the one that wears pink power suits and is all like "lean in, or else!" Grimes is a cool girl boss. She's the CEO of company called Fairy Tour Corp (as well as two other, less magically named companies) and she can admit that she doesn't have all the answers. But the answers that she does have, excerpted in Elle, are perfect and awesome. Here's our favorite moments of Grimesian advice from her essay in Rookie Yearbook Three, which is out October 21st.
On Exercise:
"Jump rope. It is the most efficient way to get cardiovascular exercise in any kind of weather, without going to a gym. Exercise is very important if you're dealing with depression or anger issues--and any job in the entertainment industry will cause both."
On not binge-watching The Sopranos even though you really, really want to:
"Stop working when you're tired -- but don't get lazy. I sometimes boomerang between working for 22 hours in a row, and then collapsing and realizing that I don't have to adhere to a fixed schedule and watching every episode of The Sopranos. I would not suggest this system. Schedules are amazing: eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep. The other eight hours are fair game. (I have not mastered this one, but when I can get it going I'm a lot more productive.)"
On being nice, except when you need to be mean:
Be nice to the people you work with. It is of utmost importance to treat people with kindness, because you want them to work hard and care about the thing you are building together. However, in order to get things done, sometimes you need to be mean. I'm really bad at this, but you absolutely need to let people know when something is unacceptable, or they'll keep doing it and you'll resent them and it creates bad vibes.
On the varied uses of hot sauce:
"If you are tired and you need to be peppy, drinking a bit of straight hot sauce really works."
On degrees and parents being useless:
"Just because someone has more qualifications than you doesn't mean they're better than you. We live in the age of technology, so you can Google anything you don't know how to do. The only thing you can't Google is how to be creative and unique. Your thoughts have more value than a degree or a parent in the same field or whatever. I always think about my grandfather, who became an engineer with only a seventh grade education. It's a very cliché thing to say, but nearly anything is possible if you set your mind to it."
[via Elle]