About this Playlist
I met Loxley Browne through The Nonprofit Hive – it’s this fabulous community that connects non-profit executives around the globe. Hmmmm – sound familiar?! ;-p Loxley runs Books That Build Skills an organization that’s taking a really creative approach to promoting STEM education to girls.
The Charms Book Series inspires middle school and high school girls to explore careers, build life skills, and dream big through exciting fiction, hands-on projects, and real-world adventures. The central character of the series is teenage inventor, Attie McAllister. So we thought – you know what – let’s not put the spotlight on Loxley – while she’s brilliant (and she’s making her own playlist with me anyway ;-p) let’s put the spotlight on Attie herself!
Attie McAllister in the musicto Spotlight
1. Adults ask you the same question constantly: what do you want to be when you grow up? What’s the question you wish they’d ask instead – and how would you answer that one?
I wish adults would ask me, “What do you like to do, what are you curious about, and how could all of those things work together someday?” That feels like a much better question.
Because I’m 15. How am I supposed to know what I want to do for the rest of my life when half the adults I talk to still haven’t figured out what they want to be when they grow up?
Right now, I’m more interested in figuring out what I’m good at, what I enjoy, and what I want to learn next. I want to try things. Build things. Go places. Meet interesting people. Pick up as many skills as I can and see where they take me.
My Aunt Loxley tells me I’m becoming a Renaissance woman… someone who knows a little about a lot of things and isn’t afraid to keep learning. I like that a whole lot better than having to pick one box and decide I’m supposed to stay in it forever.
2. You left Creativity Cove for Rocket City and it wasn’t your idea. Looking back now, who did you become because of that move – and is there a version of you still back in Creativity Cove you sometimes miss?
It wasn’t my idea to move to Rocket City, but I was excited about it. Looking back, I think it happened at exactly the right time. Creativity Cove was where I got to be a kid. Rocket City is where I started figuring out who I’m going to become. And having both of my parents working at Redstone Arsenal? That made it even better. Suddenly I was surrounded by rockets and engineers and people working on things that sounded impossible until somebody figured out how to make them possible.
Moving here felt like walking through a door and leveling up. Back in Creativity Cove, I was the kid playing in the dirt, exploring outside, getting curious about everything around me. Honestly, I still do all of that. I’m just taller now and my questions have gotten bigger.
There are things I miss. I miss being close to the water, and I really miss being surrounded by all the history in Virginia and Washington, D.C. But America is a big, big place, and there are a whole lot of stories to uncover.
Right now, I’m diving into Alabama and Southern history and especially into figuring out what my grandpa was up to. Because the more we dig, the more we discover that he was working on something pretty incredible. And somehow, none of us knew it.
So maybe I didn’t leave the curious little girl from Creativity Cove behind after all. Maybe she’s the reason I keep digging.
3. What’s playing in the workshop while you build? I’m less interested in the song titles than in what it actually does to you – does it get you into a certain state, quiet a certain kind of noise, help you think sideways?
It really depends on what I’m building… and what my brain needs that day.
When I was working on the engine and trying to get through that final push, I listened to a lot of classic rock. That’s my keep going music. The end of a project can be the hardest part because you’ve been staring at the same thing for so long that you’re tired of it, even when you’re excited about finishing it. I need something loud and upbeat that makes me want to grab the wrench and keep going.
But when I’m starting something new or trying to solve an engineering problem that has me completely stumped, I usually switch to classical music.
I’ve read about how music can affect the brain and the way we think, and yes, I absolutely nerd out on things like that. If there’s something I can do musically that might help my brain focus, make connections, or think about a problem differently, I’m going to try it.
One of my favorite things is going to the symphony and choosing one instrument to follow. I’ll listen for the cello and try to hold onto it as all the other instruments come in. Then I’ll switch to the violin, or the flute, and see if I can find that one sound inside everything else that’s happening.
It’s almost like taking apart a machine without touching it. You start with this huge, complicated thing, then learn how to hear all the individual pieces working together. Which, now that I think about it, is pretty much how I like to solve everything.
4. Something you built didn’t work. What goes through your head, what do you say to yourself, how do you move forward?
The biggest thing I’m learning the more I invent and build things is this: it probably isn’t going to work the first time. And that’s okay.
My e-bike definitely taught me that lesson. We took it out to the test track for what was supposed to be this great moment, and instead it just completely kerplunked. Not exactly the grand finale I had pictured. But Aunt Loxley gave me a challenge, and I kept going.
That’s actually one of my favorite parts about being curious and trying something nobody has shown me how to do. You have to figure it out. You build it, test it, discover what doesn’t work, change something, and try again. Sometimes you get lucky and nail it on the first try. Sometimes you take the thing apart seven times before you finally get it right.
Aunt Loxley still laughs about the drifting trike she built because they took that thing apart and put it back together so many times that eventually they could practically do it with their eyes closed.
Some people, the Negative Nellies of the world, would look at all those attempts and say, “Wow. That was a lot of failure.”
