#9: Kel — Zebras, Frida Kahlo, Board Games
How being your 'most authentic and quirky self' can generate a feeling of safety, build community, and create a life you never thought possible.
Meet the secret agents of taste. Learn what lights them up, where they find inspiration, and what they think we all should be enjoying right now. This edition: Kel Grant, a content operations manager and video production company owner with an obsession with zebras and Frida Kahlo.
I met Kel Grant only once, on a group Zoom call as part of The Creator’s Kitchen. (We’re both Jay Acunzo disciples.) I just had to see her unique style and vibrant background — a shelf full of zebra stuffies and Frida Kahlo posters and art — to know that this was a person I needed to befriend. Boy, I was right. As Kel took me through why zebras and Frida bring her so much joy, I started to understand the profound psychological draw of our interests, how they can evolve beyond indescribable attraction to something intentional that sustains, nourishes and serves as a heat-seeking missile for like-minded souls.
I loved how Kel ended our interview so much, I’m bringing it to the top here, so if you don’t make it to the bottom, at least you can come away with this:
“All I can say is: because I was following what truly felt good in my heart, even if it was kind of against the norm — you know, a 26-year-old with the zebra collection and obsession with Frida — I found that it just allowed me to live my best life because showing that vulnerability and just being who I am has allowed me to find the right people. I get to be so comfortable in the skin that I'm in because I chose to honor my heart.”
Here’s the rest of our interview, along with Kel’s recommendations for must-try board games, movies, and a podcast.
Do you consider yourself a tastemaker?
Not yet, but I'm trying to be because, in some ways, my passions for zebras and Frida, especially as I've gotten older, have unlocked a version of myself that I genuinely never thought I could be. I found out that when I show the most vulnerable or authentic parts of me, I am making real community. I’ve learned that my biggest superpower, the thing that's going to really help me reach my full potential as a person, is just being my most authentic and quirky self. For anybody who will listen. When I show up that way, there's so much less dissonance in my head about who I am and where I belong in this world.
Why are you so obsessed with zebras and Frida Kahlo?
When I was younger, my sister and I picked animals. It was like, all the tchotchkes you ever collect in your life will be this themed animal. My sister picked cheetah, and I picked zebra. So for every birthday, holiday celebration, every gift I got was either zebra print or had a zebra on it.
I'm gonna be 27 this year, and it's still a huge part of my identity. It's like a comfort thing for me. My sister and I are 10 years apart in age. She’s 17. We don’t live together in our parents’ house anymore. It just makes me feel close to her.
What’s your favorite zebra item that you own?
A Pillow Pet zebra that I got in Animal Kingdom when I was a kid. I named it “Zeh-bra.” [Rhymes with Debra.]
I am gonna get a little deep here, but I feel like my whole life I've been called weird or I've always had these special interests and things like that. And my fiance, whom I love with all my heart, and I'm so excited to marry this year, has never made me feel weird or awkward about having my zebras. I sleep with them every night. Whenever I'm feeling sad, my fiance will tuck me into bed like a burrito and put them all around me like a little sanctuary. This is a special part of my childhood that I can keep with me for as long as I want because I don't have someone telling me that it's strange or I'm too old for it.
It's such a part of my identity that I knew when I started my production company. I originally want to call it zebra films. But I was like, Oh, that's too obvious. So I actually just switched it around and my production company is called arbez films — zebra spelled backward.
OK, how about your Frida obsession?
I am Mexican and Irish. My sister and I are both adopted. I grew up in a white household, didn't speak Spanish or anything like that. I felt this cultural disconnect my whole life. I grew up in a very white area. My parents did the best that they could; I had a wonderful life and a pretty good childhood. But they weren't overly concerned with introducing me to parts of my identity or my culture.
When I got older and moved away to college and left my hometown and my parents’ house, I found that that disconnect kept getting stronger. But I realized that as an adult I can do something to make that connection myself. I started taking Spanish classes and learning the language.
I don't even remember where I learned about Frida Kahlo — maybe at a museum — and I was taken aback by her self-portraits, first and foremost. I love to take self-portraits. I've always loved to take videos of myself or write journal entries. I just love being self-reflective and in touch with myself. And that embodies Frida: talk about a woman who is so just in tune with her emotions and her feelings and so willingly and willing to vulnerably express herself outwardly…her diaries were later published and it was just so beautiful. I just latched on to that, plus her being Mexican, it felt like a safe way for me to just connect further with the culture because I just identified with her in so many ways. Given her history with the accident and her love life, I find her story to be so empowering. I've experienced trauma in my life at one point or another, so I find that I almost look to her as my muse: If Frida could get through it, I could too.
How do you track and manage what inspires you? Do you have any rituals?
I find that whenever I feel like I've lost touch with my passion or anything like that, I try to find a way to reinvent what I currently have or find a way to connect to it further. For example, I have a million of these zebra stuffed animals. A few months ago, I made name tags for all of them, all names with z. It just brought me so much joy.
I also use my passions as a way to gauge how well people know me. I do get some looks when I'm on Zoom calls, and this is my background, but I almost love that it is because I find that when I'm meeting somebody new this is their introduction to me and it's like the perfect summary of who I am and how quirky I feel that I am. There are a few folks who I consider good friends who maybe haven't had the chance to visit my house or see me on Zoom. They might not know that I love zebras and Frida. So I kind of track it: how authentic am I being with people? How close do I feel to certain people based on if they know about my passions, or if they appreciate that or not?
Now let’s talk about your recommendations. Be sure to include board games…and go!
🧩 Big Potato Games & Settlers of Catan
Big Potato Games make the most fun party games. We like to have social gatherings even though we live in a small apartment. They're great games for eight to 10 people. The Chameleon, Snakesss, Herd Mentality — they're just really fun, quick, easy games to do with a group, but they're just wonderful icebreakers. I also love Settlers of Catan. And any expansion pack that comes with that.
They have these really awesome curated collections filled with classic movies and foreign films and things like that. That's where I watched a lot of the Sight and Sound movies…If I'm just looking to escape, I'll turn on the latest Adam Sandler movie on Netflix, but the Criterion Channel has pushed me to find movies that I would have never in a million years watched. And some of them are my favorite. The latest one I watched was called “Fanny and Alexander.” It's a five-hour film. And I'm a person with ADHD. I work in short-form content. so I think in 15- to 30-second bursts. And I sat through this five-hour movie and I genuinely enjoyed it so much. So it's again, something I never would have thought I do.
It’s a daily podcast from Australia. They're just really fun personalities. There's kind of a loose premise to the show; they almost have mini-shows within the show. They start off the call with “Normal or Nah?” They have a whole community called the TARPers — the Tony and Ryan podcasters. They have a Facebook community and a Patreon. They send out polls every day, asking “Normal or nah?” One example is: “I'm okay with using my partner's toothbrush — normal or nah?” And then the hosts go back and forth and give their opinions. At the end of the segments, they have a segment called “You Love to See It.” Each of them just bring something that they saw on the internet or something that really brought them joy.
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In case you haven’t noticed, I love people with good taste! In fact, I have a podcast about it for Flipboard. Check it out!
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