Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age

In this poignant, funny, and illuminating essay collection from the hosts of the Podcrushed podcast, Penn Badgley, Sophie Ansari, and Nava Kavelin tackle stories from adolescence and beyond, exploring what it means to come of age at every stage of our lives.

In their debut essay collection, Penn Badgley, Sophie Ansari, and Nava Kavelin flip the script on their hit Podcrushed podcast--which features guests'' stories about their formative teenage experiences--to share their own stories of heartbreak, anxiety, and self-discovery for the first time.

From first crushes to first jealousies, from dreams realized to dreams deferred, Crushmore dives into the simultaneous awkwardness and joy of growing up. With humour, compassion, and insight, Penn, Sophie, and Nava unravel the ups and downs of their own coming of age, and highlight how we can find healing--and even inspiration--from our awkward adolescent selves long after we thought we left them behind.

Known for spotlighting your favorite artists' tween stories of self-discovery on their podcast, Penn, Sophie, and Nava turn inward to share their own experiences for the first time. Penn, a twelve-year-old, Discman-toting introvert, starts in the solitude of his only-child household, where he danced like no one was watching (because no one was watching) before embarking on a neon-lit journey to Hollywood. Sophie takes us to her middle school
in Beijing, where she had to ward off rumors of a boob job, and to the moment loosening her choke hold on love brought her husband straight into her living room. Nava traces the emotional aftershocks of losing her mother and guides us through the whimsical world of an imaginationship, where nothing is ever as it seems.

With compassion, humor, and insight, Crushmore charts the often cringey, sometimes luminous path from adolescence to adulthood. Together, these essays remind us that we can find healing-and even inspiration-from our awkward adolescent selves long after we thought we left them behind.

• | Author: Nava Kavelin, Sophie Ansari, Penn Badgley
• | Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• | Publication Date: Oct 14, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781035423217
• | ISBN-10: 1035423219