Latest news with #SabrinaBrier
USA Today
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
What makes a good friend? Follow this important 'golden rule'
What makes a good friend? Follow this important 'golden rule' Show Caption Hide Caption Comedian, influencer Sabrina Brier turns TikTok skits into audiobook Comedian and influencer Sabrina Brier chats exclusively with USA TODAY about her viral TikToks and new audiobook portraying friendships in New York. Sabrina Brier – who you know as that in-your-face, never-stops-talking "friend" from TikTok – has a new audiobook out now all about a friend group and how different personalities clash. It's fictional, but Brier, 30, draws from feelings she's had to make a compelling story. And it's evident she's had plenty of experience with friendship. "I have a lot of different kinds of friends," she explains. "I went to a camp, so I've got that whole community. I have a community from college, from home, and then of course you move to New York and then that just expands in a major way." Keeping up with all these friends, though, is harder than it looks. "Like any relationship, friendships are a two-way street," Carla Marie Manly, host of podcast "Imperfect Love" and author of "The Joy of Imperfect Love," previously told USA TODAY. "If both people aren't invested in making the relationship viable in the long run, the friendship will falter over time." Hmm: Online, people are complaining about 'avoidant discard': It's 'a more intimate' ghosting 'You might not see them for a year or two' Brier devoted all her time to her friends in her early 20s. That's changed as she's aged. "Something that's really important to me is I don't want to be the person who's old and hasn't kept up with any of my friends," she says. "I want to be friends with my friends forever. But sometimes part of that is having that understanding that you have a really good friend, you might not see them for a year or two and you're going to have to figure out how to FaceTime and then eventually figure out how to visit each other." Some people will stagnate in their lives and expect the same of their friendships. Others will grow and likely want something more. You might even harbor a lot of feelings for someone but still not want to devote that much time to them, or you just don't have any to give. That's OK. "If you find yourself losing interest, you still care for this person, but aren't as interested in those updates because it doesn't feel relevant to where you are, and you feel the engagement drop in that way, that could be a sign as well," Danielle Bayard Jackson, friendship educator and author of "Fighting for our Friendships," previously told USA TODAY. Did you see? Jake Shane's popularity skyrocketed overnight. So did his anxiety. 'The golden rule' of friendship Judging a friendship by how long it lasted, or the fact it didn't last forever, is not necessarily the best metric to use when thinking about your friends. Is a successful friendship one that never ends? Or one where you two really loved each other during the time you were together? Experts say friendship circles change over time, too. One study even found that we tend to replace half our friends every seven years. How do you know if a friendship is going to work out? Follow "the golden rule." "If someone is rooting for you and they want you to win in whatever way that means to you in your career, in your love life, in your happiness, I think that's really the true marker of what a good friend is," Brier says. "And not just say we don't make a million mistakes outside of that, but I think at the end of the day, if you can feel from that person, 'I love you and I want you to win,' those are the friendships I try to keep in my corner for sure."
USA Today
26-01-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Sabrina Brier dishes on her viral TikTok videos, funny new audiobook 'That Friend'
Sabrina Brier is that friend. The one who's a little too invested in your friendship, a little too mad at your ex, a little too ... everything. At least that's her persona on TikTok and her new audiobook, "That Friend" (Simon & Schuster), out Tuesday. Brier's audiobook, a fictional story that she also narrates, tells the story of Sabrina, a woman navigating that postgrad, amorphous life in New York with her three best friends, all of whom seem to have it more together than she does. As she chases success as a podcaster, she clashes with friends and emotional chaos ensues. Brier landed an impressive list of actors for the full-cast narration. Among the celebrities lending their voices are Rachel Zegler (upcoming "Snow White," "West Side Story") Lukas Gage ("You," "The White Lotus"), Nicola Coughlan ("Bridgerton," "Derry Girls") and Anthony Ramos ("In the Heights," "Hamilton"). Brier wanted her audiobook to be "like a TV series, but in your ears," the Connecticut native, 30, tells USA TODAY. Check out: USA TODAY's weekly Best-selling Booklist That's not surprising given her work in TV, including an internship on ABC's "Scandal" and a guest spot on "Abbott Elementary" with Quinta Brunson, one of her idols. Brier, like Brunson, knows how to make people laugh. Her quick, quippy TikToks where she acts like an annoying friend have become a pop-culture staple. "I didn't know exactly what I was doing at first," she says of her online presence. "I just knew I was hungry to perform and write and have an audience. Before that, I really was an assistant running around the city getting coffees and laundry and stuff like that. I was hungry for that visibility and so I started putting stuff online but always with the idea that this can be a longer story, a bigger piece eventually." In case you missed:Jake Shane's popularity skyrocketed overnight. So did his anxiety. Why Sabrina Brier is always 'examining my friendships' Brier's audiobook is like a rom-com for a friend group. Sabrina accidentally steals an opportunity from a friend. That guy she's really isn't into her – like, at all – and everyone knows it but her. She focuses too much on her own ambitions that she fails to see the bigger picture. Brier says the characters' "neurotic feelings" were "pulled from being an assistant in New York postgrad, wanting such a big life with big dreams and having absolutely no idea how I was going to get there and probably being a little cray cray because of that." Brier's evolving friendships and ambition were great source material, too. "I always am examining my friendships around me, and I think it's sometimes inevitable to feel like you're maybe always making a mistake, not doing enough or you're not present enough," she says. "I think especially – I turned 30 recently – and I think life becoming more real, you start to have to reframe friendships with this understanding of each other and what you're both going through as a young professional trying to climb and build a life for yourself." Her audiobook character Sabrina is far more grounded than the woman Brier plays on TikTok. "We try to really balance (the audiobook) with much more heartfelt, grounded moments of the character," she says, adding she relates to the audiobook Sabrina more than her TikTok character. Speaking of relatable, how does she feel about the comment section on her videos? "I've learned so much as a writer, creator and actor over the past few years of being online from the comment section, from the fans," she says. "Having insights into something that I've put out there... audiences are really smart and we have to listen to the audience. It should be us and the audience back and forth. And I think that's why TikTok is so fun because there is no place where it's more like that." It's good, then, the platform is still around for people like Brier (for now). 'You're coming back to your friends' Brier spent roughly eight years living in New York, and friendships are the beating heart of her life in the city. They were also fellow architects of her brand. "They were the ones out in 10-degree weather" while she begged them to record TikTok clips. "I think you go off and you go to work and you go on the subway and you're figuring it all out. But at the end of the day, in some way, shape or form, you're coming back to your friends," she says. She's that friend, after all.
