Open Tabs is Sunnie’s weekly newsletter, where we share what we’ve been watching, listening to, reading, buying, and thinking about. Plus, we ask someone cool what they’ve been up to.
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“I spent years thinking I had to be either the dancer or the engineer. Now I get to do both.” — Yamilée Toussaint
*In partnership with IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies
We caught up with Yamilée Toussaint, who founded STEM From Dance — which empowers girls of color to unlock their joy, power, and potential in STEM fields — and also partnered with us on our latest Sunnie playbook, STEM Is Everywhere. She builds tech into dance performances and teaches girls how engineering, physics, and coding are already part of movement. Even if they’ve never called it that before.
This week, we talked about what her days actually look like, what “tech-powered performance” really means, and why dance and STEM have always gone hand in hand.
1. What’s happening behind the scenes of a tech-powered performance that most people don’t realize?
People see a performance and might think it’s all magic, but so much of it is engineering. When you’re building a tech-enhanced show — especially with LED costumes — you’re constantly thinking about circuitry, programming sequences, power flow, timing, and how all of that must sync with choreographed movement.
Even something as simple as a digital backdrop or a lighting effect involves math and a lot of technical planning. There’s far more physics and engineering baked into the performance than most people ever realize.
2. What project or situation took a lot of trial and error before it worked?
Wearable tech ALWAYS involves trial and error. When we’re making LED or tech-integrated costumes, the ideation is fun, but nothing works the first time. You have to understand the circuitry before you even start building. Meaning, where the battery goes, how the wires bend, how the lights respond to movement, and how the code interacts with the choreography. There’s a lot of back-and-forth: you fix the code, then test it with the movement, then make adjustments because the performance exposes new issues. Also, time and budget constraints can force us to pivot, so flexibility really becomes part of the design process.
3. Is there a tool, material, or piece of tech you’re low-key obsessed with right now? And why?
I’m fascinated by how AI is transforming creative work. For example, the girls in our STEM From Dance program use AI to create music. Recently, they made an Afrobeats song without actually using the term “Afrobeats,” and then choreographed a dance to it. It creates these opportunities to explore various creative aspects of the process, from the input, to the prompts, or the interpretation. This kind of thing really opens up conversations about how tech supports creativity, and how these tools can be used to enhance your already existing abilities, rather than to rely on completely.
4. What’s a movement you love choreographically that also happens to be very physics-heavy? Where do you feel the science in your body?
Pirouettes! They’re basically pure physics. Balance, momentum, angular momentum — it’s all there. You feel the science the moment you spot, push off the floor, and control your rotation. Dance naturally teaches you physics before you ever learn it in school, so your body understands the concepts before your brain puts words to them.
5. As a lifelong dancer, are there any habits you’ve picked up that you think have secretly helped your engineering abilities?
Definitely spatial awareness — it’s really important in ensemble dancing. You need to know where everyone is, how spacing works, and how patterns shift. And that’s the same mindset you need in engineering design. Understanding how things fit together, how one change affects the whole system, how to move through constraints. All of that comes directly from dance. Also, dance teaches you discipline and flexibility, which helps a lot in engineering when something doesn’t work and you need to pivot quickly.
6. What would you say is the most fun part about combining dance and engineering for you, and what do you think young girls should take away from your experience?
Realizing you don’t have to choose between the two. I spent years thinking I had to be either the dancer or the engineer, and now I get to do both! I’ve learned that tech can enhance storytelling and creativity — it doesn’t replace it. I want girls to know that STEM isn’t dry, scary, or irrelevant. It shows up everywhere, especially in the things they love. Sometimes the initial perception of “this is too hard” keeps people away, but giving STEM a real chance can unlock completely new possibilities. You don’t need to fit a mold — you can build your own path.
If dance can be physics, where else does STEM show up in ways we don’t always expect? Our STEM Is Everywhere Sunnie Playbook goes there, with stories from women like Yamilée (including someone who literally dives with sharks!) and journaling reflections to use when the mood strikes.
✦ The first season of Elle, a Legally Blonde prequel, is coming out July 1 on Prime! Oh my god, you guys!! We can’t wait to see what our fave pink-loving Harvard law student was like back in high school. Even better, Lexi Minetree, Gabby Policano, and Chandler Kinney are starring. We loved hanging with them at Sunniefest this past year! It’s already been renewed for season 2 — and that checks out. We’re about to be totally obsessed.
