And we were not often lucky.
Here, Jenny Slate revisits her adolescence in small-town Massachusetts.
WhenJenny Slatewas 14, she felt like she was in a holding pattern.
She was hanging out with her parents and rentingSister Actfrom Blockbuster for the umpteenth time.
She was living in a haunted house.
Or maybe she was just 14.
It didn’t matter.
I would learn how to fly midair.
Shed find her people.
Shed join an improv group.
Shed sleep without fear of ghosts.
What am I going to do, not visit my parents?
I still went to sleep.
Adolescence is scary, and then it ends.
Take me back to your life at 14, in 1996.
What was it like?
How were you feeling about it?
It was a year after [the] Green Day [albumInsomniac], like that grungy moment.
And I was in that vibe.
I had a really hard time in school.
Did not have a happy time going to school, for sure.
Socially [it] was really, really difficult.
And I think that’s really real.
But I also remember it was the first time that I got really into my own personal style.
Whereas, I became aware of having style as a daily thing that you could be a part of.
Was this peak hormone for you?
I think that peak is just still happening.
But no, I don’t think that was peak hormones.
Although I think I was pretty horny as a person.
What did your version of hanging out look like?
I hung out with my parents.
I mean, same.
I was really hanging out with my parents and my sisters and my grandparents.
The internet wasn’t there yet.
We didn’t have cable TV.
And we were not often lucky.
Were you doing speech team at this time?
I know you were nationally ranked in high school.
No, not yet.
That’s probably part of why you were having a hard time.
You hadn’t found your groove.
I think that can be really confusing.
And I think people are like that.
And that’s a beautiful feeling and it’s really precious.
You are the only one who knows what you’re really like.
But at the time, I guess I just wanted that.
Not that anyone was seeing my pubes.
But youre fully aware of them.
It’s so annoying when you have more pubes than you have boobs.
You’re just like, “Why did that ratio happen?
I would love a fuller rack.”
What were you imagining for your future at 14?
It was like, I really, really want to be a film actor.
I just want to be a film actor.
I had no plan for how to become that.
And I will say, I just followed the tiniest steps.
Find a performance, find a place to perform.
I’ve said this a million times because I let the wish be as full as I felt it.
What would your 14-year-old self think of you if she got to meet you today?
I think I’m way more free than I ever thought that I could be.
I madeI Want You Backwhen I was 10 weeks postpartum.
That is intense and I was breastfeeding or pumping every three hours.
And so she knew how to do the breast pump and everything.
And she carried my pump and my milk around.
And it was incredible.
And those beliefs are brutal.
And I held them with me for much longer than I wish I had.
I would implant in her spirit, a feminist belief system.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
