 "Photo: Image Courtesy of LiveJournal.com")
It was 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007 when I walked into Jennifer's Coffee Connection. About 25 teenagers had taken over the place. They were sprawled out on the couches, chairs and the floor, chattering quietly.
From the shocked faces of adults entering the place to get their morning coffee, I could tell it was not the typical Sunday morning crowd. The black hoodies, Chuck Taylor's, skinny jeans and vests (not to mention the facial piercings and dyed hair) sharply contrasted the workout clothing and khaki pants of the locals.
Everyone was facing the back right corner of the coffee shop, waiting for something. At 11:16 a.m. on the dot, a tattooed man rushes in saying, "I'm late to my own speaking!" Weaving between teenagers, he sets up shop in the back right corner the audience had chosen for him and begins to tell his story.
"What does it feel like to be open and exposed without agenda?" asked Christopher Gutierrez in a LiveJournal entry three years earlier. In the time since that question was typed, he has gotten closer and closer to finding an answer. After having a song written about him - Fall Out Boy's "Grenade Jumper"- he created a LiveJournal as a joke.
The journal is entitled "Ask Hey Chris" because of lyrics in the song. The journal gives insight on the life of a straight-edge boy from Chicago who lives by his own rules and motives. Everyday, more and more people read his LiveJournal entries. He now gets over 20,000 hits a day. Sure, at first most people read it because it got them one step closer to one of their favorite bands, but years later they're still reading.
One thing led to another: from LiveJournal to a book to a spoken word CD to another book and now, a book tour. Gutierrez is currently doing a 17 city book tour, traveling across the country. He says of the tour so far, "It's an awesome thing to go around the country and be able to do this for a living. I still don't believe that it's real. That's how awesome it is to me. I get to see friends and travel to different places, go to states I've never been to before. It's amazing. I can't imagine it getting better than this."
He recently quit his job as a hairstylist to pursue his dream full time: starting his own publishing company, Dead Stop Publishing, to put out his books, "On the Upswing of Life, Love, and Regret" and "A Life Deliberate." Gutierrez truly represents the Internet generation, building a following from a LiveJournal and building a following by simply being himself. "The great thing about the Internet community is that it's giant," says Gutierrez, "and it's worldwide and you can go around anywhere. I've sent books out to countries like Burma, Japan, Australia, the UK and Haiti. It's weird to think that, wow, there's somebody in Haiti who reads what I do?"
You'd think going to see someone speak would be boring, especially for teenagers with low attention spans. Watching Gutierrez was anything but boring. Telling the stories of trying to fit in as a kid and failing miserably at it, and now standing before an audience as a strong 32-year-old with his heart tattooed (quite literally) on his sleeve, is quite empowering. The stories are easy to relate to because even if you've had a different experience than Gutierrez's, everyone has felt the same feelings growing up.
"The demographic is teenager years. I think that's a time for growth and a lot of kids don't have answers for things. Not that I do, but I've learned a lot through the experiences of being that age and I write about that and I think that a lot of kids can identify. They can say 'Oh, wow, he's been through this before and maybe he knows how to articulate himself and discuss that.'
Instead of me being a typical adult who can't identify with kids of that age I still have this younger mindset. Plus I come packaged with tattoos and whatnot," said Gutierrez. Seeing him speak and watching the faces of the audience, was like being in a group therapy session. Kids were hearing about thoughts and experiences they've been through before, but told in a different way.
Nobody left the coffee shop, including Gutierrez, until each picture was taken, each autograph signed and everyone said what they needed to say to him about how their lives were changed by his words.
For more information on Christopher Gutierrez, visit http://askheychris.livejournal.com or www.myspace.com/askheychris.