✦ The PWHL broke the US Women’s Hockey Attendance Record in D.C. with 17,228 fans attending the New York Sirens vs. Montreal Victoire faceoff. And someone in the front row held a sign that said, “I just hope both teams have fun,” which, honestly? Real. We’re seriously loving this upward trend in viewership across the board in women’s sports right now! In the words of the iconic Alex Morgan, Sue Bird, Chloe Kim, and Simone Manuel: “Everyone watches women's sports.” True!
✦ The 2016 trend broke the internet. We loved reliving our childhood Musical.lys and slime obsessions. Plus, now that we’re older and wiser, it’s fun to look back on the King Kylie craze, the universal chokehold of Hamilton, Pretty Little Liars’ serious-unseriousness, and, of course, the constant use of the puppy Snapchat filter. To fully embrace the era, we’re getting into our Nike logo tees, bomber jackets, and, yes, skinny jeans.
✦ Oscar noms are here! Emma Stone made history as the youngest woman ever to receive seven nominations (including two this year for Bugonia). Elle Fanning and Jacob Elordi are up for some big wins, too — Elle for Sentimental Value and Jacob for Frankenstein.
It’s also Teyana Taylor’s first nomination, thanks to her role in One Battle After Another. After the nomination, Teyana said it “feels like a gentle reminder that dreams really do survive… even when the journey is hard. Today feels like a soft, beautiful 'yes' from the universe.” A reminder that just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it’s not happening — sometimes you’re already on the path, and the universe is just catching up.
✦ Morgann Book is headed to Canada Reads, and we’re so excited for her bookish energy to make its way from our phone screens to our TVs. Five Canadian celebs each pick one book they think everyone should read, debate it, and vote one out every day. Morgann’s pick is It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard. The last book standing wins. Basically, if reality TV and reading had a baby. We’ll be SAT April 13 to 16.
✦ Madison Beer released her third album, Locket, full of relatable songs about mixed emotions and self-reflection. Plus, she announced she’s going on tour! We haven’t had a new Madison album since 2023, and we’re so excited to belt this one in the shower. And to those tour tickets, if you’re reading this, we’re gonna make you mine.
✦ We’re all collecting buttons in 2026, and it only has to make sense to us. This TikTok user Tamara shared her plan to collect one button per day because she “wants to do more stuff” and is “scared of time so [she] wants to be more conscious of it.”
When people asked what she’s doing with the buttons, she replied, “Hey so it actually only has to make sense to me for me to do it and I don’t feel like explaining it to anyone else.” Boundaries icon behavior. Thank you, Tamara, for the reminder to stop people pleasing, and that the only approval we need is our own.
✦ Finn Wolfhard hosted Saturday Night Live, and he brought out Caleb and Gaten during the monologue. “Even though we are now men, you’ll always be my boys,” Finn told them. Be still, our Stranger Things hearts!! Speaking of their friendship, in an interview posted this week, Finn reflected on first meeting Gaten years ago. The co-stars-turned-roommates grew up together in front of our eyes — and alongside us and our longtime besties. Hawkins forever <3.
✦ Olivia Rodrigo is the face of Lancôme’s new fragrance, Idôle Peach ‘N Roses — a bright and fruity everyday scent with notes of red berries, juicy peach, and velvety rose. Definitely not Sour (lol). We can’t wait to try it.
✦ Alix Earle is going to be a reality star! And it’s all about her family. “People think they know everything there is to know about me and my family, but honestly, there’s still so much more,” she said about the show. If we learned anything from this season of Dancing With the Stars, it’s that Alix can accomplish anything she puts her mind to – and she’s showing us that we can, too. So whether it's GRWMs, sisterly tea, dance training, or launching her own business, we’ll be cheering her on from our couch.
✦ Harry Styles released his new single — and it’s basically an open invite to let a little more positivity in. The optimistic bop, Aperture, includes lyrics like “It's best you know what you don't,” which feels like a reminder that even Harry doesn’t have it all figured out (comforting!). And the song’s fun EDM beat is kind of daring us to disco, occasionally.
✦ Hilary Duff is back on tour. And legitimately, THIS is what dreams are made of. For those of us who jammed to Come Clean and So Yesterday from the backseat, it's finally our time to take control of the aux and play…the exact same songs (with her upcoming album Luck…or Something mixed in, of course). BRB, if you need us, we’ll be throwing pennies into an Italian fountain, wishing for tickets to the Small Rooms, Big Nerves tour.
