Leave it to Leonor #454

This week’s takeover is by Roya Shariat. Roya is a London-based strategist and writer who works at the intersection of social impact, consumer brands, and cultural relevance. Her background spans the beauty industry, food and consumer goods, and philanthropy, and her first book, Maman and Me: Recipes from Our Iranian American Family, was published in late 2023. When she's not hunched over her laptop or in the kitchen, Roya writes a newsletter on culture and joy called Consumed.

I was introduced to Roya via email by our mutual dear friend Erica. I was very excited to meet Roya. . .but then she promptly relocated to London. Alas, our online friendship has developed over a mutual love of TikTok trends, specifically, this one and our mutual admiration for each other’s newsletters. I hope you enjoy her absolutely lovely takeover and subscribe to her newsletter, Consumed.

I’ll see you in London, Roya!

This week, I’m thinking about Sylvia Plath’s passage on fig trees from The Bell Jar. I actually haven’t read this book so I probably shouldn’t be ruminating on it, but what’s really on my mind are the endless trade-offs we make, big and small, in our day to day lives. I’m someone who feels both the freedom and weight of life’s infinite possibilities and tries to take a lot on as a result. For example: I wrote a cookbook while working a demanding full-time job in the beauty industry, I’ve started writing a novel as I freelance shortly after moving to a new country, and when I can, I try to take DJ lessons because I envision myself making people dance. 

I also happen to love figs, so much so that I named my dog Fig. When I look at the next few months and years ahead, I’m not sure what they hold. And while that uncertainty makes me indecisive at times, I’m excited to continue forging new branches in my life. Also, apparently (according to Reddit), the narrator eats food after this monologue and feels better, thinking they were just reflecting on figs out of hunger. So maybe I, and the rest of us, just need some fuel (figs, specifically) to keep us going?

​This week in reading. . .
I’ve recently finished Funmi Fetto’s divine debut, Hail Mary, and I’m eager to find more people to read it so we can book club and discuss. Hail Mary is a series of nine short stories centering vastly different Nigerian women navigating the ups and downs of life. There’s humor, there’s horror, there’s grief… There is a story for everyone and while it’s hard to pick a favorite, I’m still reflecting on Dodo Is Yoruba For Fried Plantain, a story that involves the reclamation of food and identity in the wake of loss. 

This week in listening. . .
I've been listening to Fergie’s London Bridge on repeat since she dropped a new video for it with Meg Salter (America’s sweetheart IMO) to celebrate the launch of Too Much on Netflix. I love Fergie’s fashion sensibilities, I miss the era of music that ushered in this song, and I think we’re lacking ridiculous global anthems at this point in time. Also, ‘when I come to the club, step aside’ is such a strong opening lyric? May we all channel Fergie’s ferocity. 

This week in TV. . .
I think this week is the week I finally watch the latest season of HBO’s Hacks. I adore this show so much that I try to ration it like it’s a precious natural resource: I can’t binge it too quickly, I can’t watch it in real time alongside everyone else, I need to savor it at the perfect moment and take my time with it. Meg Salter (see above!) is a scene-stealer, but Hannah Einbender and Jean Smart’s dynamic is the stuff of television magic. If you haven’t given the show a chance yet, please start savoring it as slowly as you can possibly take. The writing is so good and the show takes such unexpected turns that I always find myself even more in love with it as the seasons go on — I can’t name another show that I feel this way about!

​​This week in a gif. . .

This week in a newsletter. . .
This goodbye post from stylist Subrina Heyink is such a poignant reflection on newsletters that focus on shopping + buying, and more generally on the state of social media in 2025: “By confronting the unsavory truth that this platform, where most of us aim to sell you things, is at the very least a site for fostering shopping addictions, and its worst, intrinsically connected to creating inadequacies within myself and the audience.” I’m grateful for this level of candor and the articulation of something I’ve felt for a while but haven’t been able to put into words.

​This week in follow this account. . .
I just plugged this account in my own newsletter and it deserves a double down. And you’re getting a two for one: Taryn Delanie Smith is funny as hell (and charming!) on her own page, and now has a new page documenting the highs and lows of moving upstate into an old-ass house. The country life is not one that beckons me, but there’s something thrilling and freeing about watching her and her great dane frolic in the outdoors and also panic when they learn there are bats in the attic.

This week in google searches. . .

• London + air conditioning

• Why is the tube so hot

• Best buttered noodle pasta recipe

me, eating figs off the fig tree, 
Roya

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