Anyone even partially online would’ve heard about Shit You Should Care About (SYSCA), arguably New Zealand’s greatest media success story. With over 3 million Instagram followers including names like Ryan Reynolds, Bella Hadid, Julia Fox, Celeste Barber, Arianna Huffington and Ensemble, the account wields a great deal of power amongst the perennially online.
But that’s not to say they don’t care about their offline community too! The release of their debut book, Make it Make Sense, aims to connect with readers in this very different medium. Written by founder Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins (also sometimes Ensemble contributor!), Make it Make Sense is a series of essays described as helping make sense of Big Feelings.
The buddies wrote the book while living in Portugal, where Bel still resides while Luce has since returned to Aotearoa. They jumped on a Google doc together to answer our burning The Last Time questionnaire.
When was the last time you cried?
Luce: Recording our audiobook! There’s a chapter in there about my late little brother and I knew it would be a hard one to read (it was hard enough to write). Surprisingly I only cried once!
Bel: Last night! I sent an emo voice note to one of my best friends who’s leaving town and the full reality of life without them hit me like a wave. Them not being here will leave a heart-shaped ache in my days and weeks like a break up I’m absolutely not ready to face. The endings and beginnings of new chapters are often the hardest. I got home and listened to White Ladder by David Gray like a sad Boomer, lol.
When was the last time you danced, and what were you dancing to?
Bel: This is SO ‘I’m in my 30s now and have a hobby that’s nearly my whole new personality now’, but my friend Daniel and I have started going to a dance studio here in Lisbon. We do an hour of whacking/vogueing and then an hour of house and honestly the high afterwards floating home from it is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I can’t wait to ruin myself socially by chopping back a bottle of chardonnay at a party and forcing everyone to watch what I’ve learned.
What was the last thing you bought and loved?
Luce: Um this is not chic but I recently bought a cute green e-bike and I have never ever made a better purchase in my life. [Editor’s note: Ensemble considers e-bikes extremely chic]
Bel: A second hand pair of L F Markey jeans from a store in Hackney, which I plan to wear with a simple tight singlet, no bra, and give off the kind of come-upping hip hop dance teacher who could be on the next Step Up film I’ve always dreamed of.
When was the last time you got really angry and what was it about?
Luce: Ok, so I’m a really non angry person, but the last time I got pissed off was when I tried to introduce two of my closest (male) best friends to each other and honestly? They didn’t get along and they both acted like TOTAL children about it, without considering how any of it made me feel. It was embarro, and kinda like being back in primary school, where they were both jealous of who was really my best friend (because you can only have one – duh!). I famously love confrontation so have had words with them both about it, but truly, those two need to work it out on the remix x
What’s the last piece of clothing you bought?
Bel: A men’s pinstripe blazer from a thrift store in Tangier. I still can’t work out if I look like Suzanne Paul in a 90s infomercial or chic in it? Only time will tell??
What’s the last beauty product you finished?
Luce: This isn’t hot, but I’m a hormonal acne gal, so I go through pimple patches like they’re going out of fashion.
Bel: I’m obsessed with this new Haeckles seaweed SPF oil which smells like heaven and makes me feel safe under the relentless Portuguese sun. Also just like, j’adore a sunscreen that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve just layered yourself in claustrophobic cream.
When’s the last time you got drunk?
Luce: One of my aforementioned besties happens to be an incredible winemaker (and so is my older brother) so there is always a lot of wine flowing around me. The last time I got properly drunk though was a Friday lunchtime after a terrible week, where one of my girlfriends and I drank a bottle of Cloudy Bay Pelorus Bubbles, proceeded to learn Charli xcx’ Apple dance, and then made it everyone’s problem.
Bel: At one of my best friend’s wedding in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago. There were negronis being passed around like water, the sun was setting over the canals like a goddamn Renaissance painting, Teenage Dirtbag was being played on the dance floor, I was around friends from home I hadn’t seen in years — the absolute prime setting for pulling the clutch out behaviour. I woke up the next day alarmed that I was able to still be alive after that much fun and absolute unhinged mainlining of cocktails. But it was all worth it. Sorry to anyone who had to sit next to me at Schiphol Airport the next day….
What was the last really delicious thing you ate?
Bel: Gluten free crumpets! Honestly, as a Celiac girlie, eating baked goods is a rare pleasure generally reserved for visiting a one-off bougie bakery in my travels or having a chic pastry chef as a friend. I took one bite and was speechless for a few seconds.
The last song you listened to on Spotify?
Luce: I’m currently addicted to Sailor Song by Gigi Perez.
Bel: The Dreaming Moon by The Magnetic Fields. I’m obsessed with any song that feels like the montage bit of a movie and this has been swirling around my playlists for weeks.
The last book you finished?
Bel: Evenings and Weekends by Oisín Mckenna. Ugh, it’s so just, like, everything. Soon after I finished it, I went to London and all I could hear was that book in my head – summer, friendships, heartbreak, climate change, cities, horniness, confusion. J’adore.
The last TV show you watched?
Luce: I’m in my Criminal Minds era and am obsessed with Matthew Gray Gubler. I will be taking no further questions.
Bel: When my neighbours hear the opening sequence of SATC through the wall, they know I’m unhinging or on a tight deadline and avoiding it at all costs.
The last DM/text you sent? Who was it to?
Luce: I’m gonna flex here. I’ve been DMing Gemma Styles (yes, Harry’s sister) because we both wrote about each other in our upcoming books and I think that’s so fucking cute (also, pinch me, Harry is gonna read about ME?).
Bel: My sister in Sydney. We live in the most incompatible time zones so have this eternal phone tag, voice note, internet D&M relationship imaginable. I miss her!
The last time you laughed so much your tummy hurt?
Luce: If you know me, you know that I am basically in a constant state of laughter.
Bel: With my studio mates just the other day. It’s the cutest space I go to work from and we often take breaks to laugh about the insanity of freelancing.
What’s the last drug you took?
Luce: My antidepressants: citalopram. Best drugs I’ve ever taken. Went for 26 years battling with a brain that wanted to leave the party before it had begun, and now I’m straight up phoenixing. Let this be your reminder to go and get help if you need it! Healthy brains are sooo chic <3
Bel: My friend bought me some magic mushroom drops for my birthday and I love carrying them to parties and dosing them out like a secret witch.
When’s the last time you were home?
Luce: I’m always home. Home is wherever my brothers are, and I go between Blenheim and Wellington (the two places they live), so they’re always with me.
Bel: In over a year! I’ve moved around a lot my whole adult life though, so I try a lot to make home a feeling as opposed to a place. I think it’s taken this whole time for Lisbon to start feeling more like home and settle into my little apartment, collecting things from my travels to make it feel like my own space and not a Ikea-filled AirBnB. It’s imperfect. I love it.
• Make it Make Sense by Bel Hawkins & Lucy Blakiston is out now (published by Hachette, $37)
