Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

A few years ago, Busy Phillips was a working actor, a solid comedian and supporting star,

who often popped up on screen, but rarely front and center.

A lot of us knew her from her roles on such beloved series as Freaks and Geeks, Dawson's Creek,

or Cougar Town. But today, many more people know her, just for being herself, and we're pretty sure that by this time next month, everyone will know and love her. She makes it pretty hard not to.

Busy is in the midst of a spectacular second act. After working on screen for 20 years, building a

healthy, if not huge following, she suddenly emerged in 2017 as the breakout superstar of

Instagram stories.

It wasn't that her videos and images were so exceptionally curated.

It was the opposite.

Busy was radically authentic, on a platform where everyone, especially celebrities,

show only their prettiest pictures and heavily edited versions of their lives.

Busy was, well, normal.

She chatted to fans while sitting in her car waiting to pick up her kids from school.

She graham from the supermarket or from her own bed,

usually with no makeup and always with no filter.

And somehow, no matter how mundane the topic, she was never boring.

On the contrary, as the New Yorker recently put it,

Busy had transformed her everyday life into an addictive sitcom, and millions were tuning in.

Busy had changed the game for herself, by being herself.

...