--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Tavi Gevinson: I Do What I Love—Not What Others Expect image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8193a3baaaef3ad/69886329196cf4d2c2037fa6/question-everything-tavi-gevenson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 11, 2015 # I Do What I Love—Not What Others Expect by Tavi Gevinson  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage)AP; Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIME I think a lot about the dangers of success and the curse of being considered a prodigy. Success can grant access, control, and the power to have choices in the work that you do, but any confirmation from the outside world that you’ve “made it” is inconsequential if you are not fulfilled by what you’ve made, on your own. When I was younger, I took other people’s opinions more seriously. As I’ve grown up, I’ve learned that no one really knows what they’re talking about. You can’t control how other people react to you—and it’s dangerous to give them that much power. Now when I create something that I’m proud of, I don’t care whether people like it because the people who do identify with it really identify with it. I feel most successful when I can be creative and say what I mean. It’s the closest thing I have to what it felt like to be a child, or what it might feel like to be religious and really believe in something. I do everything I can to protect that feeling I get when I’m working on something I love, and I try not to let the technical part of doing what I do for a living get in the way of why I love doing it. _Gevinson is a writer, actress and editor of Rookiemag.com_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/"},"headline":"Tavi Gevinson: I Do What I Love—Not What Others Expect","datePublished":"2015-09-11T18:02:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:08:53.066Z","description":"I feel most successful when I create","url":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/","keywords":["Question Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8193a3baaaef3ad/69886329196cf4d2c2037fa6/question-everything-tavi-gevenson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8193a3baaaef3ad/69886329196cf4d2c2037fa6/question-everything-tavi-gevenson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/","name":"Tavi Gevinson: I Do What I Love—Not What Others Expect"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Question Everything: How Do You Know When You've Made It?","description":"TIME hit the streets to ask New Yorkers several offbeat questions designed to provoke and prod the brain.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mXGkUGAr/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-18T14:44:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mXGkUGAr.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029612/tavi-gevinson-how-do-you-know-when-youve-made-it/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```