Lauren Dozier Transcript
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to The Future Of Food Is You, a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Abena Anim-Somuah, and each week I talk to emerging talents in the food world, and they share what they're up to, as well as their dreams and predictions for what's ahead. I love this new generation of chefs, bakers, and creatives making their way in the worlds of food, drink, media, and tech.
Today's guest is Lauren Dozier. Her quilt cookies with their vintage-meets-modern aesthetic have gone viral, and her other whimsical creations delight everyone who follows her on Instagram. Lauren and I talk baking, and we discuss how loving vintage and antiques as Black women can feel complicated at times. I found Lauren's perspective on this fascinating. Stay tuned for our chat.
If you are an aspiring magazine collector, you need to check out Cherry Bombe. Each issue is thick, and lush, and celebrates women and culinary creatives via gorgeous photography and great stories and recipes. Whether you collect magazines, read them and pass them along to your friends, or cut them up for your vision boards or collages, you'll love Cherry Bombe. You can find Cherry Bombe wherever indie magazines are sold, places like the Lantern Inn in Wassaic, New York, Old Fork books in Washington, D.C., and Broken Tart in Oak Park, Illinois, or visit CherryBombe.com to order an issue today.
Now let's check in with today's guest. Lauren, thank you so much for joining us on The Future Of Food Is You podcast.
Lauren Dozier:
Thank you for having me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Where did you grow up, and how did food show up in your life?
Lauren Dozier:
I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia, but I think for a really long time I saw food as a creative venue. I remember forcing my friend's parents to eat these really crappy soups that we'd made, and it was just like vegetables floating in water, and just playing around in the kitchen. I had one of those little plastic toy kitchens that I was obsessed with as a kid.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Love that.
Lauren Dozier:
But, my mom is a woman of many gifts, but she's not big into cooking. She told me I was allowed to say that, because I was like, "Would it hurt your feelings?" And she was just, "Reiterate that I have other skills."
I always felt really empowered by being able to make things for myself, and I think I've always been the kind of person who sees something they want, within reason, and thinks like, "Well, I can make that," which is definitely a privilege to have access to those resources. If I ever wanted a sweet treat or something that I saw on the internet, I was like, "Maybe I'll just try making it myself."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, what were some of the things that were pretty prominent at family holidays and stuff? And was there a point where you started to make any of those or take the responsibility on?
Lauren Dozier:
Yeah, I'm the oldest sibling, and I'm the only daughter, and I'm also the only daughter on my mom's entire side of the family in my generation.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
All your cousins there are dudes? Wow, that's amazing.
Lauren Dozier:
But I think it was also a very maternal environment, because my grandma, my Meemaw, was such a big presence. I am also a Capricorn, so I very quickly wanted to take control at holidays and stuff. My great-grandmother was Jamaican, so we would have a lot of rice and peas incorporated with more dishes rooted in the American South, but my responsibility started out as dessert, and at this point I think, when it's just my immediate family, I do try to take over holiday dinners.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So it sounds like that responsibility led to what is now your love of baking. What were some of the first recipes that you made growing up?
Lauren Dozier:
I think they've always been very visual driven. I remember being obsessed with Pinterest, even in our computer class in high school.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So cute.
Lauren Dozier:
And so I was very into Hello Kitty cake pops. Sometimes that shows up on my Facebook memories from over 10 years ago. I'm like, "Oh, we were really in the game for a while." Even though it was very scrappy and amateur. Just a lot of desserts, cake pops, very into pretzels but shaping them into puppies and stuff like that.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's awesome. Right now you are primarily sharing your bakes and your treats on Instagram, and they're so lovely.
Lauren Dozier:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I really feel like you walk this fine line between being nostalgic but also a little bit modern. Can you tell our listeners who aren't acquainted with your work how you would describe your cookie style?
Lauren Dozier:
I want to try to avoid chronically online, aesthetic buzzwords like "cottagecore."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You can do it.
