an excerpt from elle magazine, august 2018 There's an effervescence to Sinclair that's almost shocking in contrast to her peers; she's unabashedly in love with her work but perhaps more importantly, her life. She speaks of her past, from what she calls her "absolutely disgusting, sordid past of dating jerks" to her "chubby and awkward" teen years, with a kind of light-hearted ease that makes her feel like the fun girl from the office everyone's dying to grab drinks with after work. in a word, she's candid. It's this candidness that's gotten her in trouble with her real friends, a point of interest that comes up when she's discussing her last boyfriend, Whip Wickham of indie rock group Young Bloods. "We're dear friends now, but he was a trash boyfriend," she says, laughing. "And I should have known. I should have known, because he had just gotten out of a relationship with one of my best friends [hannah anderson] and I'd been there every step of the way, with her telling me what a horrible boyfriend he was! But that's the kind of guy I gravitate toward, the emotionally distant, brooding artist who doesn't call you for a week and then shows up on your doorstep saying he's missed you so madly and you're completely blinded because he's got big dick energy." Taking a sip of her wine, Sinclair leans back into her seat with a grin and a shrug to match. "But here's the thing, with friends and with lovers, I'm always looking for people who don't give a fuck, and sometimes it's an unfortunate downer that one of the things they don't give a shit about is nurturing their relationships. You can manage that in a friendship, but the trouble comes when you're letting the big dick energy people inform how you feel about yourself." When I tell her, jokingly, that she has a whopping amount of big dick energy herself, Sinclair shrieks with amusement and reaches out across the cafe table to grab one of my hands. "No, no, no, listen, I never feel it less than when I'm with the people who have it most." She's conspiratorial now; the gal pal from the office is back in full force. "Once when Whip, Hannah and I were having drinks at an after party for an awards show that will go unnamed, a male celebrity of infamous standing who will go doubly unnamed came up to me and put both hands on my shoulders behind me, and I froze. I froze not knowing who it was, and Hannah gave him a look like he was an insect and said, 'don't move, there's something on you,' and then Whip said, 'i think it's actually dead, you can move whenever you like,' and i turn around thinking it's a friend of ours because of their tone and it's this big, big, big, celebrity, and..." Sinclair trails off, covering her face, and then lets out another trademark shriek. Several patrons of the cafe turn to look, but she's undeterred when she puts her hands back down. "Big dick energy," she repeats, smiling wide, describing her friends and herself in the same breath. "Be careful, Ariana."