The Interview —

Michelle Young, Founder, Untapped Cities

I love that every day, my job is to find the most inspiring architectural finds and hidden places and share them with our readers–helping them rediscover their own cities in a new way, whether they’re long time residents or new transplants. Reading excited emails from residents who also want to contribute to Untapped Cities is just about the best thing to land in my inbox every day.   

I'm re-reading Wool by Hugh Howey because it’s too good. It’s like a smarter Hunger Games, still dystopian and still a page turner but written for adults.

The Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Eye Pencil. My beauty regimen takes less than 3 minutes a day, and eye pencil is the only touch up that’s a must-have in the bag. 

Don’t forget to look up! Everything I do now is because I opened my eyes to everything around me. I met my husband in a hostel while backpacking in Bolivia because I stopped reading in my hammock and went to meet some fellow travelers.

I’ve been into dark, moody crime shows recently while waiting for Game of Thrones, Walking Dead and Homeland to come back. So I binge watched Spiral (called Engrenages in France), an amazing French crime show set in Paris, all four seasons of The Killing, and then Peaky Blinders, an Irish Boardwalk Empire with Cillian Murphy. 

A navy dupioni silk dress from APC. It adapts to any occasion–from meetings to teaching to going out. 

All your best-laid plans will probably change and that’s for the better–so just take every opportunity and side path that opens up your understanding of the world. Also, don’t suntan. 

Armani Maestro Foundation. No matter what state you’re in, it makes you look flawless and glowing and literally feels like nothing on your skin. 

I’m actually a classically-trained cellist. I’ve gone from performing in Carnegie Hall to destroying cellos on stage at SXSW, and I even got a gig as a principal actor in Steven Soderbergh’s film Side Effects as “The Cellist” and got to work with Soderbergh on the music of a scene. 

My grandfather. At 16, he survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima because he stopped to chat with a friend while driving into the city, putting him just outside ground zero. He survived the bomb, but his appendix exploded just before he had to get on a warship back to Taipei–if he had gotten on the boat, he wouldn’t have made it. He was enormously happy and loving, and I’ve learned from him that taking a second to do a random thing can change the course of your life.