wearing Louis Vuitton, FALKE + Pandora
Talking with Haley Lu Richardson is like a breath of fresh air. She feels like that friend you’ve known forever: easy to talk to, thoughtful, and unguarded. Most of all, she’s refreshingly real. “I am a lot,” she admits to us for her Schön! 49 cover story, dazzling in Pandora. Now 30, Richardson is embracing herself fully. “I’ve really reconnected to my feelings, being my own buddy, putting myself out there, doing creative things and rediscovering the creative expression that I love and is natural for me,” she says.
As a child, she dreamed of being a pop star, an ambition curtailed only by the fact that she’s tone deaf. “I do still wish I could sing, gosh darn it,” she laughs. She soon shifted her focus from songwriting to poetry, a pursuit she returned to intermittently as her acting career grew, portraying notable roles in season two of ‘The White Lotus’, ‘Columbus’, and ‘Five Feet Apart’. “I feel like in another life, I would be a pop star, but in this life, I figured out another way to express those similar themes a lot of songwriters in my generation do – with poetry.”
It was while filming an unreleased movie in South Africa that Richardson realized she could share her poems with the world. Her co-star, Asim Chaudhry, asked what she’d call the book, and she replied on the spot, “Probably ‘I’m Sad and Horny’.” She recalls, “When I came up with the title, I saw it all and I was like, ‘Oh, I could put this out there in the world and someone would read it and relate,’ which is enough of a reason.”
Nearly two years later, ‘I’m Sad and Horny’ has become a collection of poems capturing the highs, lows, and chaotic moments of life as a 20-something woman. But the book is more than Richardson’s reflections on adulthood; it’s a deeply personal exploration of heartache, self-acceptance, and growth through pain. Throughout the raw, intimate verses runs one steady thread: change. “Change is the only constant that we’ll ever have in life,” she says, “and it’s the only thing we can actually ever rely on. So, for me, a huge perspective shift that came at the end of my 20s – and now going into being 30 – was seeing change as this beautiful thing I can rely on as opposed to this scary thing.”
See the full feature in Schön! 49.
hat. Louis Vuitton
tights. FALKE
shoes. Talent’s own
jewellery. Pandora
top. Salvatore Vignola
shorts. Diesel
boots. Isabel Marant
jewellery. Pandora
jacket + shoes. Tory Burch
tights. FALKE
shorts. Retrofete
jewellery. Pandora
opposite
bodysuit. Coperni
tights. FALKE
jewellery. Pandora
jacket. Isabel Marant
bra. Coperni
shorts. Salvatore Vignola
jewellery. Pandora
‘I’m Sad and Horny’ is available from 4th November. Purchase Haley Lu Richardson‘s digital cover story at the Schön! store.
Get your print copy of Schön! 49 at Amazon Globally, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Poland, Amazon Belgium, Amazon Sweden and the UK Schön! store.
Download your favourite cover now at the Schön! store.
This Schön! 49 digital cover story is produced by
photography. Kaio Cesar
fashion. SK Tang
talent. Haley Lu Richardson wearing Pandora
casting. Emma Fleming
hair. Laura Polko @ PRTNRS MGMT using Laura Polko Hair
make up. Jenna Kristina @ Forward Artists using Maybelline
production. Cassidy Cocke
photography assistant. Gabriella Miranda
fashion assistant. Juliana Nava Prada
make up assistant. Ahna Ellis
location. Pol Studios
special thanks. The Team @ Pandora
words. Amber Louise
