How Gwyneth made me obsessed with momfluencers.

And why clean countertops loom so large.

Like all good origin stories, this one started with Gwyneth Paltrow.

I saw the Gwyneth version of Great Expectations when I was in high school and Gwyneth’s icy performance of cool (plus the fact that she played a star-crossed lover to my crush of all crushes, Ethan Hawke) made an indelible impact on me, which I wrote about here. Largely thanks to this movie, and Gwyneth’s performance in it, I spent most of my twenties trying to be whatever the guy I was with wanted me to be. It was all super chill and did great things for my sense of self.

Fast forward a few years, and Gwyneth became a mom.