Write A Book For NaNoWriMo With These Creative Writing Prompts

woman in an aqua sweater typing on her computer NaNoWriMo

As much as we love eating turkey on Thanksgiving, there's another reason we love November: National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization that offers the tools, community, and encouragement you need to achieve your creative writing goals. The free (!!) site helps you track progress on your work, set milestones to work with, and connect with a variety of other writers.

Writing a book is definitely a weighty task, but it can be easier if you write what you know (that way you're able to dig into the details of your story well), and start reading more (that way you get the hang of the imagery that you like and what both good and bad writing looks like). The NaNoWriMo programs are available year-round, but if you're looking to write a book this month, or you're just looking for some cozy ideas to make future writing more fun, keep reading.


Everything You Need To Know About NaNoWriMo

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What Is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo began as a month-long writing experience through November where you take part with other writers to write 50,000 words of a novel. Now, you can both take part during November and participate in their programs year-round.

Who Has Taken Part In The Program?

Over 400,000 writers participated in the programs in 2021, but there have been a ton of other writers throughout the years as well. Some of the books that started as NaNoWriMo projects include Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Yours could be the next bestseller!

How Do I Participate In NaNoWriMo?

The first step is to sign up (which you can do here) and then you can decide if you want to write at your own independent pace or set a deadline for the end of November. There are prizes and special messages, and when you reach your word-count goal, you're able to access a winner's page full of fun gifts.

When you're writing, it can be tempting to go back and edit, but you don't want to mess with your creative process — wait until you're done before editing! One thing you can do when you're writing and there's a detail you can't think of off the top of your head is add brackets instead. Then when you're done, you can go back and replace the brackets with what should be there.

You can check out our journal prompts for growth and creativity or try some our 30 creative writing prompts, but here are a few that are specifically for fiction. They might only turn into one scene, but they might also inspire a whole other body of work.

NaNoWriMo Creative Writing Prompts:

  1. Write an entire story that takes place within a small amount of time. It's harder than it sounds! Focus on details, inner thoughts, and what your characters are feeling.
  2. Turn your favorite quote or lyric into a story. What makes it your favorite? Is it the words themselves, or how they make you feel?
  3. If you love houseplants, spend a few minutes every day writing about your plant. Is it growing? Is it losing leaves? What does the soil feel like?
  4. Write down everything around you. Focus on all of your senses: what you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. Go into as much detail as you can to make the reader experience everything that you're experiencing.
  5. Take your favorite iconic story and completely rewrite it by switching every trope. Damsel in distress? Make her a skilled assassin who leaves everyone in the dust. Enemies to lovers? Turn it into a lovers-to-enemies arc. Is the main cast a bunch of kids growing up? Add a bunch of superpowers that will make puberty way more complicated.
  6. Turn your favorite season, element, flower, or animal into a human. What would their personality be like? What would their favorite food be? How would they spend their time?
  7. Write a story that takes place in a completely different world. This is a fun way to come up with different economies, cultures, and languages.
  8. Fill a few bowls with paper that says different words (places, foods, names), and draw one from each bowl at random. Write a story with what you pick.
  9. Go on Pinterest or Instagram and save a bunch of images that inspire you. After you have a collection, view them all at once to get a feel for their aesthetic and then write a story based on how it makes you feel.
  10. Turn your latest dream into a story. Whether it was a happy dream or a nightmare, you have the power to adjust what happens!

Ideas To Help You Stay In The Zone While You Write

Slippers

It's important to feel comfortable and cozy while writing when it's cold outside. So grab yourself a pair of slippers or fuzzy socks to keep your toes warm.

A Good Playlist

Music can help you get in the zone or feel a particular emotion that will help you focus in on an aspect of the story that you're creating. Here's our assistant editor Chloe's creative writing playlist, but you can also check out our Spotify for a few different vibes!

Notebooks + Pens

Whether you're jotting down ideas during your writing process or you write down inspiration when you're out and about, every writer needs some good pens and a notebook. You can also grab a planner to have a place to track your plans + progress.

