Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt convinced me to give up on my fashion industry dreams

<p>I was struggling to make ends meet as an unpaid intern when a sarcastic song from the hit comedy gave me the clarity to walk out </p><p>It was 3am in the summer of 2017, and I was lying in a triple bunk bed in a hostel in London, listening to the sounds of the 14 other people in my dormitory snoring. I had been working unpaid internships in the fashion industry in&nbsp;London for the past 18 months and&nbsp;living in £12-a-night hostels. When I couldn’t sleep, I would watch TV on my beaten-up phone to drown out the snores. I was watching <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/25/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-tv-review-ellie-kemper-titus-burgess">Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</a>, an absurdist comedy about&nbsp;a&nbsp;woman who moves to New York after 15 years imprisoned in a&nbsp;doomsday cult’s underground bunker.</p><p>Her relentless positivity often&nbsp;inspired me to keep going, but&nbsp;on&nbsp;that particular night, the opposite happened: Kimmy gave me&nbsp;the courage to give up.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/aug/15/my-cultural-awakening-unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-convinced-me-to-quit-as-fashion-intern">Continue reading...</a>