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From the series “Erna and Hrefna 09–10” by Ariko Inaoka.

Hi, Rookies!

Today is October 1st, which makes it not only Julie Andrews’s 78th birthday, not only Disney World’s 42nd birthday, but also Rookie Yearbook Two’s DAY OF BIRTH. That’s right, we made another book! It’s 350 beautiful pages of DIYs, interviews, photos, stickers, tarot cards, a cootie catcher, and thousands of words of love/angst/wonder.

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It’s also real good-looking, with a bunch of handwriting and doodles and collage. Here are some Instagram videos I took of its details when I was dying to show you guys every page:

How’s this yearbook different from the first, you might ask? Well, for one, it has more bonus content than last year’s—stuff that hasn’t already been published on our site, including work made just for us by Judy Blume, Lena Dunham, Grimes, and Mindy Kaling. For another, Yearbook One included only the school months (September–May), and Yearbook Two is a whole year (June 2012–May 2013)—and the summer months are so good! Finally, the same way every month on Rookie is different, Yearbook Two is just filled with different vibes, photos, and subject matter. It’s a continuation of Yearbook One, which means it becomes a different book every few spreads. YEARBOOK ONE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE YEARBOOK TWO. (Or buy them together on Amazon for a discounted price of something dollars and something cents.)

Rookie Yearbook Two also means ROOKIE EVENTS. Here’s a list of the ones we have planned for this fall and winter—I am terribly excited for them all.

ROOKIE YEARBOOK TWO EVENTS 2 JPEG

Now, back to digital/online/virtual/pixelated Rookie: This month’s theme is HAUNTED. Haunted by nostalgia, embarrassment, family history, love and breakups, past relationships of all kinds. And ghosts, too, of course. I like this bit from what Anaheed wrote to me when we were brainstorming about it:

Do you know what a palimpsest is? It’s one of my favorite words just ’cause it means something so beautiful: Literally, it’s a piece of parchment that has been erased and then reused, and you can see light traces of the old writing underneath the new. There are so many different kinds of palimpsests in life: architectural ones, where you can tell that your doctor’s office used to be someone’s home or like how there was this bar we used to go to in Chicago where they peeled back many layers of paint and wallpaper to reveal the most beautiful old wallpaper from the ’30s; art ones, e.g., when a new picture is painted over an existing one and a trace of the old one shows through; emotional ones, like the way memory works in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Or my favorite one: How Johnny Depp turned his WINONA FOREVER tattoo into WINO FOREVER. Close second: How Pamela Anderson turned her TOMMY tattoo into MOMMY. Just anything where you can see traces of the past poking through to the present. Or even, if you wanna get REAL DEEP, the way each day erases the one before so you can write a new one.

Isn’t that fantastic? I love what we have in store for this month and I hope you will, too.

In conclusion: a very happy birthday to Julie Andrews, queen of Genovia.

Love,
Tavi