Long Walks

Walks will get your blood pumping, and the change of scenery can help inspire you. It's also helpful to be away from your computer (especially if you work from home), but feel free to bring some music with you. One of our favorite things to do is to go on a solo weekend writing retreat to visit a town we've never been to before and still get some work done.

Snacks

We're talking potato chips, dark chocolate, or a variety of healthy snacks. We'll take it all, especially when you coordinate your snacks with the time of day.

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? Let us know in the comments if you have any advice, and check out our email newsletter for more creativity tips and inspiration!

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There are a few things that unite Emily Henry Girlies: we love romance, we love quirky details, and we love Taylor Swift. (And based on my Emily Henry interview, I can confirm that she does too!). The author herself describes her new book, titled Funny Story, as “the wind in my hair on the weekend,” a line from Taylor Swift's "Karma." Here's everything we know about the new Emily Henry book. Buckle up, because there's a *lot* about Funny Story we can’t wait to dive into.

Is Emily Henry making a Funny Story TV show?

Image via Emily Henry/Instagram

If you're already daydreaming about seeing Funny Story onscreen, you're not the only one — even Emily Henry herself is thinking about whether the book will turn into a TV show. She tells Variety she hopes to have details "really soon" about onscreen adaptations for her newest novel, as well as last year's Happy Place.

What is Funny Story about?

Image via Samson Katt/Pexels

In Funny Story, Daphne and her fiancé Peter are madly in love. They've moved back to his childhood hometown, where Peter constantly tells the story of how they met. All is well...until Peter realizes he's actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Now Daphne is stranded in Waning Bay, Michigan, and even though she has no friends or family, she does have her dream job as a children’s librarian, so at least that's one point in her favor.

Now, with barely any money, there's only one potential roommate who could possibly understand what she's going through: Petra’s ex, Miles. Despite the fact that Miles happens to be Daphne's polar opposite. After they form a friendship (which may or may not involve posting misleading images of their summer together), Daphne realizes that she might have done the craziest thing of all: fallen for her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex. No biggie.

Will Funny Story connect to the other Emily Henry books?

Images via Amazon

Based on her other stories, we're not expecting Funny Story to directly tie into Happy Place, Book Lovers, People We Meet On Vacation, or Beach Read. However, she does often reference the characters from her other stories once. So don't be surprised if Daphne bumps into Nora in the grocery store or finds one of Gus' books incorrectly shelved in the library.

When is the Funny Story release date?

Image via Devyn Glista St. Blanc Studios

Funny Story will be released on April 23, 2024, almost a year after Happy Place was released!

What does the cover look like?

The covers are always one of my favorite parts of any Emily Henry book. They're always vibrant, bold, and always show just enough of the characters to both catch your eye and keep you intrigued. In the past, they've been blue, pink, orange, and yellow, with bits of other colors interspersed in the details.

After hoping for a green, deep red-orange, or lilac color (and after Emily Henry's official Instagram announcementmade me think we'd get purple), the author showed off the brand new cover for Funny Story! The vibrant deep mix between purple and blue is the perfect color against Daphne, Miles, and all of their accessories.

We already have a feel for the characters, too! Daphne's sassy head tilt, the "we're in this together" energy, the fact that Miles is wearing crocs.

Where can I preorder Funny Story?

Image via Emily Henry/Instagram

There are a number of you can preorder Funny Story! Here are a few:

Are you excited for Emily Henry's Funny Story? Let us know in the comments!

Brit + Co. may at times use affiliate links to promote products sold by others, but always offers genuine editorial recommendations.

Lead image viaEmily Henry/Instagram

I'll admit out of the many teen dramas I've consumed, Outer Banks is one of the most ridiculous. But the insanity surrounding the plot is half the reason it's enjoyable! John B. wrestling an alligator with his bare hands? Kiara getting kidnapped then making a daring escape in her PJ's? John B. and Sarah getting married (kind of) by the power of "the sky, the stars, and the sea" after escaping the SBI?

Considering my favorite fan theory for the future is that Madelyn Cline's Sarah and Rudy Pankow's JJ learn they're secret siblings, I know the crazy train isn't slowing down anytime soon. I took to Reddit to find the wildest Outer Bankshot takes and I was not disappointed. Keep reading to see if you agree with any!

