Stella Blackmon Knows the Best Snack to Serve at Parties

Plus, the Missouri filmmaker reveals her favorite shoes to wear on trips, breakup advice that actually works, and a romantic movie scene that's all about eye contact.

Hi everyone, hope you’re well! I’m so excited this week to feature STELLLAAAAA!!!!! As long-time readers know, Stella Blackmon worked for Cup of Jo years ago, and we love her to the moon and back. She then shifted from writing to photo editing at New York Magazine. How cool are the photos she produced?

Three of the photos she produced. “For the marriage cover, we scouted 24 couples to pose in a bed with a self-timed camera above it and a list of prompts,” says Stella. “I was running around with a clipboard changing the sheets every hour!”

Stella now works as a director/filmmaker in Missouri, although her work takes her all over. She recently documented the Harry Styles tour for six months in Brazil, Tokyo, Dublin, London and Italy. She also just finished a series about Midwest family reunions, where her relatives played exaggerated versions of themselves. You can watch all four parts on her Instagram feed, if you’d like — it’s incredible.

She finds herself especially drawn to small-town America and girlhood. “Both topics have so much beauty and humor, but they sit next to a darkness and nuance that aren’t often shown in film. Girls are not really taken for the force they are, and people are often like, ‘Oh, you’re just a small town, you don’t know anything.’ But there’s so much complexity. That’s why I want to keep telling these stories and feel they should be known. I will always love the Midwest, but there’s so much I’m trying to unpack as I get older — learning about that is learning about myself.”

Here, I asked Stella about 12 of her favorite things…

1. Travel essentials: Paris and NYC are my favorite places to travel by myself; I love walking and people watching. Flights became much more enjoyable once I finally committed to an eye mask and a travel pillow that hangs off my backpack. And this portable charger is my #1 for traveling, since it contains a full charge and sticks with magnets to the back of your phone.

2. Shop: Last time I was in Paris, I found a vintage shop — Au Gré du Vent — run by two older French women gossiping in the back. I tried on clothes, and they were so honest when something wasn’t right (‘Oh no, no, no, not that’) that I trusted them with my life when I pulled on this purple dress and they finally looked at each other and shrugged with a smile.

3. Everyday shoes: When we were on the Harry Styles tour, my entire camera crew wore Salomons. I was eventually converted, and I’m so glad. We walked more than 20,000 steps a day, and I never thought twice about my feet. I started wearing them beyond work clothes with tall socks and skirts and feeling a little cool some days, but my friends always tease, ‘Oh look out she’s in sports mode.’

4. Game: I played Hues and Cues at my friend Angela’s house and felt adrenaline because I loved it so much. Using only one- and two-word cues, players try to get others to guess a certain hue from the 480 squares on the game board. My friend Eleanor said, ‘Doritos Chili’ to describe a very specific purple, and my cousin Lilly guessed it exactly. Anyone who plays this game ends up buying it for themselves.

5. Music for entertaining: I instinctively put on Paul Simon or Madonna, because that’s what my babysitter Aunt Rosie would blast the second my parents shut the door behind them. As soon as the first notes hit from Material Girl, I still get chills (lol) and think, ‘This is going to be a good night,’ like I did when I was nine.

6. Party snacks: I’ve served tater tots ever since Lexi wrote about them, and they’re an icebreaker every time. Everyone walking around with their tots plate saying, ‘When’s the last time you had these? So good.’ A lot of nodding.

7. Sleepwear: I lived with my mom for the second month of the pandemic, and she converted me to Dôen nightgowns. We would walk around the house in the morning in our frilly gowns, accidentally cosplaying like we were in the 1800s.

8. Beauty: This is my favorite lip liner I’ve ever owned. It guides on smoothly and stays in place. I do that thing that Gen Z taught me, to fill in your cupid’s bow the tiniest bit and then put on a little Pawpaw as a gloss. I actually rub the liner into my cheeks and eyelids, too, so I don’t look like I was up until 2 a.m. on TikTok.