Anonymous asked: Jeni, where were you born? Where do you consider your "hometown" to be?

i was born in boston. at brigham and women’s hospital (coincidentally where my father worked).

i consider allston my hometown. not many people can say they “grew up” in allston. but i’ve lived there from infancy until i was 23. i’d say that gives me the right to claim this shitty, lovable, college-student-infested, quirky, dirty, lovable town as my own. my mother bought her apartment in allston almost 30 years ago. go mom for seeing an investment opportunity where others could not!

i grew up yelling out the window on thursday nights for the kids raging across the street to please “SHUT THE FUCK UP”. it wasn’t as fun to hear the sounds of allston nightlife whirling around up into my bedroom when i had to wake up at 5:45 to get to school on time. i went to jackson mann for pre-school and elementary school. that skate spot where kids go to drink and smoke and ride bikes, under the overhang, was where i got a piece of glass in my foot when i was 4 and we had been playing with chalk and in baby pools they brought out for us. i used to scoff at herrell’s ice scream (JP licks is wayyyy better, as any self respecting bostonian knows) but now that it’s been made and remade into allston cafe and subsequently refuge, i miss their live music and cushy seats, and mediocre ice cream. i hated allston as a kid. it wasn’t til high school that i finally started appreciating allston for it’s culture and diversity. and the mecca of young people that take over it’s streets come september.

i could reminisce for days about how allston has grown and changed and evolved. but i won’t bore you. all i’ll say is check it out and try to really see it. allston has a bad rep for being a shitty hipster breeding ground, but it actually has a ton of charm, cool restaurants, beautiful places and secrets tucked away, just waiting to be found.

xx

Anonymous asked: Is your real named spelled Jeni or Jenny?

my real name is spelled in chinese characters.

‘ming’ is the english way to spell it but i feel like there’s something lost in the translation of the beautiful curving, exacting lines that form asian characters and the boring script of english words.. it means “bright”.