For the most part, Cory Kennedy is very sphinx-like. Is she a model? An actress? A part of the revered Kennedy clan? The answers, respectively: Yes, not yet, but who knows, and nu-uh. On the day I sat down with her, however, she just seemed like a girl I went to school with, one who happened to lead an underage nonstop party girl lifestyle after fifth period trigonometry.
The 17-year-old is unapologetically Left Coast, peppering her teen cadence with “like” and “you know.” And though she doesn’t really like El Lay – at least the one they show on The Hills — it’s still the city that witnessed her emergence as a teen scene queen. That was largely due to online ownage; after photos of her appeared on her now ex-boyfriend’s party-photo site, Cory was propelled into the public eye. Since then, she has been the object of fashion maghag lust as well as the subject of substantial journalistic acreage. (She was on the cover of I and inside i-D in September.) She is what you’d call a professional muse.
As she shows me the yellow ballet flats she recently scored (“So cheap, they’re like $10!”), I brazenly hand her my copy of Nylon magazine to sign. The October 2007 issue saw her sharing cover-girl duties with fellow It-ster, Taylor Warren (“I really don’t know if it was good being associated with her”). It’s an issue she hasn’t seen or read herself.
For someone who has yet to hit the legal drinking age, Cory is prematurely world-weary, a result perhaps of clubhopping all over the world and palling around with the likes of L.A.-based designer, Jeremy Scott, who thinks she is simply rad. (For some reason, Cory Kennedy chose to run around Embassy in socks. It happened two nights before, when Steve Aoki, founder of Dim Mak Records and the indie-electro-rock DJ to beat, returned to rock Manila’s pants off.) She’s still impressionable, however, and that balances out the devil-may-care vibe.
Like the future in reverse, I wrote briefly about Cory Kennedy for another paper earlier this year and called her Andy Warhol’s wet dream. Finally meeting her and talking to her was both surreal and familiar. As she talks to Supreme about not finding her passport, having fun with newfound friends, and her fledgling fame, I realize that feeling that way is normal in these equal-opportunity, Wiki-able times.
Supreme: Hey, I heard you lost your passport.
Cory Kennedy: I did! I was like, “Mom, I need my passport!” And she was like, “I don’t have it!” And I was like, “No!!!” Yeah, that was the night before (I was supposed to leave for Manila).
So did you go to the post office to get a new one?
Yeah, we went to that place…
Okay, that’s good. I was wondering if you’d be coming to the party straight from the airport.
Well, basically I did. We left the airport at almost like 12 [midnight] and then I had to run and change up in my hotel room. Then it was straight to the party.
And at the party, you dove into the crowd. With Steve. From the DJ decks! Did you hurt yourself or whatever?
No… (laughs)
Really? My friends and I were like, “No, she didn’t!” and then like, seconds after, “Oh, yes she did!” It was a good thing some people caught you guys ‘cause honestly, if I were there, I’d be like, I’d stand back and get out of the way. You know…splat! (laughs)
I know! Me, too! (laughs) But Steve does it all the time so I’m like, whatever. All the time, like at every DJ thing, he always like, stage dives.
How did you find the party? I left kinda early, around 3:30 a.m.
I don’t remember. I just remember thinking, “I have to go home.” Like, I was really tired and Steve was still DJing and Jon (Herrera, of Embassy and Styles Entertainment, the peeps who brought Steve and Cory to Manila) went over to my hotel room and woke me up! He’s like, “Wake up! Wake up!” It was wild! (laughs)
Totally. People were jumping up and down on the fancy banquettes. I was one of them!
Yeah, it reminded me of a rock concert! You know? It was crazy! There was dancing. There was cheering!
I texted Jon early that morning to please thank Steve for playing She’s My Man by Scissor Sisters. You know, the Goose remix? That totally made my night! And then I think Steve also played an Eric Prydz remix of Pink Floyd.
Yeah! (laughs) And there was a Led Zeppelin one. I’ve never heard that one before!
More Bounce In California
Okay, so Jon also tells me you’re home-schooled. But the last interview I read of you says you’re still in high school in Santa Monica.
Ha! Home-schooled?! (laughs)
(Laughs) So you’re not home-schooled? ‘Cause if you were, then, like, you’d be missing out on prom blah blah…
Yeah…
Then again, you don’t like high school anyway.
Nope.
