BEARING WITNESS

Lauren Hough is unicorn-level rare: someone who strode on to Twitter cracking witty and street-wise, a sharp-tongued yet strikingly kind presence. She wrote a cracking essay that went, well, pandemic-level viral, was snapped up for a book deal, and her memoir, cunningly disguised as a collection of essays, hit the New York Times bestsellers list in its first week. Oh, and Cate Blanchett is such a fan that she narrated the audiobook.

To be fair, Hough’s story (it’s pronounced “huff”) is extraordinary. Born in Germany and raised in seven countries, she’s been in the US Air Force, a bouncer at a gay club (“I only cared that I could