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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, loss and redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

Have you ever thought of your life as a movie?

You're the star, obviously, and everyone else is a supporting character.

When it comes to real life romance, though, you can't predict what's going to happen.

But that didn't stop Madison Perry from trying.

Alex Carpovsky, best known as Ray on the HBO series Girls, reads Madison's essay,

Honey, that's not your line.

Moonlight from the window illuminated the tattoo of a Phoenix covering the left side of a torso.

I traced it with my finger from just below her armpit over the speed bumps of her ribs to her hip bone.

I'd only seen tattoos like this in the movies, never in person, never this close,

and never in my own bed.

I knew I'd found my very own manic pixie dream girl.

When he was the film critic of the AV Club, Nathan Rabin coined the term manic pixie dream girl

to describe the love interest in Cameron Crowe's Elizabeth town,

though the character type has been in many movies before and since.

Natalie Portman and Garden State being perhaps a quintessential example.

The manic pixie dream girl is now an indie film cliche,

more of a collection of quirks than a person, who exists to be the perfect love interest

for the male protagonist.

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