Zoe Lister-Jones Did All Of Park Slope's Bat Mitzvah Makeup

Nobody’s more Park Slope than Zoe Lister-Jones. ”[I had] probably one of the most Brooklyn bat mitzvahs out of all Brooklyn bat mitzvahs,” Lister-Jones concedes. Born and raised in the borough, her bat mitzvah took place at the Park Slope Jewish Center and her party was above the Park Slope Food Coop. But it’s not just the geography that made her experience so uniquely Brooklyn, it was the overall ethos of the event. “I had a dance party that I only invited girls to. It was like 15 of us just dancing to Ani DiFranco, disco, and some Cindi Lauper. I was into a lot of intense music at that time like Liz Phair and other iconic feminist crooners.”

This girl’s only spirit has carried Lister-Jones throughout her life and career. Now 38, the New Girl actor turned director made waves when she produced her first feature film, Band Aid, with an all-female crew. “It’s interesting that I chose to have an all women crew. Clearly there is something that the younger girl in me understood about how I felt safe in that environment,” she says. And in her subsequent works she’s been forced to explore exactly who she was as a young girl. Last fall she released a reimagining of the cult classic teenage witch film The Craft, and at this year’s Sundance Film Festival she debuted How It Ends, which follows a woman spending her last day on earth with a metaphysical rendering of her childhood self. (Lister-Jones also stars as the protagonist.) “Whenever I write I find my way in through the personal existential questions that I’m navigating. And the questions that I’ve been navigating [relate to] my adolescence. How that girl is still in me and needs a lot more conversation and attention than I understood.”

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Below, Lister-Jones reflects on the day her younger self became a woman — vintage, ‘70s mini dress and rainbow cookies included. 

On partying above the Park Slope Food Coop: 

My godmother is this incredible painter named Joan Snyder and she had a studio in Park Slope above the Park Slope Food Coop. It was a really cool, old space that had murals all over the walls because it used to be an old bike repair shop. It was pretty low-fi but definitely vibey. The only things I remember requesting were chocolate covered strawberries and rainbow cookies.

On her thrifted ensemble: 

I wore a vintage, baby pink, brocade dress that I got at a thrift store with these silver high heels so I was pretty wild looking. I did have an outfit change for the party, which was this amazing vintage 70s mini dress. I remember fashion being a big [part of the day] for me. I shaved my head that year so I was quite androgynous and I rarely wore dresses so I think for me to [wear one] was big. 

On her family’s feminist approach to Judaism: 

I went to a conservative, egalitarian synagogue called the Park Slope Jewish Center. My mom was actually president of the synagogue for a number of years during my childhood. When we started going there when I was like two and we had a woman rabbi. When she ended up leaving our congregation, a male rabbi replaced her and I bursted into tears. People asked me what was wrong and I said, “I didn’t realize men could be rabbis!” 

My mom was always part of these amazing all women’s circles [at the temple] that had new moon and full moon rituals. My synagogue was also focused on gender neutral god language and really equity in general. But when my mom and I would go to Canada [to visit] her family, they were not part of a community like that. So when we’d go to their Passover seders my mom would always bring a feminist Haggadah that she’d read excerpts from and people would be so uncomfortable. But our synagogue was the opposite. Anything went. I could be my full sort of feminist, androgynous self without fear of judgement or discomfort. So that was a really amazing way to become a woman. 

On being the go-to makeup artist on the bat mitzvah circuit: 

Somebody bought me Kevyn Aucoin’s book Making Faces, which is this really amazing coffee table book of his work where he transforms women into movie stars of yore. After reading it I was like a sponge, I just wanted to learn more about makeup. So by the time I became 13 and all of my girlfriend’s had their bat mitzvahs, I’d cornered that Jewish Park Slope girl market and was doing all of their makeup. I wasn’t doing like the Kevyn Aucoin pre-Kardashian contour. It was simple, but I would do two looks: one for the service and then one for the after party. It was the ‘90s, so glitter would come out for the after party. I would just try to look at their eye shape and their face shape, which I learned from Kevyn, and do the right contouring or brush strokes to make it pop. 

In pictures of me from my bat mitzvah, it doesn’t even look like I am wearing makeup. I loved makeup but I was at an age where I wasn’t really interested in it for myself. I liked having other people’s faces as a canvas, but I felt very invisible in terms of my own sense of self. Maybe I was trying to make myself invisible in terms of the male gaze? I think I might’ve put on a little mascara or something. I looked very natural. 

On being incredibly impressed by her 13-year-old self:

I was made fun of a lot at my school. So I look back on myself at that age and I’m impressed with her. That she was able to sort of carve her own path and be so fearless about it. I don’t think I understood [that there would be] repercussions for [having a shaved head] and dressing like I did. I didn’t understand that I would then become a target of bullying. I just thought they were cool [aesthetic choices]. So that was happening for sure, but I also had a community of people that I did feel seen by and seen with. And my mom and dad were the coolest so they were obviously very supportive of all of my choices. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.