JJ and Kiara Never Should Have Happened

Image via Netflix

While JJ and Kiara is one of the most popular ships on the show, a lot of Outer Banks fans think the "no Pogue-on-Pogue macking" rule from the pilot should have stayed in effect. The individual romances between Kiara and JJ, John B., and Pope make the story really messy, and the fact the show writes Kiara to be with all three of them in the span of three years gives a lot of viewers the ick.

I'll be team #Jiara forever (and literally screamed when The Backseat Lovers' "Kilby Girl" started playing during the motorcycle ride in season 3), but I'll say it would incredibly compelling to see a friend group take care of each other as much as the Pogues do without ever crossing over into romantic territory. That's found family, after all!

Pope Should Have Ditched The Treasure Hunt

Image via Netflix

One Reddit user is convinced that "Pope should’ve focused on his future in school instead of giving everything up to search for treasure." And TBH, I totally agree.

In season 1, Pope has a breakthrough about the hidden treasure in the middle of his scholarship interview. He ditches the scholarship committee to tell the rest of the Pogues, throwing away a crazy educational opportunity. Pope beats himself up for it, and his parents definitely aren't pleased, but at least it meant he got to stay in the show instead of leaving for college, which leads me to...

Outer Banks Should Have Started With The Pogues In Their 20s

Image via Netflix

As one of the only people alive who loves the post-time jump One Tree Hill, I would have loved to see OBX start off with the characters in their 20s (although it looks like that's where Outer Banks season 4 will pick up!). This would eliminate SO MANY problems from the jump because the Pogues wouldn't have to worry about missing school, they'd be more self-sufficient, and instead of being the same old high school drama, it could have provided a commentary on figuring out life in your 20s the same way Friends did.

Rafe Shouldn't Have Any Kind Of Redemption Arc In Outer Banks Season 4

Image via Netflix

Drew Starkey the man that you are. According to one Reddit user, "Rafe should not have a love interest or a redemption arc" like we see in season 3. We spent all of season 1 and season 2 establishing that Rafe (played by Drew) would do anything it took to get what he wanted (including one successful murder and two other attempts?!). He shows next to no remorse for his actions, and exploring his literal psychopathic tendencies would take the show to a whole new level.

Big John Should Never Have Returned

Image via Netflix

John B.'s dad's disappearance is the catalyst for the Pogues' journey at the beginning of Outer Banks, and Big John's return means the story feels somewhat repetitive in the third season, and it undoes a lot of the growth we've seen from John B. Plus, Big John is just SO chaotic, selfish, and dramatic. If he had truly died in season 1, we could have seen John B. wrestle with that finality, and how to cope with loss in the face of finding the treasure and falling in love with Sarah.

And Finally, Outer Banks Should Have Ended After Season 1

Image via Netflix

Outer Banks season 1 was exactly what we needed at the height of the pandemic. It was escapist — both in terms of the beach vacation vibes, but also because the '00s aesthetic took us right back to simpler times — and it had such a wonderfully resolved finale that some fans think nothing has matched it.

Do you agree with any of these Outer Banks opinions? I'm such a romance fan, I don't know what I'd do if the show didn't have JJ and Kiara get together! Check out all the best New TV Shows coming this year for more.

Lead image via Netflix

You might recognize Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights and Euphoria, but her brand new memoir Tell Me Everything(releasing May 2) shows a whole new side of her story. The memoir gives us an inside look into her childhood, bouncing around the country as she was raised by a single mother who struggled with addiction and worked as a stripper.

In an interview with People, Kelly says she wants Tell Me Everything to help women who "might have complicated relationships with their mothers, feel less alone [and] to know that we don't have to be a victim of our circumstance."

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Minka Kelly on Opening Up In New Memoir: "I Carried A Lot of Shame" | PEOPLE

Kelly's grace and optimism allows her to find the silver linings of her childhood — even though it was difficult, she also describes it as colorful and chaotic, noting that it made her adaptable. Acting became a place where Kelly could channel all of the emotion she didn't know how to process otherwise. After a few guest roles, she landed popular girl Lyla Garrity on the family sports drama Friday Night Lights in 2006.

