Such a Bad Influence Quotes

“Filming your daughter in her bathroom is not practical. It’s fucking…horrible. It’s sick. And…illegal. It must be.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“I was so focused on the worst-case scenario that I prepared for that instead of doing my actual job, instead of considering what was actually in my control.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“Look,” she says. “I don’t know how much Hazel told you about what happened with us last year. I know you were going through your own thing with Erin at the time…and it was all so stupid, really. So fucking dumb.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“I am the second someone. Not the first mentioned when an acquaintance says, 'Well actually, I do kind of know someone famous--well someone who knows someone famous.' I am what comes after the part that matters.
I'm more than just that, of course. I know that. I can still name the qualities I know to be true about myself in the way that a former therapist suggested: I am a good friend. A truly top-notch giver of gifts. A person who asks 'How are you?' and means it, who can physically feel when there's an undercurrent of shame or sadness moving through someone I love. I am a hard worker. A problem solver. More likely to get shit done than to complain about it. I am a seeker of beauty. I can see loveliness and humor in almost anything or anyone that isn't me. I do it automatically, unconsciously. I am always pointing and laughing. Isn't it funny? Isn't it gorgeous? But then there's everything else, the things I know to be just as true, that would make my former therapist slowly nod and close her eyes, as if she's heard all of this before (she has) and say, 'Remember how we talked about being nicer to ourselves, Hazel?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“...when I realized that I was still doing the same thing I had at fifteen, starting in the mirror and waiting for a new body and face to arrive. I still hadn't accepted they might never come.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“But none of us—not even me—are one thing. It’s all more complicated than our worst decisions or the slow-motion trainwrecks that make up our lives.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“I know many people are calling for her to be arrested and charged with something…child pornography, even, given the cameras that you outline in the book. That was incredibly hard for me to read, I have to admit.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“Evie, I think that most of us were quite shocked by the contents of this book, the ways your mother…well, violated your privacy, to put it lightly. Can you tell us what it’s been like to share all of that?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“It made it that much more satisfying when everyone learned that the money was actually gone, that my mother had whittled it away over the years, bringing her bank accounts and mine down to almost nothing. People felt bad then—that they had assumed I was in control of it all. As if any child, any teenager, can ever really be in control of anything. I had assumed the money was safe, that I was safe, because that’s what you do when you’re growing up, living in your parent’s house.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“Because I’m away from all of it. I don’t think I knew how to access happiness that wasn’t tied to the thoughts of a million strangers’ opinions before this.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“What about Gavin, then?” I say. “You just left him in the dark, too? To spiral? To freak out? Even after he was so excited about the docuseries thing…even with everything with his dad? You just…left him?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“So,” I finally say. “All of this…mess. All of this anxiety and fear was just so…what? So you could just stay here with Cult Leader Barbie?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“The clearest examples of how a life lived online sucks the soul out of you, changes the way you make choices.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“A rebirth, if you will,” Natalie chimes in. “I believe that once you do truly start over, from scratch, there’s no way you go back to the rot and hollowness of a disconnected, digital world. You want something more.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“Your sister lived minute-to-minute. It was the fact that I zoomed out and saw the wider, longer game plan that meant she could become what she is.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“To understand. Find angles for brand deals. Narratives for friendships, relationships. I mean, it’s not like I saw her crying in front of the mirror and said, ‘Hey, hun, I know you hate your body today, want to go post about it right now?’ But if a brand deal came along the next week that was about body positivity, about loving the skin you’re in or some bullshit, then…well, I knew the connection. I knew how to spin it in a way that made sense for Ev. I was already inside her head.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“She’s narcissistic and manipulative, but she’s not dangerous, not physically. Right?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“I wondered what, exactly, my mother needed to survive. I imagined it’s not a short list.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“I mean, is it really worth doing if most of the reason I’d be doing it is to prove to the world that I’m not actually some hollow, idiotic robot? That I’m intelligent? Does that make sense to you? Because I don’t know if it makes sense to me.” “That’s not what college is”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“To lose out on money, on a career, on a whole world of opportunity? Me, who’s bringing joy to people? Who’s supporting your sister’s dream? Why should I have to be better than all of it? It’s not my fault the world loved your sister as much as we did from the beginning. That’s not on me. Everyone acts like it’s my responsibility to set some standard for parenting, when really I’m just following the same impulse every other person sharing their small, stupid life on Facebook has. Pride. Excitement.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“You’re drunk, and a narcissist. And this—us—it’s the same thing it’s always been: pointless.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“You know a brand sent this when everything first happened? When Evie first went missing? Some sort of PR thing with a note that was like, ‘To make a hard time easier’—I mean, they’re not wrong, but really?” “God,” I say. “That’s dark.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“know you never wanted anything to do with any of it. Not from the very beginning. Even before your dad died. You hated it all, and you let me know again and again, every single time I tried to include you. And I thought—okay, fine. Let her hate it.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“It sounds like a scam. Or an MLM. But I also see how the pitch would appeal to creators, especially those who are regularly categorized as shallow or dumb or problematic. A thing to point to and say, “Would I really do this if I was as vapid as you think I am?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“can’t imagine the demand for basic white girls is really very high right now. GR: Evie isn’t basic. And last I checked, white girls are doing just fine on Instagram.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“She rolled her eyes back at me. “It’s not like he’s endorsing him for public office, Hazel,” she said. “It’s a car. A very environmentally friendly one, I might add.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“But then, week after week, more was written about me. It was relentless. And all of it was stuff that no one should have known. Not my manager. Not my parents. Not my fiancé, even.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“The last thing I wanted was to be another adult Evie had to tiptoe around, whose happiness she had learned to manage.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“Or maybe you’re older and you don’t think any of this applies to you, even though you’ve curated your LinkedIn profile just so for a job search.”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence

“But it’s never as simple as that. Think of the last time you dated someone new and immediately searched for their name only to find a slate wiped clean, no digital footprint whatsoever. Did it make you feel safer? Or did it make you suspicious?”
― Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence