Vampire Weekend's Surprising Jewish Stories
7 min read
The high-end fashion illustrator and digital influencer talks about her personal struggles and how she is gently fighting antisemitism.
Brooke Hagel, fashion illustrator and digital influencer, lost her best friend to antisemitism. Taylor*, her closest friend for ten years, was a famous digital influencer with several millions of followers. (Taylor is the sixth highest followed name on one of the social media outlets.) Taylor posted a picture of a swastika while on her travels in Bali.
When Brooke asked her to take it down, she responded, “What’s the big deal? It’s a symbol of hope there.”
Brooke tried to help her see that post-Holocaust, it is anything but a symbol of hope. She also informed her that the symbol is illegal in 16 countries. “Plus,” she added, “when people are scrolling through your feed and see a swastika, they are going to think you are anti- Jewish.”
Instead of seeing Brooke’s perspective, she double downed on her right to post it and defensively said, “No! I’m sorry, it just a symbol of hope.”
She kept it up and berated Brooke.
That wasn’t the first time Brooke had experienced antisemitism. Brooke grew up going to public school in Port Washington, Long Island. After graduating FIT, her dream was to become a costume and wardrobe designer and move to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, she contracted meningitis shortly after graduation and was bedridden for several months. This forced her to switch gears and stay in New York City. She interned on famous television sets like Saturday Night Live and Sex in the City.
Afterwards, she started working at Hearst Magazines, one of the world’s largest magazine publishers. She was a Designer of Brand Developer for Seventeen and Cosmo Girl, Country Living, and House Beautiful. “We made everything from prom shoes to dinnerware.”
Brooke loved her job but missed sketching, so she opened a store on Etsy to sell sketches as a side hustle. Things were going great, but at the start of the recession in 2008, Brooke was laid off.
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Fortunately, her artwork business started to slowly grow during the recession. People kept asking me to sketch at live events. “I didn’t want to because I felt self-conscious and I didn’t want people watching me while I draw. One person was really persistent and I thought, Okay, if I’m terrible, who cares? She’s not paying me, anyway. I can just try.”
Brooke blogged about the experience and many influencers shared her sketches on their platform. The next day, Brooke got an email that changed her life.
“Vogue emailed me that they wanted me live sketch their event! So a few days later I was sitting in the Vogue lobby waiting to present my portfolio. I thought I was going to pass out, I was so nervous.
“Until that point, I had met many famous people and had a lot of interesting experiences because of my internships. But it was always because of my boss. It was never because of me or my artwork. I gave myself a pep talk and calmed down, and was called into Anne Vicent’s office. Anne was the Head of Events for Vogue for 12 years. She was an angel.
“‘How much do you charge per hour?’ she asked me. I didn’t know. I made up a number.
“She responded, ‘Oh, absolutely not. We can get you more.’ She basically set my rates and referred me to a ton of other clients.
“She would call me and say, ‘So-and-so needs a sketch for their social media, how much do you charge?’ I would say a number and she would get back and say, ‘Okay, I got you three times the amount!’ She knew the market and she helped me, rather than taking advantage of my naiveté.”
Brooke worked with Vogue regularly, and her clientele quickly exploded. She connected with a lot of other luxury brands through them like Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Burberry, and more.
She also toured with Vogue for four years. “I did live sketching in different cities with them at their events. People tell me I have a dream job, and I agree.”
These days, she does a lot of live sketching at private parties for VIPs as well as luxury brand events. She often works with Mindy Weiss, a well-known Jewish event planner.
Brooke has experienced antisemitism in both her personal and professional life. One summer during high school, Brooke attended the Academy of Art College in San Francisco for a summer session. In her dorm room, she told the other girls that she was Jewish. A girl from Mississippi responded with disgust, “Oh… My grandfather is the Grand Marshall of the KKK.” Brooke felt extremely uncomfortable, but didn’t know how to respond. Now, especially with the recent rise in antisemitism, she wanted to do something unique to combat the issue.
Brooke started an Instagram page called @jewuknow. “I thought of the name 13 years ago, and bought the blog domain but never did anything with it. I always thought it was a great name for something. Then one night, I thought, I wonder if anyone has that Insta handle. I checked, and no one had it.
“I post about famous people we may not realize are Jewish. I started getting great feedback from it. Jews love when they find out celebrities or accomplished people are Jewish.
“I want to increase awareness and Jewish pride. It’s a gentle way of fighting antisemitism. It’s good to make people aware that many people they admire, respect, or listen to are Jewish, just like them.”
Brooke researches each person and incorporates quotes about him or her in relation to their Judaism. She may post about times they were beaten up because they are Jewish, a story from their bar or bat mitzvah, or something about their heritage. “Maybe this can change the climate of how the outside world sees us.”
One of the greatest challenges Brooke faces in her career is being plus-sized in the fashion industry.
“Some industries are okay with plus-size, but not the fashion industry. I once got offered a live sketching job for LuluLemon. They wanted to pay me in product. I couldn’t take the product as a payment because I have to pay rent, but also because they didn’t have clothing in my size!
“At the time, their CEO had just publicly said, ‘We aren’t meant for people over size 12!’ In other words, we don’t dress fat people. Why would I ever work for a brand that isn’t inclusive of all sizes?
“Even when I’m having meetings, I have to figure out what to wear with all the size zero girls around. I always find that I’m trying to look super polished and put together and trying to overcome my weight as an obstacle.”
Despite the challenge, Brooke is incredibly successful.
She once appeared on television and was asked to sketch a prediction of Kate Middelton’s wedding gown. Shockingly, her design was almost identical to the gown Kate Middleton actually wore. Brooke couldn’t believe it when she saw Kate step out of the car to her ceremony that morning on tv.
“What I love about live sketching is that I get to make people instantly happy. When I present their sketch, they get so excited. Making others happy makes me happy.”
Brooke’s Instagram handles are @jewuknow and @brookehagel
*Name has been changed
