In these final 8 questions, Alice opens up about her feelings towards death, her hopes for the future and the power of the colour red. She also takes time to reflect on the music that has shaped her and discusses her forks in the road that led her to where she is now.
Alice’s pronouns are “she/her”.
What is your biggest fear? How do you prevent that from taking over?
I don’t know if it would be dying. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily loneliness either because I think “would it be death or would it be other people dying and then it’s just me left?”. Once you’re dead, you’re just worried about being worm food. It wouldn’t be failure. I’m saying what it wouldn’t be! It would be to be left with nothing. And that’s not to do with material possessions. I enjoy my own company but I am a sharer. This is hard!
What is something you really want to do that you’re not doing? Why aren’t you doing it? What can you put into place to achieve it?
I’m not selling myself. Everybody in the world is encouraged to have separate lives. You have your personal life, you have your professional life, you have your friend through hobbies and they are all separate. I have been thinking a lot about this recently: I am one person and I am someone on the precipice of changing careers. What’s interesting to me is that I am not just Alice Thomas, the design graduate. I am Alice Thomas, the creative in so many other ways. I have a podcast, I have a YouTube channel, I create linocut prints. To sell myself as just one of those facets is to sell myself short. A lot of people say to be successful you have to have that one thing that you talk about and do but I am not two dimensional. I am a dodecahedron! Something physical to answer your question is a website. For such a long time I have been stewing with “am I going to have three separate websites to talk about what I want to talk about on the internet? To sell myself as a designer; to talk candidly about my life; to review things; to talk about my podcast; to sell my prints”. I am one person. You are with me or you’re not. It’s exhausting to pretend you are one facet all of the time. I am 100% Alice.
What type of outlook on life do you have? Where do you think that comes from?
I think I’m a glass half full type of gal. I think I’m a yes person. I feel like my outlook is positive. I’ve been dealt some pretty good cards in my life but I also am not afraid of hard work either. I have been taught the importance of being proactive and persevering in whatever it is you wish to do. That’s not to say there aren’t negative moments. There are times of sadness and despair but life is nuanced and complex. I still have hope and I have hope for my fellow man too.
What book/album/film has changed your life? What did you take from that?
Only one? How dare you! Do you not remember earlier when I said my mind was busy all the time and now I have to pick one?! The thing that has come to mind is “Folie A Deux” by Fall Out Boy. But there is also Donnie Darko. I would say Fall Out Boy.
Why I feel like I connected with Fall Out Boy’s music on the level that I am is that the lyrics were always smart and it was never face value. It was introspective whilst exuding confidence. Je ne c’est quoi! It was emotive and provocative: it was intelligent and personable. For me, “Folie A Deux” is Fall Out Boy’s best record because it just encapsulated who they were.
What song should we listen to whilst reading this about you?
“Over Yet” by Hayley Williams. It’s featured on her first solo record which came out last year. It’s a break up album but “Over Yet” is a song about perseverance. It’s about self love and inspiration and moving forward. It describes resistance as something positive to help you move forward and give you friction to rub up against. It’s a song of hope and I am hopeful for the future.
Name five beautiful things in life. Tell me why you think they are beautiful.
Building relationships of any kind can be very beautiful: putting time, effort and love into a relationship with another person is profoundly beautiful. The way we communicate is unique and when you get to fully explore that with someone or a number of people, it can have a profound effect on your life.
A sense of accomplishment: I don’t meaning being a CEO. It could be something as simple as climbing a hill or seeing through a task. Feeling accomplished even in the small things, even in the mundane, is definitely something that makes you appreciate life. In the first lockdown, I completed “Bop It” which I didn’t know you could do! It sounds silly but sometimes succeeding at something as silly as “Bop It” can bring so much joy and overwhelming positivity to your life.
Nature is beautiful. I think we have been blessed with a wonderful planet which is so diverse in its landscape but also the people in it. Endeavouring to explore as much of it as you can, along with the viewpoints of other people, can only be a positive thing. I am at my happiest when I am travelling and experiencing it with other people, building memories. I love discovering the new. The world and nature is so beautiful and it’s there to be explored.
Photobooths. I love photobooths. I fucking love a photobooth! I actually love them. Everybody has a pocket computer with two cameras and the consideration of taking a photo of a moment in time is lost because you are taking 1000 photos of the same thing. Somewhere like a photobooth – you have four shots. I find that I have never regretted getting in a photobooth. They are really underrated. I look forward to a day where I can get back in a photobooth and take some silly snaps.
The colour red. Not only is it my favourite colour, but it is attributed to the deepest of human emotion. Love, anger, fury, passion. But also embarrassment. Intimacy. I find the colour red is so bright and demands to be seen. You don’t ignore red! It also comes up so much naturally. It’s not like a fluorescent pink that’s man made. It’s everywhere.
If you could sum up your life so far in one word, what would it be and why?
Atypical.
I had a phrase – “off the beaten path” – which isn’t strictly true. Atypical sounds accurate to me because, whilst I fit a mould of certain tropes of a white woman growing up in Britain, I think it’s not necessarily a traditional trajectory that I have found myself on and that’s deliberate. That’s a choice. I think several times in my life I have looked and seen almost a fork in the road and I had to make some decisions of where my life is heading and whether that is what I want. I feel like I have often, I don’t want to say “gone against the grain” because I really have lived an arguably comfortable life. I really haven’t wanted for a lot. I have been very fortunate in several facets of my life but I feel like everybody comes up against the forks in the road and I have always chosen the one that my gut has told me to do. It might not have been logical or the typical falling in line but I find I have always gone with what my innards are telling me. There’s a lot to be said for my gut feeling. I don’t quite know where it’s led me just yet but it’s got me so far and we’ll have to wait and see. I wonder what the next 27 years will lead to.
What do you think the meaning of your life is?
To communicate. That is building connections between other people.
After talking through everything, what have you learnt about yourself and your life? What do you feel the need to reflect on?
It’s very coherent, surprisingly coherent! Irrespective of the tributaries of my life, there are common themes that run throughout. I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way.
My reflection on Alice’s interview will go live tomorrow.
You can find more of Alice on her YouTube channel, Twitter and Instagram. She is also contactable through her website here.
HOW TO BE; 