The Anti-Mean Girls Hosting Hollywood’s Hot New Party

On any given Thursday night, there are plenty of places you can go in Los Angeles. But recently, there’s been only one place you should go. Hidden behind the popular Italian restaurant Mother Wolf sits Mars, a newly opened cocktail lounge with an optional $5,000 membership fee that gets you a personalized liquor locker, among other perks. (Beyoncé and Jay-Z are among its members.) There, Thursday night is for the girls. Specifically, the StarGirls.

Each week, founders and longtime friends Audrey Angel, Paloma Lazzarino, and Natasha Hunt Lee, a group of 20-something creative types (Angel’s an aspiring actor and photographer with a jewelry brand on the side; Lazzarino is a Parsons grad who has dabbled in everything from product development to talent management; and Lee is a musician who had a former life in real estate management until her ex-boyfriend “diplomatically removed me from our company”), throw a Thursday night rager, inviting their hottest, most interesting friends to take over the room.

Themes vary from week-to-week, ranging from Bratz to this week’s “Pepsi Cola P*ssy,” and dancing is mandatory. Every weekend, you can wake up and relive the night as they flood their Instagram page with snaps from the night. They may only have around 300 followers (their personal Instagrams are a different story), but that’s the point. “[Our page] doesn’t take itself so seriously, which I think is one of our biggest things,” says Lazzarino. “Just stop taking things so seriously and just have a good time.”

In six months, one random night out (Angel, working at Mars, invited her friends over post-shift, and they all had such a good time, they just kept coming back) has turned into a full-fledged scene, attracting the likes of Role Model, Kaitlyn Dever, Sydney Carlson, and Olivia O’Brien, among others, as well as a serious business enterprise, already expanding with additional residency on Wednesdays at The Spare Room and many one-off parties. But the main objective has not changed: It’s a night to have fun, and everyone is invited. “Thursdays are open to the public,” Lazzarino adds. “We want them to be inclusive, and we want people to be able to see what’s going on on Instagram, and be like, ‘I want to check that out.’”

At StarGirls, everyone is part of Young Hollywood.

How did you guys first go from being friends who like to go out to friends who run a business based on going out?

Paloma: Audrey and I have always wanted to go into business together. We’ve always had these hopes and dreams but never had an opportunity where our worlds could collide in terms of the workplace. Within the past six months is when we all looked at each other and we’re like, “OK, I think we can do something here.”

Audrey: When I started working at Mars, they started coming to support, we all were like, “This is such a gorgeous place…. We should just start coming here every week.” And then that became, “Oh, we should make it official.” And that's when StarGirls formed.

Paloma: And we never stopped. There was never a conversation of “Oh, should we do a second one?” We just kept going.

Audrey: It's always been in the back of our minds wanting to be in business together but not necessarily knowing which avenue to take because Natasha's background is music, Paloma's is fashion, I act. But then when we all were together in that space, we were like, “Maybe we could do this.”

Paloma: When we could see the types of people we could bring together, it was just so nice to look at.

Audrey: Plus, Natasha’s been throwing parties for years now.

Natasha: I was doing it very unofficially. When this opportunity came up, it was also strictly women this time around. There's so many women running this situation [beyond us], whether it's through social media and marketing or [PR]. This was so fun to me as an idea on paper. I'm shocked in an earnest way that it's going so well. It makes me feel happy that we're part of something like that. But also I'm not shocked because when you put a bunch of good women together in something that they actually enjoy and have fun in, it's bound to work.

Why Mars for the party?

Audrey: So I started hosting at Mars and we were strategizing, talking with Steph and Stacy and Ethan about how we could make Thursdays be something. Stacy had texted me one day saying “Can you bring your friends tonight.” And I texted two of my friends, and they were like, “Say less. We are there.” They came with 30 of our friends, and it immediately filled the space, and that was the catalyst for Ethan to be like, “We should do that every week.”

Natasha: Also, our friends are picky, but everyone loves Mars.

Audrey: Because it’s sexy.

