(Photo: Jake Chessum)

Bridgid Ryan
Translator/Chaperone, Philadelphia
Shot at Columbus Circle

What are you doing today?
I’m taking twenty Japanese kids to Soho. I’m a translator for them while they study at Fordham and at Harvard. It’s basically like Camp America, and I’m in charge.

How did you learn Japanese?
I was lucky enough to go to a school that taught Spanish from kindergarten on. I like to talk so much that in college I just decided I’d learn another language, and I lived in Tokyo for four months. It’s very useful knowing Japanese. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it makes me realize what makes me me.

Where are you from?
Philadelphia. I just graduated from Penn State, and I’m sort of trying to get a job in New York. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Craigslist, and I’m reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A good friend has offered to take me all around the villages or boroughs or whatever you call them in New York because I have this dream of finding an apartment with the sun coming in where I can grow plants. And then I’ll get my library card and go to the grocery store.

How do you describe your style?
My grandmother told me once that I’m splashy. I don’t know how to take that. Living in Japan taught me a lot about mixing and matching and layering. I do like to act out in my dressing, you know, the pink hair and stuff. So I guess, to answer your question with one grandma-esque word, I’m splashy.

Related:

• Archive: “Look Book”
• Articles by Amy Larocca
• Table of Contents: Aug 14, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!