You’ve been a fashion executive, the creator of Mister Krisp, and now a novelist. How do you understand your creative transition across these very different fields?

My creative journey has given me such a unique perspective on the creative process as a whole and the commercial aspects of creativity. I’ve always considered myself to be a creative person, and when I started my career in fashion, I was in a sales role. On top of managing global department store sales for the brand, my job was to communicate to the designers, who were in a more traditionally creative role, how to fuse their vision with what was working commercially. This was my favorite part of my job; I loved how collaborative it all felt and the very clear synergy between design and sales. Another part of my sales role was storytelling, whether I was helping a department store merchandise their buy or traveling to their locations around the world to share our brand story and ethos with the salespeople responsible for communicating it to customers. When I transitioned to making Rice Krispie Treat art with Misterkrisp, I was ready to step into a creative role myself, and I learned so much about building from a vision and developing a unique creative voice and vocabulary that is easily understood by the customer, and I think I was able to do that so naturally because I already had a clear understanding of customer behavior. Now as a novelist, I’m able to examine the relationship between creativity and commerce from the perspective of having seen inside the machine from different viewpoints and really lived it myself.

How has your relationship with Instagram changed over the years, both personally and creatively?

When I first decided to make an Instagram account for Misterkrisp in 2013, I put it up and took it down several times because I was afraid that people would think I wanted attention, and that made me feel ashamed. The world has changed so much! Creating content for Misterkrisp was easy because my business making custom treats naturally generated the type of visual content that did well on Instagram at the time, and I could include images of myself as much or as little as I wanted to; the art spoke for itself. Part of my early success with Misterkrisp was tied to the fact that I loved what I was doing, it was exciting and authentic to me, so that came across to people. I was just making things I thought were cool and sharing them, there was no strategy involved beyond knowing that if I thought something was interesting, other people probably would, too. As Instagram changed, I still loved making my food art, but posting became less fun. Even though business slowed down a lot during the pandemic, I continued to post, but in the years following, there was something less playful for me about the cultural climate at large and definitely on Instagram, and I naturally stopped posting as much, which led to orders slowing down. When you’re not reminding people every day that you’re out there making art, they forget. By this time, I was also working on LOOKS PERFECT, and eventually that became my priority and I stopped posting altogether and often turned down orders when they came in to focus on the book.

Once LOOKS PERFECT was acquired, I was worried about how I’d re-emerge on Instagram when things had changed so much while I’d been dormant. I worried about it for a while, until I just started posting again. It felt vulnerable to be openly trying, but then I remembered that everyone is trying, they just hide it well. Since then, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still feel vulnerable a lot of the time. Now, I have a very clear why when it comes to sharing on Instagram, and that’s LOOKS PERFECT. If my active presence allows more people to learn about and read the book and connect with its characters and themes, I’m willing to keep posting even when it feels hard.

When did you first realize you wanted to write a novel?

I’ve wanted to write a novel since my mom handed me my first chapter book, a Sweet Valley Kids book, in first grade. It always felt inevitable to me, so I never really thought about the how until the idea for LOOKS PERFECT sort of just came to me. I didn’t study writing or literature at all in undergrad, and when I did my MFA, my concentration was in Creative Nonfiction, but I always knew deep down that a novel was in my future.

What skills from your work in fashion and Mister Krisp—discipline, visual storytelling, brand building—translated most naturally into writing fiction?

My first semester in my MFA program, my teacher Susan Cheever told me that what my writing needed was what I was doing with Rice Krispies at Misterkrisp. I thought I understood what she was saying, but it was only recently that I realized she was talking about rendering. My work with Misterkrisp taught me how to render, to take a common image and interpret it through my own visual lens and creative process to make it fit the aesthetic I’d developed. I was never striving for “Is It Cake?” perfection, it was important to me that my krisps looked homemade, that they reflected my own visual interpretation of the object or image. Building that muscle of conscious rendering really helped me when I was writing LOOKS PERFECT to transmit the universal experience of performing, of selfreflection, through my own creative lens. As with Misterkrisp, I want something to feel recognizable to the viewer/reader, but with added perspective that contributes to introspection, delight, connection, or a whole variety of reactions.

Since LOOKS PERFECT is your debut, what can readers expect?

LOOKS PERFECT is a lot of fun, with a lot of depth, humor, and heart. It was important to me to create a successful woman character who is going through something and choosing to allow it to help her grow. I hope readers connect with Stella’s humor and root for her as she figures out what really matters to her.