Natasha: The first night that we were there, by 1 a.m., everyone was up dancing with the other strangers in the bar. We were in a full conga line with 40-year-olds that we don't know on the other side of us. And not even just us, but the nightlife-y people, our more shy friends, were like, “F*ck yeah, let's go back.” And that was a really good indicator.

Paloma: As exclusive as the place is, what I find so nice is that we have these gorgeous lounge area tables for people who bought a table, but they're still very much in it with you. It feels really inclusive, which I really like, instead of having tables elevated and removed like you can't reach those people.

Natasha: After the first few times of everyone coming, then that's when we were like, “Let's choose a date for our first official party.”

“One of the worst things about L.A. nightlife is that people don't really have fun and they don't really sweat.”

What was that party like? Did it differ from other nights you’d spent there?

Natasha: The Big Bang.

Paloma: We sat on this couch and were like, “What do we name it?” We came up with The Big Bang.

Natasha: We made a flier, talked to everyone we know.

Audrey: We put our friends on the bill as DJs.

Paloma: And we called ourselves the StarGirls.

Natasha: We got disposable cameras for the party, and honestly we had a great time, but when we got the photos back I was like, “Whoa.” That became a real staple I think of the parties because we’re really lucky to be around super fun, beautiful people, and nothing sells anything quite like smiling, beautiful people who are sincerely smiling. That was the core of our first party, which had less people than our second party had, than our third, fourth, and so forth.

I love that you have a link to all the photos from each party in your Instagram bio and post them on your page immediately, because let’s be honest, everyone wants a fun, hot picture of them from the night before.

Natasha: It's like mobile uploads. We're bringing that back. That's another thing we were talking about, like “Should we do one post with 10 highlight photos per party because we could obviously center likes that way.” But f*ck that, just put out all the photos. Even if that means that they're getting four likes because there's hundreds of photos going up, it doesn't matter because the point is people are scrolling through that and that is more of a resume or ad for us than anything.

Audrey: It also just doesn't take itself so seriously, which I think is one of our biggest things, to just stop taking things so seriously and just have a good time. That's why we're all here.

Natasha: That’s why we do themes, too. It all comes down to just having fun.

Since you all have had a stint in New York before returning to L.A., how much has that informed what a StarGirls party is?

Natasha: Honestly, I don't even think we've thought about our New York common thread, but I do think it certainly gave us a fun roughness. We like being out; we like staying late. One of the worst things about L.A. nightlife is that people don't really have fun and they don't really sweat. If there's paparazzi outside, people won’t dance because then you’ll be shiny if someone wants to take a photo.

Paloma: But we want to be shiny.

Audrey: We like dancing.

Natasha: Since we got to experience what an actual fun party is like [in New York] and see people really throwing down without even thinking, that was a priority. That's what we want to see at the parties that we go to and we make.

At what point did you realize this could be an actual business?

Natasha: I think it took a month of being like “What is happening?” And then we had our friend's birthday, and at that end of the event, we went to the office to go over the night and the founder of Mars was like, “I just want you girls to know we really crossed this milestone and now you're making money for us.”

Audrey: I was emotional.

Paloma: I think I cried a little bit.

How does running StarGirls fit in with all of your own personal creative projects?

Audrey: I was missing that more solid tangibility of the day-to-day. This has just completely provided everything. There is structure in our week and I feel like that somehow has also given me even more freedom to focus on auditions and photography. There's something so sweet about having that community rather than just floating.

Natasha: All the side gigs and hustles and things that we've done really provide us with such a different attitude as it pertains to work. For example, Audrey does literally everything with regards to merch. So when it comes to trying to figure out how to get something or figure out content, we have that. Paloma has been in corporate structures in a way that is invaluable. And when I was negotiating with City Hall in West Hollywood [when working real estate], I was listening to people negotiating in crisis, which really helped me to now be like “F*ck no.” We all bring something to the table so that we can really keep advancing as much as possible for ourselves.

“At our bowling event last week, I look over and I'm like, ‘Is that motherf*cking Zack and Cody?’”

