Astrology
She was one of YouTubes earliest viral stars.
Now her app, The Pattern, delivers cosmic insight to millions.
Within four minutes of meeting Lisa Donovan, she upends my understanding of astrology.
Id asked about her sun sign,Gemini, the curious, communicative twins of the zodiac.
But instead of answering, she wrinkles her nose as if Id inquired about a middle school crush.
We dont even do sun sign astrology, says Donovan, the founder of astrology-based app The Pattern.
She thinks its primary function is to sell newspapers.
Saturn [governs] feelings of inadequacy, and not being enough, she says.
You spend your life trying to prove something.
Theres little that Donovan has to prove, however.
She posts sporadicallyto Instagrambut maintains no other social media.
I kept being like, Let’s not say anything.
Why does anybody need to know anything?
Why can’t it be this thing?
By that, she means let The Patterns sensational word-of-mouth success speak for itself.
Its been lauded as scarily accurate by everyone fromIssa RaeandChanning TatumtoSZAs therapist.
(For comparison,Co-Star boasts 20 million downloads.)
The apps overall aesthetic is conspicuously anti-woo-woo, too, with Facebook-y blues and greens.
These anti-horoscope horoscopes are a hit with self-proclaimed skeptics.
I do not really believe in astrology I never cared about myhoroscope, one user told Bustle last year.
But a friend made me download The Pattern, and now Icant stop checking it.
When she wasnt overseeing Makers programming, Donovan continued uploading videos as LisaNova.
Her videos embodied the madcap neo-dadaism of the early-aughts internet.
You are starting an entirely different life.
It has nearly 1.5 million views.
There’s no heart in it anymore, she says now.
Off-camera, her life was falling apart.
He passed away about a year later.
For the first time, Donovan found herself open to the stars.
My impression of astrology [was of] something new age-y or cheesy, she says.
Instead, she emerged with a mirror held up to her inner world.
She tested readings on everyone from friends to Uber drivers, asking if her analyses resonated.
When something wasnt spot-on, she tinkered with it until it was.
With Maker [Studios] or LisaNova, I was just creating whatever I wanted in the moment.
There was no rulebook.
I felt a duty to something bigger.
There was a certain integrity it had to have.
By 2017, The Pattern was ready for the masses.
Its aPisces rising, she says of the app; that makes it a healer.
Since then, the company has continued to expand.
People are hungry for, Well, now what do I do?
Increasingly, people want that guidance to come from above.
In 2018,29% of American adultsbelieved in astrology, an upward trend from25% in 2005.
Though over two-thirds of the population are still skeptical, Donovan doesnt believe that hinders the apps growth.
We don’t consider ourselves an astrology app.
This is a life app, she says, a point she stresses multiple times.
Im not trying to convince anybody of anything.
I’m not trying to push astrology down anybody’s throat.
Of course, theres an inherent irony in that answer.
Donovan clearly respects astrology, so why erase the traceable bits within the app?
Astrologer Alice Sparkly Kat agrees with the concept.
Donovan credits Saturns influence on The Patterns accuracy.
If I didnt think it was up to par, I had to keep going until it was right.
[You have to say], this will be its own thing, and let it go.
You cant be attached to it.
She has a richness and depth thats often at odds with her innocence and vulnerability.
[…] Her life could be defined by striking and considerable changes.
Scary accurate, indeed.
Photographer: Caroline Tompkins
Makeup: Gina Daddona
