19/99    Do you use any anti-age products? If yes, when did you start?

ET       Just the Clarins serum and started that about four years ago, around the same time I started using sunscreen everyday. Oh yeah — I wanted to tell you: I stopped dying my hair and I am going grey. So that is one anti-aging thing that I don’t use anymore. I got so fed up with hair dye, I don’t like the way it smells — it makes me feel crazy actually, and I would do it every couple of weeks because my hair is so short the greys come in very quickly, it was just too much work. Now I am embracing my greys, salt and pepper, which you can’t really see from far away but…I am trying to make it cool.

19/99    I think you will. Do you feel pressure to look a certain way?

ET       Yes, for sure, a lot. Being a performer, being on Instagram and promoting myself, I always think about how I am looking and dressing and it is exhausting and so annoying, but it is just part of the job. I have fun with it too. It is more fun actually than it is stressful, but there are days when you are on Instagram and it is like goddamnit. So yeah definitely feel pressure, But I think everyone does.. right?!

19/99    You have always been adventurous with style and had your own unique aesthetic. You have always been very admirable in not conforming to what everyone else is doing, or how they are look...

ET       Yeah I find it really fun, dressing up. I don’t have as much fun with makeup as I’d like to. I’ve been thinking a lot lately how I want to experiment with it more. But I definitely have a lot of fun with dressing up and it is actually how I communicate so for me it is everything. It is not pressure, I’m not doing it because I am trying to keep up something, it is really pure joy. I’d say it is more with beauty where I feel more pressure — like hiding my grey hair, or staying thin, but the dressing…has always come naturally. A little too easy sometimes.. definitely some questionable looks back in the day. 

19/99    Does the term age appropriate mean anything to you?

ET       Yeah, it does. I don’t really care about it though. Recently it came up, because someone told me that I look older because I dress sophisticatedly, so I’ve been thinking I want to start dressing like a child. That may be a way to look young again, like a trashy teenager. But no, I don’t really think about that in terms of the way I dress. When I think of that I think of my mum asking me if something is age appropriate, she asks all the time. And I always say yes, do it, I don’t think it matters.

19/99    We just touched on this, but do you use social media and has it affected your self image?

ET       Yeah it has—I use social media a lot. I have to promote my music. I really detest it, it drives me nuts sometimes. I feel like that is one way I am getting younger — I feel like I am 16 years old again in comparing myself with other women, which I thought I had moved beyond in my 20s and now I am doing it again so it is like arrested development. I also have a lot of fun with social media, I get a lot of inspiration from it; I get so much information on art and music, it is fun and I love it, so I think there is a lot of good in it. But it is not good to be looking at other people, and feeling insecure about what you are doing or not doing. It defiantly takes a toll on my mental health, and I think everyone’s. I am trying to navigate that all the time. It is hard. I delete and download Instagram and then download it again all the time within 10 minutes. It is crazy.

19/99    If you could share advice with your younger self what would it be?

ET       I would say to stop being afraid of everything. As I have gotten older I have started caring a lot less what other people think of me, and what other people are up to, and it feels really good. But I felt that way for so long, so I would tell myself to stop being afraid, you are just wasting time.

19/99    What makes you feel beautiful?

ET       Clothing, fabrics, lots of fabrics, sleep. Sleep more than anything. Performing I feel good about myself, I feel beautiful. But mostly sleep and clothes.

19/99    Is there anything that scares you about aging?

ET       Yeah, my career right now is definitely very youth obsessed and youth-centric so I have these fears that I won’t be able to do what I’m doing as I get older which is a lot to handle and I think about that all the time. That is the main thing. Other than that though I am really excited about the whole thing. I feel better as I get older. It is really good, I am shocked by it. It keeps getting better and I keep learning more about myself and how to be okay. So I think and I hope that that will continue. So I am not really scared of that. And now that I am out as a salt and peppered woman, I really have nothing to fear.

19/99    If you could ask the older generation one questions, what would it be?

ET       I am curious to know if older people feel old in their minds. Or if they feel the exact same mentally as they did when they were 20 — like does that change, or does that stay the same. I am curious about that — when everything has changed around you and your body has changed, how do you feel inside?

19/99    Do you think there is a point where we stop learning and growing?

ET       No, I don't think so. I am thinking about my parents. My dad, who has started performing in bars — he sings and plays the guitar, and he is in his late 60s. He started doing that in the last five years or so. And my mum too is constantly doing and taking up many hobbies. I think it just keeps going.

19/99    Do you think in a way your dad was inspired by what you are doing?

ET       I like to think that, a little bit. I mean it is funny because ever since I started performing everyone in my family has started to, and I am sad that I miss out on that because they are all in Toronto. Just this Sunday they all went to a bar and my dad performed, and my sister Hannah sang, and Nathan also has an amazing voice. These are my siblings, they are all talented and they are performing.