Lauren Dozier:
Something like that. I think I do like to lead into pastoral, not to be overly pretentious, but painterly. I'm just definitely visually driven, and I definitely love playing with textures, and mimicking textiles, whimsical, very influenced by whatever I'm watching or reading at the time, or whatever I'm looking at on Pinterest. Admittedly, I live on Pinterest.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Pinterest top user of the year over here. I love that.
Are there three pieces of art, movies, or books that you think really represent your foundational thought process when it comes to cookies that you're making?
Lauren Dozier:
I think about Betye Saar's work all the time. I would call her mixed media, collage. And a lot of her work is definitely very influenced by Black ancestry, but also has a very... Oftentimes it has a dark mystical side to it, so I really relate to playing with mediums.
I was a Print major in undergrad, so I was really into Mary Cassatt and the softness and tender relationship to the home she has in her work, and her work is also very maternal influenced. And then I think the third person that I was thinking about might be Beatrix Potter.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh my gosh, a classic.
Lauren Dozier:
My bedroom as a kid, actually, was Peter Rabbit themed.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Even the wallpaper and everything, or did you... The colors?
Lauren Dozier:
Oh my God, I can't remember. It was like when I was a newborn baby.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh my gosh! Bless your mom. That's so sweet.
Lauren Dozier:
It was really cute and we still have remnants of it in our house. I think about children's literature and children's illustration all the time, and again, I love nature, and the pastoral, and cute little creatures.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Cute, whimsical, Jane Eyre-era stuff. Definitely. I love that.
And also, for our listeners who don't know who Mary Cassatt is, she's an American painter and graphic artist who was quite prominent in the late 1800s to early 1900s. That's so fun.
Obviously you've talked about Pinterest. It seems like that's probably where you're spending a lot of your time. I'm someone who's slowly getting into Pinterest. How do you use the app as a platform to build your mood boards and get inspired?
Lauren Dozier:
Oh my God. I think I do have a sense of what I'm looking for already, but I'm not going to say I'm not influenced by what the algorithm is also giving me. So I do use Pinterest to mood board before a baking project, and I have a sense of what I want in my head already, but I think it is a great resource for being led to other visuals that are similar to something that you already know.
I'm really driven by creating a sense of atmosphere, even if the board might be more or less literal than the final product. I think it's a really fun piece of a project. And when I'm writing, I'll create mood boards, and sometimes I'll even just keep them as a little tab to feel like I'm sitting in my little world that I made.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I love that. That's so cute.
Lauren Dozier:
But Pinterest is the best, but I'm also obsessed with Shuffles. I don't know if you've ever used that, and you can use your pins and create little cutouts and make collages. That's how I make all my phone backgrounds. It's really fun.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So the way the team and I found you was with your quilt cookies, which took the internet by storm. You had a little moment there.
Lauren Dozier:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And I think they're so adorable. It's almost like you took Grandma's quilt and turned it into a little three-by-three inch cookie. What was the inspiration for that style of cookie decorating?
Lauren Dozier:
I think I came to that project from a few directions. I was thinking about the slice-and-bake checkered cookies and how I could play with that method. I hadn't done slice-and-bake a ton, but I used to play with polymer clay a lot, and some of those methods are similar of creating the canes and then slicing them.
So I was thinking, "What if I took each little block and made that a pattern?" I originally wanted to do patchwork cookie, so I went about it that way. It was really messy. It was a fun project, and it was really vibrant, but I was like, "Ain't no way I'm doing this again. Maybe in the future." But I was like, "I can't do this again." I just wanted it to look like a little neater and more geometric I think.
So then I was like, "Would it be ridiculous if I really just cut out every single piece of a quilt block, looked at a bunch of images of traditional quilt patterns, and tried to think of the one that I thought would be simple to replicate but would still really have a fun shape?" I think I drew it on my iPad the first time.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Love an iPad. With the pencil?
Lauren Dozier:
Oh, yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I love an iPad.
