The Only Stories I Never Skip

To seem like someone who understands the internet, I tell my friends I’m completely addicted to Instagram Stories. I do it in an embarrassing teenage voice that shuts down all follow-up questions. "I literally cannot stop!" Very convincing. Very online.

The truth is I spend most evenings on the couch watching trash TV and skipping Stories as fast as the app allows. Her at the gym again? Skip. Him hanging out with that YouTuber again? Skip. Her making out with some guy while her boyfriend definitely has her account open? Triple skip, immediate judgment.

The one exception—the single account whose Stories I watch every time, without hesitation, in full—is Bonnie Strange. German model, DJ, tattooed disaster in the best possible sense, and the ongoing cause of what I can only call a low-grade brain emergency. Her Stories are sweet, funny, strange, and occasionally just outrageously hot in a way that leaves me staring at my phone at midnight wondering what exactly my life has come to. I’ve made my peace with it. Bonnie, I love you. This is not a bit.