Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but [ RYLAN PRATT ], a [ 25 ] year-old [ CISFEMALE ] has lived in [ UPPER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN ] for [ TWENTY FIVE ]. This is the city of dreams and [ SHE ] knows it, because they came to NYC to be an [ MODEL AND ASPIRING MUSICIAN ]. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [ ZENDAYA COLEMAN ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it!
[ Depression tw, drugs tw, anxiety tw, eating disorder tw, alcohol tw ]
Money bought you comfort, security, an education, designer clothes as well, but apparently it couldn’t buy you security inside your own mind. If she had to hear the words ‘what do you have to be sad about?” one more time the chances are Rylan Platt would go swinging for whoever’s mouth it had come out of because they were words she’d been hearing all her life. Born on the Upper East Side into a painfully wealthy socialite family had it not been medically impossible she’d have come out of her mother with a golden pacifier in her mouth. She sure as hell had one in it not long after.
Appearances being everything to Olivia and Kennedy Pratt so they naturally sent their daughter to the most prestigious schools, the best after school clubs, and had tutors to make sure she didn’t flunk out and embarrass the family. That was all good and well, but nothing really caught Rylan’s attention until she started playing piano as well as singing when she started high school - it gave her a freedom that she’d craved desperately longer than she’d even been aware herself. Plagued by insecurity her entire life her own mind had been a prison to her but when she closed her eyes to let the music carry her away there was a small rest from that fog.
Her depression had started to develop around the time she hit puberty, fuelled by body image issues that spilled over into other aspects of her life including her own feelings of self worth. Suddenly she would get into such negative self loathing mainframes she would spent days at a time in bed, hiding out from the world, sometimes crying and sometimes just laying there staring at the ceiling. Obviously her parents threw money at the problem, sending her to shrink after shrink who medicated her on and off, but nothing seemed to ever truly work enough to stop the depression from rearing its ugly head every so often. These days she is pretty fast and loose when it comes to taking her medication, as well as going to see her therapist. When she’s feeling good the woman is convinced she doesn’t need one, it’s only when that crippling depression hits her like a school bus that she is in a position where she needs someone to talk to. Only problem is that those are the times, sometimes weeks in succession, where she doesn’t get out of bed. Not particularly helpful when it comes to her career as a model for many high end brands and magazine spreads, the obvious choice of career for a girl plagued by insecurity. The industry was brutal, and more often than not she would end up lower than before in the wake of a shoot.
When she saw that a band was looking for a lead singer on a flier one day walking down Lexington she felt a gravitational pull to audition for the position which lead to her joining their ranks. In fact before she reached out to try and join the girl had googled the other members that already held positions, which was how she came across Kal. The wiry, handsome man caught her attention immediately and it would be a lie to say that didn’t have a big sway in her joining up. Her crush on him would last a whole year before anything actually happened between the two but that didn’t matter to Rylan, just getting to be around him somehow quietened the voices in her head for just a moment. Not needing to get a ‘proper job’ thanks to the comfortable nest egg her parents passed on to her every month and the highly paid advertising campaigns she landed every couple of months as the face of big brands, she could afford to spend her time writing her own music, but never had the confidence to strike out on her own. Not to mention she felt loyal to the group she had joined. The only thing worse than striking out alone and falling down on her face would be to leave them behind for no reason. Not to mention her lack of self belief was standing in her way as per usual.
For the last couple of years Rylan had been on again off again with her boyfriend romantically, but regardless of their situation her feelings towards him never wavered. They were both perfectly matched and utterly toxic at the same time. When they were good they were great, when they were bad? You might want to keep your distance. Still he was her saviour in a lot of ways because around him she could be herself instead of being the pretty little socialite she’d been raised to be. Her jealousy was known to get the better of her at the worst times though, especially when it came to the women Kal danced with at the ballet because in Rylan’s eyes they held talent she could only dream of which was incredibly sexy. Up against them she didn’t stand a chance, it was self sabotage at its finest. The two of them ended up breaking up in the wake of Kal proposing to Rylan on New Year’s eve. Panicked by the level of commitment it involved she said no, literally running from the scene.
Still she was a vibrant young woman who loved to socialise, be out with friends, drink in the culture of New York City, and explore her own creativity through her music and keep up to date with everything fashion. Writing songs for and about friends, family, situations she got herself into, anything that sparked her inspiration. Everything around her. It was only when she was hit with her depression and insecurity that the girl changed into a shell of herself, it could be hard to watch according to people she had talked to about it in the past. The girl was a sweetheart, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have her fair share of people who didn’t like her, often because she felt threatened by them so she would lash out before they got the chance to. Before they could tell her what she thought was the truth - that she wasn’t worthy of many of the things she had - she’d make sure they knew they weren’t either. It wasn’t a healthy way to communicate but it was entirely involuntary. Plagued with the pressures of looking good in front of the camera which overflowed into her eating habits, an addiction to party drugs that had developed into something far more serious, and her need to numb her feelings with alcohol, Rylan was certainly not an easy person to be around sometimes.