Lauren Dozier:
I use the iPad a lot, just sketching out what I want to bake, and then sometimes I'll even color it in so I have a really strict visual guide for myself. So I used that probably the first couple times that I made the quilt cookies, and it was a lot of fun. I just had my iPad set up in front of me, and I just use a pretty traditional sugar cookie recipe, and divided the batches into different colors. I definitely like to work season-by-season, so I wanted it to be warm, autumnal colors, and I've always been surrounded by really beautiful handmade quilts where I'm from, and I have ancestors who are really into quilting, I had a lot of children's books about quilting, so it's been something that I've been super into ever since I was little.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I want to know more about the signs behind the sugar cookies. It's just like a classic Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping type recipe?
Lauren Dozier:
I use the sugar cookie that you would use for cut-out Christmas cookies, because it's more malleable.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yes, definitely.
Lauren Dozier:
And I think it doesn't rise quite as much and won't spread as much.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You can freeze those, too, so that way you have a good base before you put them in the oven or...
Lauren Dozier:
Yeah, I don't actually have too much trouble with them spreading, so I tend to not have to put them in the fridge before baking.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Really?
Lauren Dozier:
And I think the little rise that you do get actually helps to adhere the different blocks, because people often ask, "How do you get it to stay together? Do you use an egg wash or something?" And I really don't. I think once it starts rising, it really helps the little pieces to stick together.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How do you decide on the colors and the shapes that you want to use? Because I'm just looking right now your Instagram, you've got this one with nine of the cookies together, and it's like you can clearly tell there's the pink triangles, the plain triangles, the blue triangles, and then you've got hearts. You've got other shapes in there as well.
Lauren Dozier:
I think when I was baking them over the holiday season, I definitely was making it a priority to incorporate red a lot, and I just think it's a beautiful color to work with, so I would just start with red and then ask what colors look good with red. And I love pastels, so I love that balance of the primary, and then a soft pink. Turquoise is one of my favorite colors, and I think that contrasts really beautifully.
And then as far as shape, I was just like, "I don't want to get too crazy, but what if I swapped out a little heart in the center just with a cookie cutter?" Sometimes the color palette is the most challenging part for me, because when I was an art major, I actually primarily worked in Black and white and just line work, and I think it's such a gift to be good at color matching. I have a couple of books, actually. You can just turn to it and find an awesome color palette.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Are there any baking tips you have for someone who's wanting to get started in creating craft out of their cookies?
Lauren Dozier:
I do think if you are playing around with visuals, it really, really helps to draw out what you're doing, and you don't have to have amazing drawing ability, but I think just a rough sketch of what you're doing to have as a guide for yourself is huge. And just remember if you are drawing digitally, have your device set so that the light doesn't turn off, because that's always such a pain point for me is that it goes dark and I'm going back and forth trying to turn it back on, but I think that's the biggest tip that I have. And then just engage with other mediums as much as you can. I'm so inspired by other bakers, But I also like...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Who are some of them?
Lauren Dozier:
My friend, Abi, who I know you know. She's my neighbor and...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Just Abi Balingit, the greatest, fashionalist baker of all time.
Lauren Dozier:
And she's amazing with color in her personal life, the way she dresses herself. My friend Shaku is a really lovely baker.
Aside from engaging with your direct medium, just engaging with other art forms. I watch a ton of movies, but I do get a lot of inspiration from film, and fashion, and even if it's not an explicit reference, a feeling that I want to capture. One thing that I have saved is a bunch of the older versions of Alice in Wonderland, like the really weird ones.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
But not talking seventies, eighties, or even earlier.
Lauren Dozier:
Definitely like the live-action ones.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yep.
Lauren Dozier:
There's one really eerie one I remember watching as a kid, and I can't remember what year it was, but I've been thinking a lot about floral cookies, but weird floral cookies. So I made some pansies recently. I'm thinking about the creepy flower faces in “Alice in Wonderland,” which are illustrated in the book too. I've been thinking of that and wanting to evolve that idea a little bit into something like less literal or a little more creepy.
I've been really fixated on pansies, and violets, and the symbolism of violet, so I've been thinking about violets in Greek mythology, and I love working off of storytelling and maybe not direct references.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's so interesting that you're talking about the technicalities of your iPad and it being your sketchbook, but then a lot of your stuff feels very rooted in literature or media, things that are also very, very offline. They're centuries and centuries old. I think that's a fun little schtick. And I think it's so funny that you describe yourself as a chronically-online person, and I'm curious to hear how you found community online, and how it's translated to your work and what you're doing.
Lauren Dozier:
It's funny that I am so chronically online because I wasn't as a kid. I wasn't allowed to spend a lot of time watching TV or on the computer. I was just running around in the backyard playing fairies, and I still love nature and my mom is big into hiking, and I'm...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So cute.
Lauren Dozier:
Not as much, but I'm like, I love the poetry of nature. That doesn't mean I want to go on a seven-mile hike, but I want to commune and do my whole Emerson thing. Maybe that's why I'm so chronically online now. I'm making up for lost time. I was not an iPad kid, but now I'm an iPad woman.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I like that.
Lauren Dozier:
I don't know if that's a good thing.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
No, see, I call myself an iPad kid. I use it for cooking and watching TV, but I'm going to use that one. I'm taking that one.
Lauren Dozier:
I'm an iPad woman, unfortunately. I will be on front of the TV and then my phone it's next to me, in front of me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Too good.
Lauren Dozier:
I do love the idea of being offline, and I think I have a realistic relationship to the past. I don't think I romanticize it, especially as a Black woman. And so I think I've always enjoyed the internet as a creative space. I also was deep into Tumblr, but I wasn't using it really socially. I was just looking at things and I don't know, being angsty.
But I think it is a really great space, I think because I do share a sincere piece of myself on there, not to get too deep into the conversation about authenticity on the internet, my whole life isn't on there, but I think I share my genuine interests, and so I think it's a good place to find other people who share those interests. And it's also just a small world.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
For example...
Lauren Dozier:
I definitely have met people who I thought were really cool on the internet, and learned after being internet friends with them that they live really close to me. I didn't find that out on my own. We'd be like, "Want to hang out?" And they're like, "I'm not... Like, I know where you live."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I researched on the iPad.
Lauren Dozier:
Putting that journalism degree to use. "Maybe we should get coffee sometime." And it turns out that we're streets away or blocks away from each other. It can be a really special place for community, not to romanticize it too much, definitely get outside, smell the air, but I think I have been able to find genuine connection on there that translates into real life.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's so cute. I know you mentioned Abi Balingit, who's a dear friend of both of ours, and has been on The Future Of Food Is You, and was in our most recent Icons issue as someone that met online, also realized you're in the neighborhood together.
Are there any creators that you admire and their work that you would love to collaborate with on a art piece, a cookie or something else?
Lauren Dozier:
I think in general I'm really obsessed with Salter House and the owner. Have they ever been there?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yes, I've been there. I bought one of their little Victorian nightgowns. They're so amazing to sleep in.
Lauren Dozier:
They're such a precious place, and so I love the space and I love their approach. Again, it feels influenced by the past, but definitely very modern and I would love to do something with them and I always have such a lovely time just sitting in their shop and reading or something.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's a really cute part of Brooklyn, too. I love that you said that part about not being too old school, but I feel like it's almost like a reverence for the details and the craftsmanship of that past, which it seems that a lot of your stuff shines through on.
I want to talk to you about your relationship to social media, because it seems like now you're getting slowly and slowly recognized for your work. What is your relationship to social media?
Lauren Dozier:
Again, I think social media is really fun, but it definitely does scare me a little bit. I approach it with a mix of strategy and sincerity, just in the sense that I'm not going to share my whole life on there, but I do like to share things that I'm really excited about and nerd out with other people. Admittedly, I definitely have always been nosy. I remember being in fifth grade and swapping purses with friends to see what we had in each other's purses.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
A real life What's in My Bag?
