Stef Szymanski used to want to be a mermaid, but eventually came to the conclusion that touching her own tail and fins would probably be gross. Her hair used to more closely resemble that of her cartoon self, and she also wears glasses, so this is just another cruel reminder that cartoon characters look different than they do in real life, as demonstrated in the movie Cool World. (Another cruel reminder: Cool World. That exists.) That reminds her, when she was a kid, she threw up all over her Cool World pin at a Star Trek convention, making it so her dad couldn’t meet the guy who played Q. Fun facts like this run rampant in her HappiMess blog!

The stuff that inspires her and gets her jazzed about living and taking on crazy projects like HappiMess in the first place include the likes of Shel Silverstein, Sweet Valley High, Calvin & Hobbes, South Park, Hyperbole and a Half, and a bunch of other miscellany prominently displayed in The HappiMesseum.

Every year on her birthday she makes a list of things she hopes to accomplish in the next 365 days. By next October, she intends to get a dog, eat from at least twelve food carts, and play in a redwood forest. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her boyfriend Honey Bear and the invisible placeholders for all the pets they hope to have, which includes the orange cat hanging around in the parking lot that they really, really want to steal.