The novel is informed by your experience as a social media creator. What emotional truths or behind-the-scenes realities were most important for you to explore?

It was important to me to speak to how much work and personal sacrifice goes into transmitting a perfect life online. As a creator, and as a millennial woman who is always chatting about what I see online with my friends, it has always been striking to me how we are so hard on ourselves, but when it comes to some influencers we follow, we fill in the blanks with the most generous details we can imagine. We assume people’s lives are perfect when we only know what they show us, so it was important to me to offer a glimpse behind that curtain. On the other side of that coin is the dismissal of influencers as vapid and miserable. We either worship or vilify these people, but at the end of the day, I wanted to show that they’re just people. As someone who posts on Instagram from a business account and a personal account, it’s clear to me that even regular people with private accounts and small amounts of followers grapple with the way they present themselves online. I wanted Stella to speak to the benefits and challenges of sharing your life online, whether you have a million followers or a hundred.

The book draws from your experiences but remains fiction. How did you decide what to keep emotionally true and what to fictionalize?

The book is set in a version of New York that I know well, but Stella’s story is entirely her own. She definitely shares some of my opinions, but her relationship with Alex is unlike any relationship I’ve been in. While I’ve been a content creator on a much smaller scale and understand the mechanics of that role, both concrete and emotional, I never felt conflicted in the way Stella does.

The story explores the tension between authenticity and performance online. What part of that tension felt most urgent to examine, and what did writing the novel teach you about your own relationship to visibility?

I think that no matter how authentic one sets out to be online, the nature of the venue prohibits true authenticity, even more so when you’re using social media to make money. I think the expectation of authenticity is where we go wrong, and I wanted Stella to help people understand that just because someone isn’t able to show up authentically online, it’s not always because they’re malicious or insincere. Social media is distortive; no matter what you post someone will misinterpret it and exploring that has been very liberating for me in my own relationship to how I show up on Instagram.

Which character in LOOKS PERFECT was the most challenging to write, and which one was the most fun?

Stella’s boyfriend, Alex, was the most challenging to write because it was important to show readers what kind of person he is even while Stella was struggling to understand what’s unfolding between them. I wanted readers to share some of Stella’s confusion, but to also be able to develop their own opinion about Alex. Ace, Stella’s assistant and right-hand woman, was the most fun to write. She’s a straight shooter, impossibly cool, deeply kind, and was inspired by so many of my closest friends.

Your writing is funny even when the themes are heavy. How do you see humor functioning within the story?

Some of my funniest memories are from the heaviest moments I’ve experienced. I’ve always felt that humor is essential in tough moments as a way to shift perspective, even for a second, allowing us to inhabit a moment in a different way, and I often discover how I truly feel about something when I make a joke. People often talk about using humor to deflect, but I like to use humor to zoom in, to linger, to make a moment more potent, and I hope readers connect to this.

What surprised you most about writing LOOKS PERFECT?

When I set out to write LOOKS PERFECT, I was worried about how I’d show Stella’s transformation, which I considered to be significant but also quite subtle in some ways. It took me over five years to write the book, and as corny as it sounds, Stella naturally changed and grew as I changed and grew myself. While I see a lot of myself in Stella, we are very different, and I didn’t expect my own personal growth journey to show up on the page, especially since Stella’s story initially drew inspiration from a much earlier period in my life.

What’s next for you?

I hope to write many more novels! I’m particularly interested in exploring the tension between what women feel is expected of them and what we actually want.

EXCERPT

EXCERPT from LOOKS PERFECT by Jessica Siskin, text copyright © 2026 by Jessica Siskin, Published by Little A

“There’s one more piece,” I continue. “Me.” Claire holds eye contact, looking equal parts impressed and intrigued. “My girls have money to spend. They like the clothes, and they look amazing in them. But they follow my Instagram and watch the clock for our product drops because of me. We’ve tested it out, tried using other people to model the clothes, people who are much more suited to be models, I might add.” I gesture to myself with a self-deprecating smirk and continue, pleased with Claire’s playful demeanor as she smirks back. “But every time we try to mix it up, it becomes even more clear that sales are better when I’m wearing and styling the drops myself. And we believe it’s because I’m both relatable and aspirational. They feel like they’ve watched me build this business from the ground up, seen me go from a single girl fresh out of college, trying to figure it out, to someone in a serious relationship with a real business and the lifestyle they want. What they really want is my life, but what they can buy is a top they know I designed that makes them feel like they have a piece of it.”