Why? Do you go to a preppy school?
No. I go, like, to a ghetto school. (laughs)
‘Cause my school was totally preppy.
Oh, I know the preppy schools.
Yeah, I was a total prepster. Those Hollister types…
No…(mock horror)
Yeah, I know. Their stores are really dark and nice-smelling. Sorry! (laughs) But that was in the past! Anyway, it says here in Nylon magazine that ‘you’ve always wanted to move onto your career.’ Have you decided what that career is?
Not specifically. But obviously it’s somewhere around fashion and music and photography. Writing, definitely. Yeah, my blog…
Bloggerhea
Good thing you mentioned that – your blog. You moved it from Blogger to Uber.com, right? How do you react to people who think they know you based on what they’ve read or seen in your blog? I’m sure you meet a lot of people like that.
I think it’s, like, normal. I mean if it were me wanting to know something about someone [it would probably be the same]. But I usually just read my friends’. You know Leslie Arfin? She wrote Dear Diary [with Chloe Sevigny]. So yeah, that’s it. I’m not really like a blog…lurker.
What’s the meanest thing someone’s ever said about you?
There are so many rude comments! Like now, they don’t even affect me ‘cause I’ve heard every single cruel thing…that could ever be said to me. But recently it happened in public, at Teddy’s, at this really nice party. Someone actually verbally assaulted me and I was crying.
Was that person, like, high? Or drunk? Was it about you or you blog?
About me. She was, like, so hurtful. My friends were like, “That was so bizarre.” You get that as anonymous comments but not to your face!
That’s the thing with the Internet. They use the anonymity and everything to attack people. Normally you wouldn’t hear them and they’d probably be smiling at you. It’s definitely that lynch-mob mentality. You see someone bashing another person then everyone joins in…
Exactly! I know what you mean. They’re like “Yeah, she sucks!”
Do you censor yourself when you blog?
Yes. Of course, I always say what I wanna say and I don’t really care who’s offended by it or whatnot. But I don’t cuss on my blog for…
Religious reasons?
(Laughs) No, not religious reasons… I just think it’s kinda like stupid and crass. [Doing that] is kinda unprofessional and I try to keep it professional.
Now That You Got It
Tim gave you that watch, right? He said that karma is now digital. Whatever you say now comes back to you almost instantly because of technology. But moving on, what is one thing you’d want to be famous for?
You know, like, my true talent. People think that I just got famous blah blah blah. But I really do have a great sense of fashion and I really know so much about it. I’ve read so many books. It’s just a real huge passion of mine, all the photography and music. And if people would actually get to see that, it would be awesome. ‘Cause that’s what I’m really doing but from their perspective it’s just not like that.
Do you think you would’ve gotten famous anyway without the Internet?
I always wanted the notoriety so like, I don’t know. We’d have to go back in time!
Did you ever think you’d get plane tickets to go to some shoot or go to a party somewhere you’ve never heard of, say, when you were 15? Did you ever think you’d be famous?
I mean, I never thought it wouldn’t happen. I was like, you know, I wanted to get into this sort of lifestyle. Not lifestyle, but this kind of scene. I wasn’t really doubting any possibility.
Wow. Like, good for you!
Yeah! (laughs)
So when you go clubbing, do they still card you? Or do you get away with that ‘cause you know people?
It’s weird ‘cause I never really go clubbing anymore. I’m just there for my friends. But no, they don’t. I mean, if I go I usually only go to places where I know people or a private party.
I have a few friends who got into this whole media thing when they were, like, 17. Now they’re 20 and running with a certain crowd. And one of them came up to me and said he was kinda scared that by the time he hit 25, he’d be, you know, considered washed up or over-the-hill or old. Do you ever fear that?
Yeah. I mean, I don’t fear it; I feel it. Definitely. Like, “I’m so over this” and “I don’t need to go to another club and do this.” It’s the same everywhere around the world. But it’s the fear of lack of interest I guess? I really don’t know how to explain it.
Again from Nylon: Mark The Cobrasnake was quoted, “Now you have everyone’s attention. What are you going to do with it?” How would you answer that?
Well, I’ll take advantage of what I have — resources that are available — and just use everything I can to experiment with whatever, like a clothing line. I can’t really say much about it, but Mark and I are working on a line with this designer that’s coming out soon. And that’s another step in another direction.