"I found acting before therapy, so it was my first sort of place where I got to learn who I was. And that's a big part of acting is knowing what you have to offer," she says.

Image via Amazon

She credits her first acting teacher Janet Alhanti with helping her grow and develop as a woman: "No one had ever seen me the way she did or called me on all the bullshit that I was offering, and that felt really good for someone to be a little hard on me."

Kelly and her mother eventually reached a point in their relationship when they were no longer speaking, and it wasn't until her mother began to get sick that they began to mend their relationship.

"I spent a lot of my youth wishing my mom was something she wasn't," Kelly continues in the interview. "I only was able to really appreciate how special she was when I got much older. In fact, when it was maybe a little too late."

Kelly's mother passed away from cancer in 2008. However, she knows that, even though it's tempting to focus on the past, there is still so much of her story to tell: "I'm a work in progress I think like a lot of women out there."

You can pre-order Tell Me Everything here, and check out our email newsletter for more inspiring celebrity content.

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Mariska Hargitay is the woman of the hour anywhere she goes, with her iconic Law & Order: SVUrole as Olivia Benson under her belt for the last 25 years. The character is an absolute advocate to women — and assault victims of any gender — through her words, actions, and powerful convictions of each perpetrator on the show. She takes great care with her victims and pursues perpetrators with fervor, and slowly as you watch the show..the line blurs between Olivia and Mariska.

This isn't anything new — just recently Mariska literally stopped production on the show to help a child (who mistook her for an actual police officer) find her mom. It's just who Mariska is. She walks the walk and talks the talk — including during her speech at Variety's Power of Women's Power of Women event.

Image via NBC Universal

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Image via NBC Universal

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

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Mariska Hargitay's Gets Emotional as She Thanks Her Support System and the Women Around Her

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!

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After Emily in Paris season 3 dropped on Netflix in December of 2022, we were hoping to get the fourth installment of the hit show in 2023. But production halted when the WGA writers' strike, then the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike went to affect, and our beloved cast and crew campaigned for better wages and industry protection. But with the end of the writers' strike, and new SAG negotiations, Emily in Paris season 4 finally began production in February 2024 — and I can already tell you there's sure to be plenty of drama and French fashion this time around.

Not only will we see Emily in Paris (see what I did there?!) but she's also pulling an Audrey Hepburn and taking a little Roman Holiday. That's right — our favorite Parisians are heading to Italy! If that doesn't sound like a dreamy comfort show then I don't know what does. Here's everything we know about the upcoming season of your favorite TV brain candy!!

Is Emily in Paris season 4 coming soon?

Image via Lily Collins/Instagram

Via Variety, Emily in Paris season 4 began production in Paris the week of January 15! "Did someone say Saison Quatre?!" Lily Collins says in her Instagram post announcing production. "Finally reunited with my @emilyinparis fam back in Paris and it feels so good. Although, I may need to brush up on my selfie skills for Emily’s sake…"

Now the wait is over! According to the official announcementfor Emily in Paris, we know part one drops on Netflix August 15, followed by part 2 on September 12. I've been impatiently waiting for this considering we didn't know how filming would be impacted by things like the WGA writers strike!

Is Emily in Paris filmed in Paris?

Image via Lily Collins/Instagram

Yes, Emily in Paris is filmed on location in Paris! We got our first look at Emily in Paris season 4 when Lily Collins and Ashley Park were seen filming in the City of Love (via Daily Mail). The costumes for the series are still as bold and bright as ever, with Ashley's Mindy wearing cobalt and metallic boots, and Lily's Emily dressed head-to-toe in lemon yellow. I can't wait to see what these best friends get up to this season! Check out our Paris travel recommendations to live out your own Emily in Paris dreams ;).

On April 27, Lily Collins confirmed Emily in Paris season 4 had wrapped its France shoot and that the cast & crew have swapped the City of Love for the Eternal City! "When you’re the first ones on the dance floor at the Paris wrap party. Next stop: Rome!" she says on Instagram. Late spring is literally the perfect time to film in Italy and I just know this season is going to give me more wanderlust than ever before. I need gelato!

What's Emily In Paris season 4 about?