I look at it and think, “Wow. Look at everything I know now that I didn’t know when I started.” And then I pick up my tools and try again.
5. Your mom builds rockets for a living, which is a fairly optimistic thing to do with a life. When you look at the future – yours, everyone’s – what do you actually see? I ask because a lot of adults right now are pretty gloomy about it, and I suspect you might see something we’re missing.
When I look at the future, I see a huge blank piece of paper. It’s like opening my inventor’s notebook to a brand-new page and thinking, What do I want to make happen in this world?
That’s exciting to me.
It’s one of the reasons I have so much admiration for Elon Musk. He looked at problems and possibilities in completely different industries and asked how we could do things differently—electric cars, rockets, space exploration, energy, robots. What he and the teams he built have accomplished over the past twenty years is incredible to me.
That’s how I want to look at my own future.
I have the ability to look at a problem humanity is facing and ask, What if I could figure out a solution? Then I can start learning what I need to know, find people who know things I don’t, build something, test it, probably break it a few times, and keep going.
It isn’t going to be easy. But the best things in life usually aren’t. You need gumption. You need stick-to-itiveness. And sometimes you have to keep building even when everybody around you thinks you’re a little crazy because they can’t see what you see yet.
Steve Jobs understood that. One of my favorite things to watch when I’m having a down day is Apple’s old “Think Different” ad… the one about “the crazy ones.” I love the idea behind it: the people crazy enough to believe they can change the world are often the ones who actually do.
Maybe that’s why I don’t look at the future and see something gloomy. I see an empty page. And I’ve got a pencil.
6. What are you curious about at the moment that has absolutely no point to it? Nothing for school, nothing that leads anywhere. Just a thing you can’t stop thinking of.
Miniature photographs.
Not pictures of miniature things. Taking something big and narrowing it down until you’re only looking at one tiny detail.
Aunt Loxley talks about photography and perspective so much that sometimes I think those might be the only two things going through her brain. I’m pretty sure she’s trying to teach us some larger life lesson about perspective, but I’m still investigating that.
Years ago, she went to Salamanca, Spain and took photographs that she later developed in a photography lab as these tiny black-and-white prints, only about two inches tall. I love them because when you look at something that small, you have to really look. There’s no giant landscape competing for your attention. You notice the texture of a wall. A doorway. A shadow. The curve of something. All these little details you might have walked right past.
So that has become my completely random side project. I’ll be out with my friends, walking in nature, or staring out the window on a road trip, and suddenly I’ll see some tiny piece of something and think, That’s the photograph.
I think I like it because the world can feel really, really big sometimes. There’s so much happening and so much to see and learn and figure out.
But when I take one little detail and make that the whole picture, everything gets quiet for a second. I just get to notice it. And that makes me happy.
7. Aunt Loxley has been all over the world with a camera and definitely has opinions about music. What’s something she played you that you initially didn’t like but now you do? And what have you played her that she didn’t expect?
Aunt Loxley has this rule when she travels somewhere new: she brings home music, a piece of art, a piece of clothing, and a piece of jewelry. She says those things tell you something about the people and the place that you can’t learn from a guidebook. So I’ve grown up hearing some pretty interesting music.
The music she brought home from Spain sounds completely different from what she brought back from Nepal. And I’ll admit, the first time she plays some of it, my reaction can be, Okayyy…that’s weird.
It doesn’t sound like whatever everybody is listening to on Spotify. The instruments are different. The rhythms are different. Sometimes even the way the music is put together feels completely unfamiliar.
But then I start doing what I always do. I take it apart. I listen for one instrument. Then another. I try to figure out the beat. I listen to how the sounds layer together and start wondering what the instruments are, where they came from, and why the music sounds the way it does.
And somewhere along the way, “weird” becomes interesting.
I think that’s one of the things Aunt Loxley has taught me without actually sitting me down and teaching it: different doesn’t mean bad. Sometimes it just means you haven’t learned how to listen to it yet.
As for what I’ve played for her that she didn’t expect? I’m still working on that one. Her music collection is ridiculously full of surprises. Challenge accepted.
8. Jenny has known you through all of it. What does she see in you that you can’t see in yourself – and what have you learned from her that you’d never have worked out alone?
Jenny is my hyper hummingbird compared to my good old steady workhorse. And somehow, we balance each other out perfectly.
I’m the one who wants to slow down, look at the problem, figure out how everything works, make a plan, and then start building. Jenny can have seventeen ideas before I’ve finished explaining the first one. She’s creative and excitable and sees possibilities everywhere. The funny thing is, I think she sees that side in me more than I do.
I tend to think of myself as the logical engineering one, the person who figures out how to make the crazy idea actually work. But Jenny has a way of pulling me out of that mindset and reminding me that I’m creative too. Being around her elevates my excitement level. She’ll look at something from an angle I never would have considered, and suddenly I’m looking at it differently too.
