15/07/2022
The sun is just beginning to set on another Valentine’s Day when Serena Kerrigan, a 27-year-old confidence coach-cum-entrepreneur-cum-certified internet personality, bestows upon me an unusual gift: the diary she began keeping after her first kiss in the fifth grade. In a little over an hour, the lights will go up on her third live show—a two-hour-long storytelling experience where a stilettoed Kerrigan sashays to and fro, spinning yarns about an adolescence punctuated by mean girls and slightly traumatic summer camps and an adulthood punctuated by…well, she’d likely use a less polite term, but I’ll call it a healthy dose of discovery. Sexual, for certain, but of herself in general.
Kerrigan’s brand, otherwise known as SFK—or Serena Fu***ng Kerrigan, coined after a long-standing joke that she changed her middle name during her freshman year at Duke University because the f-word simply added more panache—is revered by some hundreds of thousands of Gen Z and Millennial women on Instagram and TikTok for its simple approach to improving one’s life, self-esteem, and relationships. Her wisdom isn’t groundbreaking (“you write, produce, direct and star in your life”) nor does it leave room for much nuance (“if it’s not a f**k yes, it’s a f**k no”) but evidence that her message resonates isn’t difficult to find among the throngs of devotees—all leather-clad and claw-clipped—who’ve arrived just as the doors open. I don’t overhear a single person lodging their displeasure over the holiday, only squealing in anticipation and complimenting each other’s takes on Euphoria makeup.
The social media influencer-turned-card game entrepreneur is the star of her own damn movie.