Lauren Dozier:
We'll be like, "Can I look through your purse today?"
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I want to be in this friend group. Can you just do this now as adults?
Lauren Dozier:
I would love to.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay, great.
Lauren Dozier:
When I realized like, "Ooh, you can get a little peek into what people are doing on the internet." I love seeing what other people are doing, honestly, and what they're wearing and what they're making. I love to engage with the internet. I try to hold it at a healthy distance and remember, of course, these people are real, but it is just a separate little world that's in this box and I can put it down and then I can be away.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
We're seeing one window of the life that is their house.
Lauren Dozier:
Exactly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And something I notice and I want to bring light to it, is that I feel like you're in the world of the, I like to call them the creative pastries gang. There's lots of cake artists, people just using food in these really awesome ways, but it's also a space that often doesn't feel as diverse, and I remember seeing your work and thinking, "Wow, I think this might be one of the first Black women in this cottagecore aesthetic."
And it's interesting to see, too, that a lot of your inspiration also comes from Black artists, and you really hold that in high regard. As women of color in the creative food space. Is representation and diversity something that you really think about as you start to put your work out there?
Lauren Dozier:
Yes, definitely. I think my work, as someone who does love nature and does love a sense of the pastoral in terms of cute little animals, florals, not to oversimplify it, but as far as internet spaces and algorithms, I definitely have crossed over with the cottagecore vintage world, and there definitely is a lot of conversation about race there of course.
I have grappled with a discomfort around the vintage world of the internet. There have been moments where I'm like, "Maybe I shouldn't engage with any sense of the antique or the vintage because it's glorifying these certain things." But then I think if I'm doing it consciously, it is honoring my ancestors. I look at these beautiful portraits of some of my ancestors in really beautiful high lace necklines and puffy sleeves. That is something that I want to engage with.
There have been moments where I have thought maybe I should completely distance myself from any relationship with the vintage or the antique, of course, because I definitely have a complicated relationship with the past, and I don't want to glorify these really painful moments in Black history. But I realize that it is okay to engage with the past as long as I'm doing it consciously. And I see these older portraits of my ancestors in these beautiful lace, high necklines, and the puffed sleeves, and these are people that I never got to meet and I can only wonder about. And I think sometimes creating art that, in some sense, is in conversation with the past is a way of communing with them.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's so beautiful, and I think that's so important. I think definitely as Black women, we always have to be very conscious of what we let influence us, because I feel like for a long time, so much of the world hasn't included us. And I find myself in this all the time because I'm an old lady inside.
Lauren Dozier:
Me too.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I love nostalgic things, I love the history of things, but knowing how people who were like me fit in is really tough. So I really commend you for really thinking about that. And based on this staying on the social media track, is there one thing you wish was different about food on social media and one thing that you wish stayed the same?
Lauren Dozier:
Because it's a visual medium, I even have to catch myself not wanting to lean too heavily on what something looks like. I think it's okay. It's natural as humans to perceive our food through our eyes. In the simplest sense, is it safe? Is this something that I would enjoy engaging with? But I think even in the things I create, I try to walk a fine line between interesting visually, but not too gimmicky. And I think we are going away from that. There was that period of really outrageous milkshakes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
But we lived it in New York.
Lauren Dozier:
I had one, and I can really eat sweets, and I did not feel good after that. I felt nauseous. So I think that's something that I think we're all agreeing. Does it actually taste good? And that's what you can't really see on the internet is if something actually tastes good. But not to focus too much on aesthetics.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I came up with this fun mini-game we're going to call Can I Cookie That? And I'm going to give you three objects and you're going to just walk me through how you would make a cookie.
So let's start off with a dinner plate with intricate, hand-painted flowers and vines on the rim.
