WTF is Wellness with Alyssa Coscarelli

Name: Alyssa Coscarelli

Instagram: @alyssainthecity
Profession: Freelance Fashion Influencer, Writer, and Consultant 
NYC Neighborhood you currently call home: LES

Originally from: The South - Born in Florida, raised in Georgia

Get to know her... quick questions we served up that get down to business.  Our own little personality test if you will :) 

Some Q&A
Question: WTF does wellness mean to you? 
Answer: For me, wellness is much more mental than physical or even emotional.  Based on the stress and pressure of what I do and living where we do, I view wellness is anything that can get me mentally in a good place.  I love fitness, working out and moving my body, but I also love sitting in a sauna or putting up my feet up and smoking.  And I consider all of those wellness.  Wellness is really anything that can get my head space feeling ok.” 

 

Question: Favorite @poplar products? 

Answer: Totally the Wildflower Aches Pen! I think I’ve gone through 4 of them! Between soreness from working out to all my travel aches (I am on a lot of long planes) it has saved me.  I have tried so many pens and it is definitely my favorite.  It makes it easy to be consistent with my wellness routine wherever I am. 

Question: Ok - now that the nitty gritty is out of the way. We happen to know (we did our research) that your boyfriend lives in Cali. We assume that changes the weed game since you are sort of bi-coastal.  How does it affect what you use?

Answer: I am a lot more subtle about my usage in NYC - tablinguals, gummies, patches… I saved the joint for CA and only bring home the subtle stuff. 

But when I am in LA, my boyfriend and I love to smoke together.  Before dinner, sitting on the porch...   I see a big difference with the way people are consuming on the west coast vs NYC. People in NYC aren’t into smoking. I think they are just confused. It’s so much more normalized in California of course. Some of my friends in NYC still claim “I got so high from CBD”. We are just at the beginning of the learning curve. It’s not that people here are anti-cannabis - it’s just the education is so behind. I’m working to normalize cannabis in my own circles! And I would be remiss not to recognize the unfortunate double standard of who can outwardly talk about consumption - which is another reason I try to be discreet.  

   

Question: Tell us more... How do you normalize it? 

Answer: I want to make sure NYers know weed can be chic - not creepy and scary. That’s one of the reasons I love the wildflower pen! 

Question: Ok. That all makes sense... so parting words in wellness?!?! 

Answer: It is really easy to overwhelm yourself with “wellness”. I say, stick with what works. I often think of my grandma - She is 84, thriving and she didn’t have any of this shit. I try to channel her when I think through what’s necessary and what’s not. I have my suite of exercise classes I like, my weed rituals in California... I try to make sure that in general but specifically in wellness I don’t vouch for something unless I use it. People are throwing things at me all day - but I’m not going to promote something I don’t believe in. I could rack up the paychecks if that was my goal. But in wellness I'd seem silly, recommending different things all the time; if I am recommending something I need to really use it! I see people doing wellness sponsored posts and testimonials and it freaks me out. There are so many unqualified people leading the masses and it’s scary.  Instagram is where people are getting their information - I mean it’s great because it gave me this awesome job but in the weed and wellness world - it’s serious.  It goes in your body!!! It’s not like just telling someone to go buy a certain shirt. 

Question: So where do you go for reliable info? 

Answer: You (@berylaliza), Marta - people that I actually know. 

Question: So what’s next? What can we expect from the ever busy and influential Alyssa? 

Answer: My newest project is really my new apartment and my website. The site will be an extension of my Instagram - a destination for what’s cool across fashion, travel, and lifestyle.  I think I’ll steer a little more clear of wellness since it's not my expertise by any means  :) 

I’m also super into curating some IRL experiences. I designed my first collab with @petitestudionyc and consulted on a new store concept in San Fran that brings instagram brands to life. 

Question: Last question - anything you are loving we need to know about??? Any new finds?  

Answer: I’m in interior mode - many late night hours spent on Chairish. That’s how you get the good stuff :)