Writer | Photographer | Videographer | Assistant Editor of Peach Fuzz Magazine | Hand Model | Meme Lurker
Me brushing a goat in my favorite Lion King tee sometime in the 90s.
Me dressed inappropriately for a snow storm at CU Boulder my freshman year.
The Beginning
Born and raised in the ATX, I came into my current fashion like any true millennial would — by spending countless hours playing Mario Party on Nintendo 64, riding horses and getting tube whiplash from the menacing waters of Lake Travis during 100 degree summers, and wasting 15 minutes of my life signing onto AOL through dial up every gahd-dang day in 1999. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Those #skills taught me patience, empathy, creative forethought, that competition isn’t everything (unless you’re beating me at Crazy Cutter in Mario Party/getting in the way of my #dreams), and how childhood sunburns really would come back to haunt me. Shouts out to my current 100 SPF routine.
I left the 100 degree heat and comfort of my ill-chosen drink of choice — Southern Comfort — to study film at the University of Colorado at Boulder. There, I would hone my craft, fall in love with French New Wave and dumplings from the Boulder Farmer’s Market, daydream about cotton candy skies during that one shitty physics course, and (unfortunately) discover Dubstep music. I have since come to my senses.
I traded in dry weather and a boyfriend for Austin after a stint in Denver — post graduation — to try my luck at adulthood in a home that didn’t look so much like home anymore. Shouts out to Austin condo construction for ruining my childhood skyline (and fucking everything).
Me and EIC, Kelly Dugan, cheesin’ with our mags at a release party.
Me and EIC, Kelly Dugan, on the front page of the Arts & Culture section of The Austin Chronicle, February 2018.
Me shooting some behind-the-scenes video during our Circa News feature in Pace Bend State Park.
Peach Fuzz, McNasty, and Finding a Voice
In the summer of 2013, on an 18 hour road trip to Telluride, CO with my BFF Kelly — I would change the course of my future inexplicably and become a helluva lot less phased by naked people from that point forward.
Kelly came to me with an idea to start, what would later be called, Peach Fuzz — a shameless sex and body-positive celebration of nudity, written word, art, recipes, interviews, and analog-only photo editorials with all sorts of amazing babes. We started a motherfuckin’ nudie mag (minus the misogyny, male gaze, photoshop, and icky feelings that come from a life guided through the lens of patriarchy and shame).
Having already been given the nickname ~ McNasty ~ by Crew B in high school media class, it was only fitting that I take my nasty persona to the pages of Peach Fuzz (and my life tbh) through written articles about sex and dating, behind-the-scenes promotional videos, creative direction for photo editorials, while stepping both in front of and behind the lens for various issues.
Peach Fuzz has allowed me to express the snark, sappy, and weird — and everything in between — for the greater chunk of my 20s. It’s allowed me to visit new cities, interact with and explore nature, meet and interview compelling artists, activists, and groundbreaking women while doing plenty of skinny dipping along the way.
Now — seven years and 22 issues later (and a couple awards and features under our belt) — I look forward to a future where I travel more, create more, shoot more, write more, and get naked a whole lot more.
Links:
Peach Fuzz: A Nudie Mag Stripped, The Austin Chronicle
Meet the women behind the nudie mag Peach Fuzz, a 'shameless celebration of sex and art', Circa News
Women's Lib: Peach Fuzz Talks Feminist Pornography, Kindland
Me smizing my way into your social media pages with the clickbait articles of your dreams.
Texts From Last Night
Your girl wears many hats (as you can tell, duh) — so it was only fitting to take my #skills to the ether of clickbait central and create content for popular humor blog, Texts From Last Night. There I would write about what I know best: dating, sex, and being awkward — but usually in the opposite order. I wrote hundreds of articles, garnering hundreds of thousands of clicks like the good millennial I am. Kim Kardashian and Snoop Dog reposted me on Facebook, so like, I guess I can go home now. There’s nothing left to accomplish. I’ve made it. Thank you and good night.
Me enacting the hand pose that put me on the map.
Me wearing very expensive jewelry on my long digits.
Laura, The Hand Model
They used to call me “Daddy Long Fingers” in high school but WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, JUSTIN?!