Welcome back to Check Please! The word of the day is: nostalgia. We went to the mall to get an Auntie Anne’s soft pretzel and inhale the enthralling scent of Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce in the name of research. We talked about when curling your hair and going to Sprinkles Cupcakes was the most en vogue thing to do in middle school on your birthday. We made playlists harkening back to our adolescent years (mine even includes an actual cover image I took to post on Tumblr featuring a leaf of my mother’s bougainvillea pressed against my tongue). We mused on the dangers of receding into nostalgia as a place of comfort and critiqued the way therapy language has enabled adults to take things too far. We revisited the concept of the flat lay, a photo style that was pervasive on Tumblr and the earliest iterations of Instagram intended to communicate something unique and interesting about the poster. You can say many things about me, but never that I’m above being a little cringy, a little embarrassing, a little vulnerable. Thanks for being here with me. Chat next week, Bella xx This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bellacastillo.substack.com/subscribe