Talk to me about

Ruthie.

Yeah, I really liked writing Ruthie for a completely different reason than I had fun with Helena.

Ruthie is so much more down to earth.

And I think when the two girls meet in high school, Helena is kind of dismissive and a bit bored of her middle-class suburban background.

You know, she's desperate to escape it for a world of great art and a life of great romance.

And what she doesn't see is that Ruthie would give anything to have what she has.

So, you know, instead, I kind of want to ask, seeing as you kind of mentioned in your answer so wonderfully there about this is a thing that a lot of women kind of struggle with deciding what sort of person they want to be that sort of pressure they put on themselves um what did this exercise in writing dream girls sitting with all of these texts uh dealing with these perceptions sitting with these two women i'm assuming metaphorically and literally over coffee uh what did this exercise sort of teach you be it Hannah the writer, be it Hannah the human being on this planet, be it Hannah the teacher, whatever?