https://nylon.com/articles/jenny-slate-nylon-october-2018-cover

For Slate, this took the unfamiliar and unwelcome form of a general cynicism; she told me, “I think of myself, and I believe in myself, as a kind, rational woman. And I think I really started to expect the worst in people, and I really didn’t recognize that point of view in myself. I started to understand that it came from a dissolution of some of the belief systems that I had. I believed partnership should be one way, and then I got divorced. I believed that our political system worked in a certain way, and that democracy worked in a certain way, and that was really, really turned upside-down. ” Slate needed to recalibrate, reorient herself in the world: I had to take a look at what my own behaviors were, why they didn’t serve me, and what I lost in my life. Whether it was my own self-esteem, whether it was my sense of reality, whether it was simply my temper that I lost… or was it just my faith or my innocence? Those are things I want to keep, no matter what’s going on in this world. [I want to keep] my faith in people—not my religious faith, but my human-based faith. Those are the things I need in order to be an artist and in order to be a good partner. And I just didn’t feel that I believed in myself as either one of those things. And so I had to really look at it. And it’s really hard. It can be humiliating. There is something particularly humbling about starting over when you’re an adult, and when you’ve already achieved no small measure of success. You’re not supposed to be some inchoate person, you’re supposed to know what you’re doing. But any residual humiliation that Slate might be feeling is not at all apparent; it doesn’t really matter why she had gotten to a place where she needed a reboot, it only matters that she was able to do it, and do it on her own terms. Slate said, “The second that I started to have to be alone and really understand what I want from myself, it started to happen pretty quickly that I was able to make changes and grow up finally. I really do feel like I’m the adult version of my child self—which means that I haven’t lost my innocence or my inclination to be gregarious or have fun. But my self-respect has grown, and my dedication to being a feminist is stronger than ever… Whatever my next partnership is—even though I don’t know who that will be with, because I really have been so super-solo—I know I’ll be a good partner, because I feel that I have more dignity, and more flexibility and more eagerness, to accept someone than I’ve ever had before, and I do think it’s because I accept myself.”