“Very astute,” Claire says, looking past me to the rack of garments we brought. I can hear the intrigue in her voice, so I take her cue and gesture toward the collection.

“Do you mind if I walk you through some of my favorite styles from Pre-Fall?”

She rises to meet me on the other side of the table, and we both approach the rack, where the color story of washed brights and muted neutrals in our newest Pre-Fall Collection feels perfect for the moment between summer and fall. We have always used a buy-now, wear-now approach, so while many brands ship pre-fall collections at the beginning of the summer to accommodate traditional retail schedules dictated by major department stores, we like to ship in season. A great pre-fall collection is versatile enough to wear now with a strappy sandal and to your Thanksgiving dinner with the perfect slouchy boot.

“This collection was inspired by Claude Monet and a visit to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I know, but just stay with me,” I say, ready to share some of my creative process. I always think talking about inspiration feels so precious, so I try to keep it playful.

“Last fall, I was in Paris for Fashion Week, which is incredible, but so busy with meetings and shows that you barely get to see Paris at all, and you may as well be anywhere in the world from inside a showroom. But the morning I arrived, my hotel room wasn’t ready, so I decided to take a walk and ended up at l’Orangerie right when it was opening. I had a ton of work to do and probably should’ve headed back to the hotel at that point, but even though I’d been to see Monet’s Water Lilies before, something drew me inside. I sat on those little benches and looked at those paintings for over an hour. It felt like meditating. I left and went about my time in Paris, but the image—particularly the left side of one of the paintings—really stuck with me . . . the way the colors each carried a feeling that together held power beyond their individual parts. And then the night I got back to New York, I was trying to beat jet lag and stay up even though I was exhausted, so my boyfriend suggested we walk to Chinatown to get his favorite ice cream. Have you been to the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory?”

“I can’t say I have, but I do love ice cream.”

“Well, you have to go, the flavors are amazing, there’s a Sesame Butter one that I die for, and my boyfriend loves the Green Tea Oreo.”

“Green Tea Oreo!” Claire exclaims with an amusement that does not feel feigned.

“My favorite is the Ginger,” Ace pipes in. “I used to get the Black Sesame, but it stained my favorite vintage Vivienne Westwood T-shirt.” The mood in the room is great, and I feed off the collective energy as I continue.

“So as we’re walking through Chinatown, we passed a little shop doing aura photographs. There was a line, even at nine in the evening. And the whole storefront was papered in these really saturated, colorful photos of people surrounded by their auras, and all my brain saw was the water lilies. And this print that melded the best of both aesthetics just appeared in my mind, so when I sat down to design Pre-Fall, I knew I had to execute. We call the print Aur’angerie.”

I grab a dress called “the Claudia” from the rack. It’s made of crepe de chine gently washed with muted purples, pinks, oranges, and yellows, and also comes in another colorway with blues, purples, greens, and a quiet-but-still-saturated scarlet. It’s a sleeveless halter dress with a turtleneck, the draped back of the halter sitting high enough to cover a strapless bra but low enough to feel sexy. “It’s exactly the kind of dress I always wanted but could never find. It’s unfussy and straightforward, but still a little special.” I proffer it to Claire so she can feel the fabric, then continue. “Every dress I see has one too many details: a cutout, a ruffle, smocking, a trim, cleavage, a highly specific print you’ll get tired of quickly, or you can’t wear a bra with it. Most dresses say too much or too little; this one says just the right amount.”

We go through the rack, and I share the inspiration behind each piece, from the perfect drapey, wide-leg pant with an exaggerated cuffed hem to a plaid taffeta bubble skort with a drawstring waist and a gossamer lace shrug that I consider essential for a late-summer wedding-guest look. Claire even tries on an oversize army jacket that hearkens back to the ones I used to rework when I was still at LittleBirdie, and it looks so perfect with her outfit that I tell her she needs to keep it.

After we’ve walked through the line, we talk for a long time, about the business and her portfolio, but also about where we’re eating dinner lately and who we like on this season of The Bachelorette and the proper sock height for a chunky loafer. Before we know it, Clarence returns to inform Claire that her three-o’clock has arrived. Claire tells me they’ll crunch some numbers, do some due diligence, and get back to us in the coming weeks, but I can tell by the way she looks at me that she gets the vision, that she knows what we can do together, that the deal is as good as done. I can’t wait to recount the whole meeting to Alex. My heart sinks when I remember he might not care.

The post Q&A: Jessica Siskin, Author of ‘Looks Perfect’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.