.gif guide

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Dec 05, 2025

On December 27, I’ll be hosting the first ever virtual edition of my I <3 FILES Workshop. We’ll be paying special attention to the various files we accumulate digitally. Uncover something new from the files you already have sitting on your hard drive. You may not leave feeling any more organized but we will have created something beautiful together. Register here.

I’m on a self-imposed shopping ban. Occasionally, while I’m scrolling eBay, all of the beautiful, coveted items I’ve been looking at will simply morph into “stuff.” This feeling is not so dissimilar to how I feel about eating eggs—we go in and out of spiritual alignment. It’s not virtuous or even all that interesting, it’s just a neutral thing that happens sometimes.

One thing that stays consistent is my obsession with saving files. I’ve said time and time again that saving a file feels almost (if not as good as) making an actual purchase. When I save a file, I am throwing it into a bottomless cart. I’m walking out of the store with overflowing bags of varying sizes and colors, like a stock photo of a woman on a shopping spree. So, whether or not you’re shopping this holiday season, I am here to provide you with some quality .gifs to fill your stocking.

Who is this mystery woman popping out of a sewer? These niche .gifs really exemplify what .gif guiding is all about. Based on when I downloaded it, I’d say she was found during a long Geocities stroll somewhere on Fashion Avenue. I tried to get a reverse image search going on her to find some more information on OEUNNYDMJIHI2Y2ZT47UGCI23QLHLKH5.gif, but apparently you can’t plug a .gif file into a reverse image search on Google! Seems wrong.

In March, I mentioned that twee was back under a picture of Zooey Deschanel pointing a toy gun at the camera. This might just be me and my Marc Jacobs mouse shoes engaging in a bit of wishful thinking, but I’ve listened to the new Worldpeace DMT and ear records enough to wager that we’re in full swing now. One hallmark of early 2000s twee aesthetics were the rounded corners on images. Whether they were candid photos of friends hanging out in a parking lot or amateur photography of a girl wearing a tutu in an abandoned building, any sharp corners needed to be whittled down before uploading. Perhaps a true 2020s twee trailblazer will take the plunge and upload some to Instagram.

This has got to be one of my top ten favorite .gifs. I enjoy the thought of trying to convey distress while sharing a glitter graphic. She bravely refuses to heed the advice of the previous .gif! There’s a nice thread running between the crying glitter graphic, the crying selfie of the 2010s, and the girl crying in her car on TikTok. They are very important to me.

My approach to reading is not unlike the way I save images, partially because I mostly check out ebooks from the library; everything gets added to a pile and I hope to eventually get to it all. I recently finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë and cannot wait to reread it again someday. I preferred this to Wuthering Heights, which I also read for the first time this year (not to pit two sisters against each other!). I also read the entirety of Liveblog by Megan Boyle, which was frustrating and special and truly a singular piece of writing that I think will continue to age in a really spectacular way. I made reading Proust my entire personality as I was reading Swann’s Way and I got to read Madeline Cash’s forthcoming novel Lost Lambs for the latest issue of The Whitney Review.

I come from a long line of cigarette smokers. Without delving too deeply into my childhood psychology, and despite having quit a few years ago, I still have a soft spot for smokers. It’ll never not be chic to me (something about the elf/geek bar vapes are way too baby coded). Sorry. #smokersrights

“I may not be the most beautiful girl on the net. But so what? I’m the best at Photoshop!” This banner ad belongs to former adult film actress Asia Carrera, who I would argue was probably one of the beautiful girls on the net at the time, winning an AVN award for Female Performer of the Year in 1995. She starred in 250+ films over her decade-long career and retired back in 2003. Her XXX Buttkicking Homepage is surprisingly still intact.

I spend very little time procuring traditional art supplies, but I’m constantly buying new office supplies: printer ink, three-ring binders, plastic sleeves, reams of paper. I may be single-handedly keeping stores like Staples in business, though the most unique stuff comes from dollar stores. I can stop making zines, but the urge to throw some paper into a laser printer and see what happens has never quite left me. Consider purchasing an edition of mollysstuff for a loved one this year or maybe take a look at my webstore for some more budget-friendly options.