Brooke Averick Details How Writing Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It Shaped Her Own Dating Journey

Sometimes, life truly imitates art. 

And for TikToker-turned-podcaster-turned-author Brooke Averick, writing her forthcoming debut novel Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It—and the book’s lovably anxious protagonist—had more of an impact on her real life than she could’ve imagined.

Because while readers may find inspiration in Phoebe’s determined journey to lose her virginity in the final month before she turns 30—after a lifetime of crippling dating-related anxiety—Brooke, too, walked away with a lesson from her protagonist.

“As far as dating goes,” she told E! News in an exclusive interview, “I had had pretty limited dating experience, like Phoebe, before I started writing. And it was actually writing Phoebe that inspired me to start putting myself out there a lot more.”

But while Brooke, too, has been candid about her own experience with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), her and Phoebe’s journeys quickly diverge. 

“I think that Phoebe’s thought spirals really mirrored my own, but the way that I was able to create a boundary between me and Phoebe was that she reacted to her thoughts spirals very differently than I do,” the 29-year-old explained. “I’m very type B.”