🗽 Loving, Living, Leaving New York

There’s a heartbeat that only New York has. It’s fast, unforgiving, intoxicating—and once it gets inside you, it never fully lets go.

I knew I loved New York before I even met her. I was just a kid when I started dreaming about tall buildings, Broadway stages, late-night diners, and lives that never paused. I imagined myself there—a performer in motion, living a life louder than I was ever allowed to be in small spaces.

And then I did it. I moved to New York with one suitcase and $1,000 in my bank account. I lived there for 14 years. I walked in snow boots through the Village. I laughed on fire escapes. I danced, cried, struggled, thrived, fell apart, rebuilt—again and again. For the last three years, I did it all while living bi-coastally, splitting myself between the dreams of New York and the opportunities in my hometown of LA.

New York cultivated me in a way no person ever could. She was ruthless and romantic all at once. She made me tough. She sharpened my timing. She didn’t let me wait for a sign—I had to be the sign. As a performer, she taught me how to take up space. As a creator, she showed me how to listen to silence in between the chaos.

But leaving her? That’s something no one prepares you for.

I didn’t leave because I fell out of love. I left because I was growing, shifting, and expanding in ways that needed new energy and strategy. Saying goodbye to New York wasn’t a clean break—it was a slow exhale. One filled with gratitude and grief all at once.

There’s a special kind of ache that comes from walking away from a place that helped build you. The kind that lingers in your bones, like music from a show you didn’t want to end. I miss the way strangers turn into collaborators. The way the streets give you a rhythm to move to, even on days when you’re lost. I miss the grit, the grace, and the humbling beautyof just surviving the city as an artist.

But I didn’t leave my heart behind—I carried it with me.

I created Kiss the World with that same heart. The same girl who once ran around the West Village with a suitcase and a dream now pours that energy into pieces meant to symbolize love, hope, connection. New York is woven into every collection. Into every handwritten note I place in a package. Into every dream I still chase today.

To every artist still riding the MTA with audition shoes in one hand and hope in the other—I see you. To every dreamer walking 20 blocks to get to your “almost,” your “maybe,” your “not yet”—keep going. New York will break your heart and build your backbone all in the same week. That’s her magic.

I will always love her. I will always be her. But now… it’s time to take her with me as I keep building, creating, and telling stories across stages, screens, and the world.

Wherever I am, New York is too.

— Giselle