Anxious Girls, Rise Up: Meet Brooke Averick

It’s mostly a sheer coincidence that four of the figures Brooke Averick holds closest to her heart all happen to share a name: Jonathan.

First, there’s Jonathan Groff, who starred as Jesse St. James in her all-time favorite show, Glee. There’s Jonathan Bailey, who she describes as “the most gorgeous man in the world, possibly,” and Jonathan Larson, the creator of one of her favorite musicals, Rent. And then there’s her cat.

It stands to reason, then, that the internet personality would call one of the three love interests in her debut novel Jonathan as well. In Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, readers follow the titular Phoebe, an LA-based preschool teacher on her quest to have sex for the first time before her 30th birthday.

Working her way through a month-long to-do list, she gets entangled with Jonathan, her impossibly handsome roommate and best friend; Finn, the fresh-faced 4th grade teacher at her school (another Glee reference); and Matthew, a resurfaced high school crush (for Matthew Gray Gubler, one of her favorite actors).

“Phoebe was what I wanted to name my hypothetical firstborn daughter,” says Averick, 29. “Which in a way I did.”

For dedicated fans of Averick’s podcast Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast (co-hosted with friend comedian Connor Wood), the pop culture references come as no surprise. Part of her confessional-style comedy brand includes ranking her celebrity crushes in a meticulous tier system.

Another is talking candidly about her mental health, a theme that also shows up in her novel. Like Averick, Phoebe has anxiety around romance and dating — the kind that involves throwing up on her love interest while attempting her first kiss. And while Averick got her start online sharing various mortifying moments from throughout her life (many involving the expulsion of bodily fluid), writing from the lens of Phoebe allowed her to open up more than ever.

“I definitely cope with humor and I think you see that a lot online. The book is kind of just me coping, but there were a lot of emotionally vulnerable scenes in this book that were really hard for me to write, but also I definitely really needed to,” says Averick. She struggled with an emotional scene in which Phoebe talks openly about her mental health with her dad. “That was really difficult, but after I wrote it, I felt so much lighter.”

Averick wrote Phoebe because she wants to see more anxious, hopeless romantics in romance novels. She also drew inspiration from Lena Dunham’s Hannah in Girls.

“She writes women that struggle with mental health issues but are also successful,” she says. “We don’t see that a lot, and so that is something that I really wanted to do with Phoebe.”

Averick was nervous as copies rolled out to early readers. “This is so niche and personal to me,” she says. “But I’ve been so pleasantly surprised to see that people relate. I’m not that special — in a good way.”

Phoebe Berman’s Going To Lose It is the first in a two-book deal with Crown, and Averick is already working on expanding the “Phoebe-verse.” Her next book will be a standalone novel featuring a few cheeky easter eggs for fans of the first.

Below, Averick opens up about her celebrity crushes, weirdest Google searches, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

What’s the weirdest internet rabbit hole you’ve gone down?

My most recent one is these underwater cables. All of our internet comes from these cables that are at the bottom of the ocean, which I didn't know. So I've been researching them a lot on Wikipedia.

Is there someone controversial you’ve tried to evangelize your friends on?

Most of my friends have been so supportive of every crush I’ve had, but most of them can’t get behind Clay Aiken as my sexual awakening..

What’s your favorite romance book trope?

Enemies to lovers.

What’s your favorite fun fact?

Do you know who does the voices in Alvin and the Chipmunks? Justin Long is Alvin. Jesse McCartney is Theodore and Matthew Gray Gubler is Simon.

What’s in your fridge right now?

Genuinely just one Shirley Temple Poppi.