She was the very first friend I made when we moved to Rocket City. And you know how sometimes you meet somebody and you can’t really explain how you became best friends because it feels more like you’ve just always known each other? That’s Jenny.
She’s the sister I got to choose. And if you ask my parents, I’m not sure any of us knows whether we adopted Jenny or Jenny adopted our entire family. She’s at our house so much that I’m pretty sure she should have her own drawer by now.
What I’ve learned from her is that not every problem needs to be approached from the most logical direction first. Sometimes you need somebody who will throw out the ridiculous idea, ask the weird question, or get ridiculously excited about something before you’ve figured out whether it’s even possible.
Then the hummingbird and the workhorse figure it out together. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
9. You’re granted a short audience with the omnipotent being. You get to play one piece of music – any piece of music, doesn’t have to be one you’d normally admit to – so that they know exactly who you are in that moment. What do you play, and what do you hope they hear?
Okay, first of all, this is a lot of pressure for one song. I get an audience with an omnipotent being who knows everything in the universe, and somehow I’m supposed to explain myself with a playlist selection?
No pressure, haha! I think I’d play Taylor Swift’s “Long Live.”
Not because it explains everything about me, but because when I hear it, I think about building something that matters with people you care about. I think about my friends and my family and all the crazy adventures we’ve gotten ourselves into. I think about trying things that seem impossible and having people beside you who are crazy enough to try them too.
I’d want them to hear that I’m not finished becoming whoever I’m going to be. I’m curious. I want to build things. I want to explore. I want to solve problems. I want to have adventures with people I love, and someday I want to be able to look back and say, Wow. Look what we did.
And if an omnipotent being happens to have Taylor Swift’s number, I do have one tiny follow-up request. Ask her to contact me!
Learn more about Aunt Loxley and her amazing organization:
Books that Build Skills.
- Web: https://booksthatbuildskills.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksThatBuildSkills/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BooksThatBuildSkills/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BooksThatBuildSkills
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/booksthatbuildskills/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/19172377
About Attie’s Playlist
You might notice something about this playlist pretty quickly. I am not your typical 15-year-old.
I was raised by Gen Xers, and let me tell you, they are a breed unto themselves. You would not believe how many times I have heard my Aunt Loxley mutter under her breath, “What bad parenting,” when some kid says they don’t know an ’80s or ’90s song, or, heaven forbid, one of the classics like The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Prince, Bowie, or Queen.
Apparently, musical education is a serious parental responsibility in my family.
So yeah, my playlist is a little all over the place. I’ve got music from my generation mixed in with songs that were playing decades before I was born. And if kids my age think that isn’t cool, I’m okay with that.
Because let me tell you, there is a very particular kind of cool that comes from playing Name That Tune with a Gen Xer… and beating them at their own game.
Most of the songs I picked have something else in common too: energy.
I like music that makes me want to move. Music that makes me want to build something, go somewhere, finish the project, take the road trip, dance around the workshop, or just shake my butt for absolutely no productive reason whatsoever.
So turn it up. Dance a little. Sing loudly. Shake your butt.
And if a Gen Xer challenges you to Name That Tune, I hope you’ve been studying.
Track Listing
Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
Making Our Dreams Come True – Cyndi Grecco
CAN’T STOP THE FEELING! (from DreamWorks Animation’s “TROLLS”) – Justin Timberlake
Here Comes The Sun – Remastered 2009 – The Beatles
Safe and Sound – Capital Cities
It’s My Life – Bon Jovi
The Four Seasons: Summer, Violin Concerto in G Minor, RV 315, Op. 8 No. 2: III. Presto – Antonio Vivaldi
Up&Up – Coldplay
You Fckn’ Did It – Jason Mraz
Love is All Around – Sonny Curtis
Future Starts Now – Kim Petras
Let’s Get It Started – Black Eyed Peas
Wildest Dreams – Duomo
We Built This City – Starship
Steal My Sunshine – LEN
Ants Marching – Dave Matthews Band
Live And Let Die – Main Title – Paul McCartney
Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
Groove Is in the Heart – Deee-Lite
Under Pressure – Queen
I Like To Move It – Madagascar 5
Everybody Dance Now – Red Hot Chilli Pipers
Shake It Out – Florence + The Machine
In My Blood – Shawn Mendes
Rock Me Amadeus – Falco
I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
Shut Up And Dance With Me – Fun Guns
Twist And Shout – Remastered 2009 – The Beatles
Dancing with a Stranger – Vitamin String Quartet
Stayin Alive – Bee Gees
Roundtable Rival – Lindsey Stirling
Counting Stars – OneRepublic
Long Live (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift
Rock Of Ages – Def Leppard
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
Brand New Day – Sting
You Get What You Give – New Radicals
Everyday Is A Winding Road – Sheryl Crow
All Star – Smash Mouth
Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
I’ll Be There for You – Theme From “Friends” – The Rembrandts
Roam – The B-52’s
Learning To Fly – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“Heroes” – 2017 Remaster – David Bowie
Thunderstruck – 2CELLOS