Image via Netflix

Season 3 left us with a huge cliffhanger: Alfie breaks up with Emily, Camille learns she's pregnant with Gabriel's baby, Benoit's "Mon Soleil" has been chosen for the Eurovision Song Contest, and Emily and Gabriel realize they've been in love with each other the whole time. Whew.

Emily in Paris season 4 will have a ton of cliffhangers to bring full circle, and a bunch of damage that all the characters need to heal. We know from the Netflix TUDUM fan event that we might also see Emily have to deal with an ultimatum head-on, as well as an unexpected twist. Plus, it looks like she's heading on a "Roman holiday," according to lead actress Lily Collins. We'll take any nod to an Audrey Hepburn movie, please and thank you!

Is Alfie coming back in season 4 of Emily in Paris?

Image via Netflix

We don't have OFFICIAL word on whether Alfie (played by Lucien Laviscount) will return for Emily in Paris season 4, but we're hoping for his sake that he gets some closure. Lucien wants to come back as well! "[The dream is] to keep this gravy train going and just to kind of really live in this world a little bit longer," he says in an interview with Elle. " The writers on the show and the creators behind it and everyone that comes into contact with it is so amazing and fantastic. Their minds [have] way, way, way, way surpassed mine. So, yeah. I’ll let them do their thing.”

Who else is in the Emily in Paris season 4 cast?

Image via Netflix

We can expect the rest of the cast — Lily Collins as Emily, Lucas Bravo as Gabriel, Ashley Park as Mindy, Camille Razat as Camille, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie, Samuel Arnold as Julian, and Bruno Gouery as Luc — to return.

Will there be a season 5 of Emily in Paris?

Image via Marie Etchegoyen/Netflix

It looks like Emily in Paris season 4 will not be the final season, according to creator Darren Star. “There’s a lot more story to tell here and we’re not wrapping things up anytime soon,” Star tells Elle. “And also hopefully season four isn’t the end either. I feel like we’re all creatively feeling like we’re in the middle of something not heading towards the end.”

Darren also told Deadline season 4 is "not necessarily conceived as a final chapter. I think like every other show, it’s a rich ensemble. There’s no end in sight until everybody feels like it’s time to end. And I don’t think this show is limited by a number of seasons, I think it’s limited by everybody’s enthusiasm and excitement about doing it and telling stories about these characters."

We'll take as many seasons of Emily in Paris as they'll give us!!

What has the cast said about Emily in Paris season 4?

Image via Marie Etchegoyen/Netflix

Lucas Bravo told People he's excited for a coming-of-age for Gabriel. "When you start a character, then there's a year where you experience the world and you mature, you become another person and you come back and it's exactly the day you left off," he says. "I'm happy that in season four I'll be able to bring more of what I became and what I've experienced in the past four years."

Even though Lily Collins is now an executive producer, she doesn't want to know TOO much about the future of the show. “Darren and I speak, on occasion, about where he’s thinking of going, but he also doesn’t wanna spoil too much for me because there is a fine line,” she tells Collider. “I don’t wanna know everything because I want to be led with the writing, but I am also curious because, as a producer wanting to celebrate the other characters, I’m very curious to see what their trajectories are."

What happened at the end of Emily in Paris season 3?

Image via Netflix

To be fully prepared for Emily in Paris season 4, it's important to remember just what happened during season 3! The junior season was a bumpy ride for Emily, and it ends with the craziest finale yet. After Camille and Gabriel decide to get married, Camille stops the wedding, saying she knows Gabriel is in love with Emily instead of her. This declaration leads Alfie to break up with our leading lady because he refuses to be her second choice (and honestly, I respect it). That's not the only shocker because Camille also reveals that she's pregnant with Gabriel's child, which comes as a surprise to everyone. Meanwhile, Mindy learns Benoit has submitted a song (specifically "Mon Soleil") to the Eurovision Song Contest and Laurent has his heart set on opening a club in Paris.

Are you excited for Emily in Paris Season 4? Give us your craziest theory in the comments, and check out our Facebook for more pop culture news. Read up on how This Emily In Paris Theory Could Be Why Emily And Gabriel Aren’t Together (Yet).

Lead image via Netflix.

This post has been updated.