Aside from being breeding grounds for pubic lice and fecal-borne bacteria, bathrooms have become the new Yellow Pages. Beyond the “For a half-decent poke, call Brenda” listings, it’s where you can pick up the best bits of information. From hair and beauty products to sales, technology, and men to avoid, there are things to be learned—especially at networking events + conferences like SXSW.

Cute Jeans. “On sale, Loehmann’s.”
Wow, I wish I had your figure. “Weight Nazi on 71st and Lex. Here’s his number.”
Do my boobs look straight? “…” (see video)

People have their guard down when they’re staring in the mirror, washing up. In movies, it’s often the location of an emotional turning point—a place of self-reflection, where our protagonist enters the bathroom with an unwavering mindset, has a stare down with herself, then suddenly (and often through reflective montage), she knows what must be done, catapulting us into the next act. That, or it’s a place for an illicit stall shag scene.

The loo is a place of leveling. Whether you’re a powerful boldfaced name spotted on Best and Most lists or the sad sack who just lost his job, girl, and twitter followers, we’ve all gotta drop a deuce sometime. We all share that. Some of us just don’t share the TMI details of it to the world—not me, but some of us.

Here’s where the SXSW bit comes in. Now mind you, this was filmed at the butt cleavage of dawn, before my Balance is Bullshit Panel. My hair was unruly and wet, and I could have stood to spend a bit more time in the bathroom mirror, but the content is good, and you’ll see I learned to think “outside the bathroom” (an improvement on ‘outside the box,’ no?) so I’m sharin’ the love (self love + otherwise).

StephanieKlein on Twitter

Also in this video: Ingrid Vanderveldt of On The Road With IV, Balance is Bullshine, Muuter, Dave Peck, SXSW Interactive. The person’s name I forgot, but love, really love: Tim Sanders