Teen People - "My true gender is theatre kid" : the James Frankie Thomas story

"My true gender is theatre kid" : the James Frankie Thomas story

03/01/22 • 53 min

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Like a Millennial Pygmalion, 16-year-old Frankie Thomas was plucked from the streets of New York, into the glossy studios of Teen People magazine. Their photo appeared in the March 2004 issue of Teen People (the prom issue!), under the headline "Smooch-proof Lips". Among other things, Teen People’s makeup artists suggested using lip liner as lipstick—it’ll last longer—or layering gloss over a lip stain. As you’ll hear in this episode, this was uncharted territory for Frankie. Frankie grew up in Chelsea, and went to the Friends Seminary, also known as the Quaker School. Founded in 1786, the school’s former students include Kyra Sedgewick, Vera Wang, Amanda Peet, and Lena Dunham. Frankie has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has written for The Paris Review; focusing on '90s pop culture, Young Adult literature, and queer aesthetics. Their writing career began with a teenage blog—you’ll hear excerpts from this throughout this episode. Want to see Frankie's Teen People photo? Find it on Twitter and Instagram, at TeenPeoplePod, and on Tumblr: www.teenpeoplepod.tumblr.com. And check out my website, www.annasoper.ca. Read Frankie's work here: about.me/frankiethomas Frankie's book list: 'I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This', Nadja Spiegelman, 2016 (Riverhead Books) 'Detransition, Baby', Torrey Peters, 2021 (One World) 'Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls', T Kira Madden, 2019 (Bloomsbury) 'The Secret History', Donna Tartt, 2004 (Vintage)(Frankie's literary North Star!) Did you figure out that this whole episode is a tribute to Wes Anderson's movie soundtracks? Borrowing tracks from The Royal Tenenbaums to Moonrise Kingdom, here's the music that made it happen: Frédéric Chopin, ‘Berceuse Op. 57’, Christine Hartley-Troskie. CC BY 2.5 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5), via Wikimedia Commons. Maurice Ravel, ‘String Quartet in F Major (Second Movement)’, United States Army Band. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Lesfm, ‘Amazing Grace of Christmas’. Public domain, via Pixabay. Erik Satie, ‘Gymnopédie no. 1’, Robin Alciatore. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Johann Sebastian Bach, ’Sheep May Safely Graze’, BWV 208, Kevin MacLeod. CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons. embracetheart, ‘City Traffic (Outdoor)’. Public domain, via Pixabay. Franz Schubert, ‘An die Musik’, Adrien Poupin and Armelle Mathis. CC BY 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Mild Wild, ‘See Through’. CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Amy Sayer, ‘wild tape’. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/), via Free Music Archive. Ketsa, Awakening-Spring. CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Free Music Archive. Mild Wild, ‘Line Spacing’. CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Update, April 2022: Read James Frankie Thomas' first essay as James Frankie Thomas; a startling take on The Killers' 2003 hit, Mr. Brightside: www.astra-mag.com/articles/i-wish-i-could-stop-thinking-about-mr-brightside/ Update, October 2023: Hear more about James' first book in our follow-up conversation! soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/jamesfthomas Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

Previous Episode

Right place, right time: Rabbi Andrew Oberstein's leap of faith

In 2005, Rabbi Andrew Oberstein was a budding theatre kid in Los Angeles, when Teen People magazine invited him to interview Sandra Bullock. "I loved Miss Congeniality," he told me, "so I thought, 'why not take this opportunity to check out what's going on with Miss Congeniality 2?'". Before Rabbi Andrew became a rabbi, he was destined for a career on the stage, and studied musical theatre at Emerson College, in Boston. This passion inspired his rabbinic thesis, 'Welcome to Falsettoland: The Intersection of Jewish and Queer Identity in Late 20th Century American Theater.' Rabbi Andrew spoke with me in January 2022, and told me about the leap of faith that brought him from the pages of Teen People magazine to the rabbinate. Notes: Rabbi Andrew's website: http://rabbiandrewoberstein.com Find Oliver Sacks' book 'Gratitude' here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27161964-gratitude Find me on Twitter and Instagram (where I've shared Rabbi Andrew's interview with Sandra Bullock) at Teen People Pod, and on Tumblr: www.teenpeoplepod.tumblr.com. Intro music: © Anna Soper Outro music: ZakharValaha on Pixabay Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

Next Episode

Rock star: Jaya Saxena on Other Music, gemstones, and building solidarity

“Other Music is like a fun, messy library for music. You almost never find what you were looking for, but you always find something you never knew you wanted.” Jaya Saxena was 17 when she was asked to describe her favourite record store in Teen People magazine's Summer Music Special of 2004. Now in her 30s, Jaya is a published author of non-fiction, and a Senior Writer at Eater.com. Like my earlier guest, Lisa Wong Macabasco, Jaya writes about food and culture. She's not a restaurant critic, she's an essayist. Similarly, she's not a geologist, but she loves gems and minerals (the subject of her book, Crystal Clear!). When I found Jaya, she had forgotten she was in Teen People, so I had to jog her memory with the details. “I was around a lot of adults who worked for these magazines,” she told me, “so I probably did talk to someone.” Jaya spoke with me in October, 2021. She told me about Other Music, her career, and how she's building solidarity with peers in her industry. Digressions: indie sleaze bands (The Bravery, The Strokes, etc.), brick-and-mortar stores and CDs, online safety, queer identities and being "born this way" Podcast notes: Find Jaya's work on her site: www.jayasaxena.com Get her books: www.goodreads.com/book/show/33589940-basic-witches (with Jess Zimmerman) www.goodreads.com/book/show/52593434-crystal-clear www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114400-the-book-of-lost-recipes www.goodreads.com/book/show/30009779-dad-magazine (with Matt Lubchansky) Find me on my site: www.annasoper.ca And on Twitter and Instagram: [at] TeenPeoplePod And on Tumblr: www.teenpeoplepod.tumblr.com Music: Intro: Mild Wild, ‘Line Spacing’. CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Outro (2000s Indie Sleaze Disco-Rock riff) © Anna Soper Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.