Job Profile: The Writer Behind Those Chaotic Co–Star Notifications

“Who do you think you are?”

“Nobody cares how many books you’ve read.”

“Non-conformity is also a performance.”

If I hadn’t personally signed myself up to receive Co–Star’s famously passive aggressive push notifications, I’d probably be offended. My camera roll is full of them, screenshot for posterity: some I saved because they arrived at the exact time I needed to hear them, others because they were downright brutal (see above), and a lot because they delivered an element of joy and whimsy that none of my other notifications do, like the reminder I received a couple of months ago to try being a plant for a day.

As long as I’ve had Co–Star, I’ve wondered who exactly is behind the notifications that blow up my phone screen each morning (and the only Instagram memes I still bother tagging friends in). It turns out that person is Stone Parkway, Co–Star’s Community Ambassador. Stone is a Pisces sun, Cancer moon, and Taurus rising, and—along with the brand’s head writer— creates and distributes all of Co–Star’s social content, including memes and push notifications. Below, Stone and I talk astrology in the workplace, the art of making people feel “seen,” and what happens when there are too many water signs on the one team.

So, what exactly do you do at Co–Star?

I run our social media, I make all our memes and our push notifications, and I write content for our app. I’m on the internet a lot.

How did you end up working at Co–Star?

I actually went to school for animation. After school, I was interning at Adult Swim doing animation on the show FishCenter Live. I transferred to New York and met Banu Guler, our CEO and founder, because we ran in the same social circles. A mutual friend connected us and we met up at the Arlo Hotel one day. We sat in the lobby, and she asked me about the app and any ideas I had, and I was just kind of hired on the spot.

It was completely surprising. I mean, I love astrology—I’ve always loved astrology—but it never seemed like something I could make a career out of.

Co–Star has such a specific tone. Can you tell me a little about the thought behind the brand’s voice?

Yeah, definitely. When I’m writing things I want it to feel like this ex-punk, cool older sister who you trust and would smoke weed with, but who would also remind you of that embarrassing note you wrote to your crush in fifth grade. We write things the way that we talk to our friends and the way that we want our friends to talk to us.

How exactly does one go about making a Co–Star meme?

Our memes always have some kind of header and then a little snippet for every sign. Most of the header ideas come out of actual conversations that I’m having with my friends or colleagues. Our head writer, Ona, and I are in conversation about meme ideas all the time. We’re both Pisces, so we work very intuitively together and we’ve been able to incorporate each other’s styles in this really cool way. I don’t know, it just feels very seamless, probably because there aren’t that many people involved.

It actually makes a lot of sense to me that you’re both Pisces, because I’m a Pisces and I’m honestly always so taken aback by the Pisces content on your Instagram.

Oh, people always write in about how mean we are to Pisces. And it’s just because Pisces are self-deprecating and we’re all just being mean to ourselves.

Do you have a personal favorite meme that you’ve posted on Instagram?

It’s got to be [this one].

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I think I'm the world's savior, but really I'm just a boring ghost