Who gets invited to the parties now that it’s expanded beyond just your friends?

Natsha: By nature, they’re open to the public. We want them to be inclusive, and we want people to be able to see what's going on on Instagram, and be like, “I want to check that out.” We're really cognizant of if there's an issue because sometimes there is a nightlife where there's just a little bit of a creep. We handle that immediately. And other than that, it's open unless we're doing something really intimate or it is a birthday.

You’re attracting a lot of Young Hollywood celebs. Is that from word of mouth, or are you inviting them directly?

Paloma: They've sort of naturally made their way. We’re lucky that within our 30 best friends, we have a lot of influencers at different tiers. We have a lot of friends that are micro celebrities — or macro, depending — and they spread the word and bring people in. There's also been a lot of occasions where people have just wandered in and don't know who StarGirls [are], and it's just happenstance.

Natasha: We were sitting at our bowling event last week, and just because I'm a child of the 2000s, I look over and I'm like, “Is that motherf*cking Zack and Cody?” It was Cole [Sprouse], who came with guy friends, and later, we were smoking a cigarette at the same time, so he reached out his hand and introduced himself. I told him about our business, And he's like, “This is so great. I can't wait for the next thing.” So it happens all the time.

Paloma: KJ Apa actually came to our first one.

What is each of your roles on Thursday night?

Paloma: I mean, I hope dancing.

Natasha: We’ll be mostly swiping photos.

Audrey: We're doing the photos, we're dancing, and then, honestly, I feel like we wander around the whole time and literally cannot go 5 feet without being stopped by the next person. That’s always a five- to 15-minute convo or maybe more, and then you just keep going and hitting those marks and constantly being introduced to people.

Natasha: We realize that there's such a fine chemistry to making people really feel welcome. They need to feel like after they've spoken to one of us, like, “Oh, I really like that person and they really liked me.”

Paloma: I think someone who doesn't know us would assume that we're maybe not very kind. We're all dressed up and we're running these parties, and I just feel like sometimes people are sour. And so we all make a lot of effort to turn to people and say thank you so much for coming. It really makes a big difference.

How do you grow from here? Is the goal to team up with bigger brands to get paid to host parties?

Natasha: I think the really cool thing about StarGirls as an idea is really we're a stamp and a nod of like “Yeah, this is good. You should go to this.” We'll be there on a foundational level influencing the attitude. So that can be really in any city or any brand, because what we’re saying by hosting an event is that we make the event at least partially women-led and we bring in our audience. If people like what we're doing, it can be attached to really anything. So we're constantly looking for partnerships.

Audrey: We would love to expand to other cities. We'd love to do New York. We'd love to do Paris, London, and take advantage of the fashion weeks. We'll by nature always be based in L.A. because we all live here, so we come back to these residencies. But moving with our crowd as they do fashion week, for festivals, for film festivals, all those things, for holidays, would be so, so fun.

Paloma: I think what we're really trying to do is create a lifestyle, more than just a certain brand in nightlife. It’s this idea of taking up space and having fun and doing the things that the little kid inside of you wants you to do when you're in your twenties or thirties. That can be attached to a lot of things.

“I think someone who doesn't know us would assume that we're maybe not very kind. We all make a lot of effort to turn to people and say thank you so much for coming. It really makes a big difference.”

What is the guarantee of a StarGirls party?

Audrey: You’re going to have a good time.

Paloma: That and you're going to feel safe. Something we're adamant on is creating a safe space, particularly for women. I was talking to two guys the other night who were like, “Do you ever do anything downtown?” And I was like, “Well, we try not to.” And they sort of laughed at me, and I was like, “It's not funny. It's not funny because it's not safe.”

Natasha: Like Paloma said, you're going to feel safe. Like Audrey said, you're going to have a good time. You're going to be in a great way surrounded by a bunch of beautiful, smiling women because that's what we bring in with our friends and people trust us.

Paloma: And we’re going to be happy to see you.

All photos courtesy of Maxamillion Polo. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.