WCW: Julie Houts

Have you ever been scanned by a person having this special (and dangerous) X-ray-look? This sharp look that effortlessly sees through the build-up person you wanna be and seizes what is hidden behind? Well, it leaves you feeling pretty stripped. Pretty vulnerable. Pretty caught. Truth be told, though, it makes you feel like somebody understands you. In times like this, where we always look perfectly smooth (#nofilter on instagram, right?), only eat avocados and acai bowls (ha, what you don’t see on my feed did not happen) and shop the man of our life online (how many matches did you have today?), being understood is quite a rare feeling.

This is exactly why we chose Julie Houts aka @joleeloren on Instagram for our Wednesday Crush Woman: she masters the art of revealing your own somewhat private impulses like nobody else — and mirrors them back to you through her  bluntly illustrations. In a few lines and bubbles, she gets to the heart of your (secret) emotions: you, gulping down a huge lasagne pretending you deserve a treat (after starting a diet a few minutes earlier). You, trying not to fall asleep during the 5th tinder date of the week (hope springs eternal). You, trying to look totally cool and utterly disinterested on fashion week (after spending 3 hours on finding the perfect outfit).  Her sketches all trigger the same reaction: “OMG — I thought I was the only one!“.

Seems like her sarcastic way of approaching nowadays life, of mocking fashion, of pointing out how ridiculous we all behave sometimes is just the thing we need to hear (or see) in this very moment. We (as do over 117 thousand fans on instagram) literally love recognizing ourselves in her illustrations — it makes us take a step back and rethink our habits. She recently even started a fashion week related cooperation with Stylebop, in which she  totally excelled herself (her sens of dark humor is unbeatable). Maybe it’s because she’s working on both sides of fashion — since during the day, she works as a designer for J.Crew — maybe it’s because she has this rare gift of X-ray-eyes. Whatever it is, we can’t get enough of her epic illustrations. Check out our favorites below and be honest: don’t you feel she’s pointing the finger at you, too?