Lauren Dozier:
So this one I've actually tried, but I didn't love the final result. I still want to return to the idea, but I think the technique needs some work, but I wanted to make one of those really beautiful blue and white floral plates over the winter. I was going through this period where I was breaking up really tiny pieces of colored dough and drawing, for lack of a better word, and made flowers. So I did that on traditional cookie dough, and then rolled it out, and then made what I would call a ring shape. So that was essentially meant to be the rim of the plate. And then I put that on top, like a slightly smaller circle, so that had some dimension, but the outside one just kept sinking.
But I think that's how I would do it. I think I would just make sure that there was more support to it. That would be my vision, and maybe even put some really cute, something on the plate.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Ooh, like a heart. That's awesome.
Lauren Dozier:
Tiny veggies. I don't know.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You want to go big time. I like that. I respect that.
Lauren Dozier:
Playing with my food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay, I love that. Okay, next one, A leather-bound book with just the right amount of patina on it. Something that grandma passed down, mom had in her room, you're stealing it from the house.
Lauren Dozier:
I would really want this to have some dimension as far as the shape. I want it to have some lift, but I think as far as the patina, the marbling effect, again, I always think about playing with clay without trying to overwork the dough. But I think I would do a marbling with brown and maybe even a slightly turquoise-y color.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So the book being turquoise and then the patina being... Wow, respect. I love that.
Lauren Dozier:
I don't know if it's doable, but...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
This one, I was really intrigued to see height at this one. So think of a gold-plated mirror, something that probably is on the set of the “Gilded Age,” or a really regal cafe.
Lauren Dozier:
I think, again, it would be really fun to do some sculpted flowers if it would maintain its shape around the rim. And again, I would just do a little oval donut. And then I think in the center, it would be really cool if you could do... You've seen Christmas cookies with the melted candy in the center?
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yes.
Lauren Dozier:
Something like that for the mirror effect.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Like a frosted window pane.
Lauren Dozier:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I got you. Okay, amazing. Well, if you do make these, please.
Lauren Dozier:
I got you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Please. Let me try one.
Lauren Dozier:
It was your pitch, so I got you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
There we go.
Something I want to talk on, too, is you talk about Instagram and how it shows your work, but also just the realities of being an artist. Doing cookies is only part-time, and you're starting to also figure out what other writing projects and social media projects you can work on. What sparked the decision to go full-time and can you tell us about how you think about the projects you're working on and how they inspire you?
Lauren Dozier:
I really just wanted the freedom to manage myself, and I felt like I was doing so many side hustles and it was a lot, and I know so many people bake after hours. I cannot see. My apartment is not well lit. It definitely is a privilege to be able to take a little more control over my time, and I love being independent and managing my own time.
So right now I'm doing baking projects. I have a Substack now, which I've just started. I've had the URL for a while, but it's coming to life now. There's a lot of complaints about having to scroll to the bottom of a blog to get to the recipe, and I'm not going to shade anyone who does that, because it's really smart, strategically. Sometimes it's like what you have to do.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Also you want to tell a story with your recipe.
Lauren Dozier:
I love a backstory, but I was thinking about that idea and I was like, "Maybe I'll give you a story to enjoy while you're eating your creation." So put it at the bottom and reverse it. So I'm working on recipes that pair with little short fairy tales or folktales.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
This is amazing. As a kid who used to get in trouble for reading under the table, you made this for us. I love that.
Lauren Dozier:
I always loved as a kid having my story and my little snack on the side itself.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
We would definitely have been friends.
Lauren Dozier:
Definitely.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I love that. That's so awesome.
But, between balancing all that, what have been some of the challenges as you are navigating how to work and be able to make money but also stay creative? Because I think that's something we often don't talk about when you come into the freelance world, just that time of really trying to figure out what it is that you're consistently doing to be able to consistently bring home a bag.
Lauren Dozier:
I was talking to someone yesterday and they were saying that. I thought they had a really cool job and they were saying that their job is not their interest. It's just a job. And they're like, "People always want to talk to me about it." And so I think it can be challenging when your passion is what you're making money doing or what you're doing to make money. So I think that's a big challenge dealing with burnout and making sure you are still enjoying it. And also you don't have to monetize everything if you are able to keep some things for yourself. I know I keep saying I'm on the internet all the time, but sometimes I will mention an interest and someone will be like, "Why don't you post that on Instagram?" And I'm like, "That's just for me."
