Kerri O'Malley's Archives

Welcome to my archives. Think of this as the dark, creepy basement where I keep dusty boxes of all of my past articles for Babe Squad, Impose Magazine, Beats Per Minute, Thought Catalog, and more. Contact: [email protected].

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“When I first graduated college, it was the first time I didn’t have anyone telling me to write. I didn’t have any assignments, and I didn’t write for years. I’d always categorized myself as a writer. I’d always seen myself as a writer, but I didn’t realize how much of that was just people telling me, ‘You should write!’ I was writing all of the time, but never for myself, and I didn’t realize there was a difference there until I no longer had someone telling me to do it.” - Babe and Birth.Movies.Death. editor-in-chief Meredith Borders tells us how she overcame years of writer’s block in our interview with her here. I relate to this so hard!!! <3

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“This is kind of the master level of bartending, but I think that when you get to be really good at it, you’re finding these moments where you are not only giving people a good time, you’re finding the good in them and bringing it out. Those are the really beautiful, rewarding moments. When somebody comes in, and they’re being a really shitty person, but you’re able to look at them and find their good, and in the course of their evening, pull it out. That’s when you’re really fucking doing something. I’m not saying I’m an expert at doing it, but it’s an ideal to work towards and when you pull it off, holy shit, man that shit feels wonderful.” - Bartender and babe Mark Schettler on the higher calling of being a totally badass bartender. Love you, babe! <3

Read Mark’s story here.

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“Everything was going great in New York. I was going to become more of a role in the company I was in, and my band was going to get signed, apparently, and I was dating, so that was cool. [Laughs] And uh...I just decided to go. Let’s turn the page on life and try something completely opposite for me because I feel like I’ll learn things about myself. I wanted to try different things before...because you get stuck in this routine. And I just wanted to have an adventure.” - Our babe Ayisha Jaffer on her choice to move from New York to New Zealand after randomly applying for a visa during her “quarter life crisis.” 

Read more of Ayisha’s story here.

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“As a human being, it’s not easy to communicate with tens of thousands of people about your purpose, your mission, and your goal and be that vulnerable about your intention in life. It sets you up for so much feedback and criticism--some that’s constructive, some that’s just unabashedly malicious. I don’t know if I was ready for that.” Read my Babe Squad interview with Jane Claire Hervey, the founder of #bossbabesATX, an amazing community organization for women, particularly women in creative fields, in Austin, Texas.

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“It takes so much to get a project going and get it done. It’s physically exhausting and mentally draining and emotional. And then it’s there, and people can see it, and you’d think that that would be great--because you’re just fighting to get to that moment--but I think what happens is that then you’ve poured it all out, and you’re empty. You’re left with just a shell of yourself. It just dawned on me last week that last year was post-project depression. I just mourned for the last year! I get it now.” Read my Babe Squad interview with Tina Stormberg for more on moving on from Dog Show USA, her amazing sculptural artwork, loving Magic Mike, etc. etc. 

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"Being in art and living in your art means that you are actively seeking to grow who you are on a daily basis through your personal expression. You’re on a journey of understanding who you are better...that’s the ultimate level of success, and it’s the ultimate equalizer, in terms of comparing yourself to someone else. You can remove status from it, and it’s just who you are in yourself, in your soul, in your talent. To be working on that is amazing." -- Tauri Laws-Philips of Austin’s first and only all-female, all-black improv troupe, DAMN GINA. Interview up now! 

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LOOK MOM, I’M IN PRINT! Check out the cover story interview I did with Diet Cig online here, and learn more about DOJO here! 

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Our babe Adrienne Dawes, an Austin-based playwright and theater artist, on success: “There was definitely this turning point for me where I had to give up this grander idea of what I thought success was, as defined by the way other people’s pasts are, knowing that meant that I might not be recognized and I might not be able to make this my only job...Once I shifted my point of view in that way, I didn’t have to wait for someone to open the door for me. I didn’t need someone’s approval to make a piece of work. If I want to make a piece of work, I’ll just make a piece of work, and yeah it comes out of my paycheck or my savings, but at the end of the day, I got to make the thing, and that is more valuable and important to me than waiting around for someone to pay attention. I’ve never been successful in that way. I’ve been most successful when I do my own thing, my way.” Read the full interview! 

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YEAR IN BABE! A look back at all of the ways that the babes we interviewed in 2015 changed how we think. Read more. 

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Writer, artist, and student advisor Liz Medoff talks with Babe Squad about her personal experience with trauma, how our society handles emotional content, and her taste-making music blog, Knife Play! Read more. 

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Read my premiere of Churchyard’s new video, “Killer,” on Impose today! 

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I caught up with Nashville’s Churchyard about their tour experiences and where to honky-tonk! Find out here, and stream their debut album while you’re at it!

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BABE/Filmmaker Ryan Oksenberg on how he’s grown in the last few years: “I value time more. I’ve opened myself up to love and sharing my feelings with others and not being afraid to say things like, ‘I love you.’ I treat my body better. I’m more and more sensitive to callings. If you really want to do something, just do it. Because once you turn around, it could pass. That sounds a bit cliché, but…just fucking say it if you’ve got to say it, or do it if you’ve got to do it.” Read the full interview now!

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NEW BABE! Komal Das, co-owner of New Jersey’s Das’ Creamery, talks starting a new business, working with the fam, and what the future holds for her ice cream empire. Read it now!

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I spoke with Wyatt Grant’s band, Pool Holograph, about their latest self-released album, MORTALS, for Impose. Read and listen here!

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BABES! Photography duo and best friends Jillian Mann and Kyla Trethewey aka Our Wild Abandon left to hit the road for two months after breaking up with their boyfriends...and stayed in the wind for six months instead, taking beautiful photographs and starting what would become their careers as traveling photographers. Read our Babe Squad interview with them for tips on traveling, how they are making this work, and learning to say “fuck it.” 

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BABE Joe Steinhardt, founder of Don Giovanni Records on the artists he works with: “The label is very much based on love and friendship, not money and power...The way I see it is that I owe them. They’re putting their lives and their art in my hands. I can’t be lazy. I have to grow the label and do all of this stuff to do right by them. That’s what drives the label...Money is not a part of what drives any of this stuff. Instead, what we’re trying to do is see how big we can get this without compromising our values.” Read the rest of our Babe Squad interview with Joe here!