To make friends in NYC, sometimes you’ve got to get a little crafty.
Crafty City Girls is a monthly meetup group where you can show up solo and leave with new friends, as well as a display-worthy DIY project like a charm bracelet, chunky knit pumpkin, or any of the upcoming seasonal creations.
This newest way for young women—particularly those new to the city—to get social beyond work or the bar scene is the brainchild of 23-year-old entrepreneur Kayla Krasnow who moved from Connecticut to the Upper East Side a mere four months ago.
“My first two months in the city I did attend a lot of events but really couldn’t find much of what I was looking for,” says the Fairfield University grad. “There are people who’ve told me that their only friends are coworkers or they work remotely and don’t have an opportunity to meet people. I wanted a space where women in their 20s and 30s could form a community.”
Krasnow, who works for herself in the marketing sphere and is also an influencer manager, used her background in marketing and art, as well as experience as a small business owner (two Etsy shops, community events, and her handmade goods sold in retail shops across the U.S.) to create Crafty City Girls. Word got out via TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook about the 30-dollars-per-class activity where all project supplies are provided, plus food and beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic).
The most recent class was populated by at least 40 young women and there was as much community building as there was crafting.
Participant Rachel Shehy, an Ohio native working in operations at an investment bank met Krasnow via their shared book club and appreciates the in-person aspect. “Post Covid plus living in a city, we’re all so busy and career-focused,” she said. She pointed out that activities such as this crafting class “build opportunities to do something where you’re not competing with each other, it’s just something fun to bond over.” Shehy, who’s been here eight years, also says that it’s more of an “authentic community” than so many of the clubs or groups you can join these days that are mainly social media-driven.
Another attendee, Quinn Costello, is a Miami native who just relocated to NYC after graduating college in Santa Barbara. She heard about the group on social media and bought a ticket on impulse. “I’m trying to do more groups to meet new people,” said the field marketer for a vegan frozen food company. Aside from Crafting City Girls, she’s also joined City Girls Who Walk because with these kinds of groups “everyone is intentionally coming to make friends.”
Costello added, “It’s always challenging moving to a new place but I think there are so many growing opportunities, like this class, to make it easier.”
In Here is New York, E.B White said: “There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter—the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something….Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. ”
Our city has been going through a hard time lately, but we’ve been there in the past and will bounce back as we have before and a lot of the reason will be the passion of the influx of new blood moving here, especially impressive young women like Kayla Krasnow and the many others like her.
We really can’t depend on our politicians. The next incarnation of what this city will be is really in our hands. Because like Crafting City Girls, New Yorkers are do-it-yourselfers.
Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of three novels, the latest title is THE LAST SINGLE WOMAN IN NEW YORK CITY.