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Can log off sometimes. That's so cool.
Lauren Dozier:
Let a girl have hobbies.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That part.
Again, I think that's the other thing, too, is we're now in an interesting creative arc where when you're good at something, and you like it because it's not related to work, there's an automatic push to you have to go do something with it. So I think it's really nice to not put that pressure on yourself, and I'm sure even that probably inspires you to bring that creativity, or that no stakes into the work that then really has meaning for you.
Something I love is that now you're starting to really work on a lot of fun, cute collaborations. You recently did something for Six Bells, which is one of my favorite stores, and also Loeffler Randall, an incredible company. How are you thinking about using your cookies and your craft as a means to work with other brands?
Lauren Dozier:
I think I've been really fortunate that some of the brands that have reached out to me, we do share a certain visual language, so it's felt really natural.
When Loeffler Randall reached out, I was really excited because they showed me the specific shoe that they wanted me to make into a cookie, and I felt like it was just such a natural fit, but just forming genuine connections with people with whom you share a creative language with.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, we are huge manifestors on the podcast, so I have to ask, are there any brands out there that you would love to make a cookie for?
Lauren Dozier:
I would say Lisa Says Gah, because I think they have such fun prints and so many of them are already food themed. I have a skirt that just looks like a big dinner party, and I've been thinking about attempting to make that as a cookie. I don't know. It might be a lot, but...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I believe in you. It can happen. You can start drawing it out on the iPad.
As you start to think about spending more time in the industry, and wanting to build community, what do you think the future holds for creatives, especially creatives of color, in the food space?
Lauren Dozier:
I think in general, it's about carving out your own space where you can. I do think having your own website, having your own newsletter is a great way to create a space that might feel a little more your own. And I think for Black creatives, it's great to be able to curate the kind of environment that you want to be working in, if you are able and if you have the privilege to do so. There's so many outside influences on the internet, but I do think it is a good opportunity to have some control over your career.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Where do you hope to see the Lauren cookie empire take off in the next five to 10 years? Are we just staying on cookies? Are we doing more food things?
Lauren Dozier:
I would love to expand. Cookies are just so fun because I think they create a perfect canvas. There's a simplicity to them and they're so malleable. But I think I would just love to expand in terms of storytelling in a really big sense. Storytelling through food, and in a literal sense, just writing a lot more to pair with my cooking and baking.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Amazing.
Lauren, thank you so much for this conversation. I am so inspired by you and it was so enriching and sweet, to make a pun out of it. If we wanted to continue to support you, we're the best places to find you?
Lauren Dozier:
We can follow my Instagram at lauren_dozier, and my Substack is LaurensFlourFairyTales.substack.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's amazing. Thank you so much.
Lauren Dozier:
Thank you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Before we go, our guest is going to leave a voicemail just talking to themselves 10 years from now.
You have reached The Future Of Food Is You mailbox. Please leave your message after the beep.
Lauren Dozier:
Hi, Lauren. This is Lauren 10 years in the past. I'm really looking forward to meeting you. Right now I'm 30 and a lot is changing, but most days we've been feeling a lot more powerful. I never thought I would feel this comfortable with myself, but I also think maybe I am already some version of the person that I thought I would become when we were little. I hope that you are content. I hope that you have a farm, and lots of chickens, and that you've stopped worrying so much. I hope you're writing every day, and baking as much as you can, but I hope you're also allowing yourself to rest, and I really hope we've stopped biting our nails.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our show. The Future Of Food Is You as a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Thanks to the team at CityVox Studios, Executive Producers Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, Associate Producers Jenna Sadhu and Elizabeth Vogt, and Content Operations Manager Londyn Crenshaw. Catch you on the future flip.