14 August 22-28, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | Culture | Night+Day | News | Letters | coNteNts | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Breaking Good Miami native Arielle Egozi publishes memoir about embracing who you are. BY CAROLINA DEL BUSTO I t’s a cloudy day in Mexico City when au- thor Arielle Egozi suddenly appears on camera via Zoom. She’s seated in a quaint coffee shop outdoors. Adjusting her hexagonal frames, she flashes her colorful nails and shows off the tattoo on her right hand that reads “nena” across her pinky, ring finger, index finger, and pointer finger. A sparkle emits from her smile. Although she was born and raised in Mi- ami, the 33-year-old has lived in Mexico City with her partner, Bee, for the past 18 months and is gearing up to move to Los Angeles. In 2022, Egozi went viral for a LinkedIn post — even the Daily Mail pub- lished an article about it — where Egozi shared that she left a corporate job to pursue sex work. It was appar- ently too much for the stiff necks who spend way too much time scrolling LinkedIn. It was that same I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude that propelled Egozi to write her debut novel, Being Bad: Breaking the Rules and Becoming Everything You’re Not Supposed to Be. The 256-page memoir will be released on Tuesday, Septem- ber 17, and is currently available for pre-order. She adjusts in her seat as she removes her cream- and brown-striped sweater to reveal a soft pink tank top. “I’ve always felt ‘bad’ in the different areas of my life,” she says of her role as daughter, sister, writer, and lover. “Being Bad sort of gives a space for those feelings and gives others permission to feel just as wrong and weird and ugly and as ashamed as I once did.” In her book, Egozi tackles questions like, “What if sex positivity wasn’t about having sex at all? What if you ditched relationship hi- erarchies and explored relationship anarchy?” Being Bad is a culmination of all the work the writer and creative director has done over the last decade, all collected neatly between a lime-green cover. “Up until this point, most of my career has been built off of me talking and oversharing about my life, my experiences, my feelings, having strong opinions, things like that,” she says. In 2022, after her viral fame, she set out to write her first book, a memoir of sorts. The initial pitch included more humor in the es- says, but her whole world changed when she sat down to write. Egozi received confirma- tion for her book deal a month after suffering the death of her brother. “It was this huge undertak- ing to reflect on my whole life and family dynamics for the book while grieving,” she says. “Some of the stories in the book are about me being on my bad behavior, but a lot of the stories have to do with society, culture, my family, and how that’s all im- pacted who I am and how I show up in this world. But the most important piece of the book is about holding onto hope. I was in a moment of having so little hope in my life when I was writing the book that I want it to be able to give someone a little more air in their chest when they read it.” At one point, when she was working on the storyline and structure of her memoir, Egozi says she and Bee sat down and filled a white- board with ideas. Soon after, the writer got overwhelmed and wanted to stop. Bee had to tell her, “Lie down, grab a pillow, meditate, and just start talking, and I’ll write it all down.” This quickly became part of Egozi’s writing process. Reflecting on that special moment, the au- thor smiles and says, “If it wasn’t for them, nothing would have ever happened.” Writing Being Bad was therapeutic — a sentiment many writers share. Throughout the process of putting out this deeply personal book, Egozi discovered a great many things about herself, including that she is neurodivergent with ADHD and autism. Reflecting on things now, says the author, “I can put experiences through this filter, and it makes so much sense.” After finishing the book, Egozi says she not only feels freer and lighter but also has more space within her to explore other forms of sto- rytelling. Using her hands to push away an in- visible adversary, she says, “I never want to talk about me or my life ever again,” she says, laugh- ing. “I’m writing a novel and screenplays now.” “The kind of writing that’s in this book, for the most part, is not the kind of writing I would be proud of,” Egozi shares. “But I had to move out of my own ego’s way and remind myself that even though [the book] is literally all about me, it’s actually not about me at all.” The discoveries Egozi made about herself and the wounds she reopened — and subse- quently healed — throughout the process transformed her life profusely. “The book really gave me space and power in the way that I hope it gives readers who read it,” she says. “My hope is that Being Bad resonates with someone. At least maybe one chapter, maybe all of them do, or none of them do. But I think that at some point in our lives, we’ve all felt like we’re doing something wrong, and they don’t have to be by themselves anymore in feeling that way.” Being Bad: Breaking the Rules and Becoming Everything You’re Not Supposed to Be. By Ari- elle Egozi. Chronicle Prism. 256 pages. Paper- back; $18.95. [email protected] ▼ Culture Photo by Coralie Lavergne “IT WAS THIS HUGE UNDERTAKING TO REFLECT ON MY WHOLE LIFE AND FAMILY DYNAMICS FOR THE BOOK WHILE GRIEVING.” Arielle Egozi is about to release her debut novel, Being Bad, on September 17.
