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Searching For Stars

A multimedia memoir experience! A digital embodiment of musical echolalia.

Where sound becomes memory & memory becomes meaning.

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What if memory had a soundtrack?


What if healing came in mixtapes?

Pixel art image of Lauren and Jamie driving through time-young love, memory, and music shaping the feeling of motion in a Searching for Stars universe.
Searching For Stars
  • What is Searching for Stars?

    Searching for Stars is a multimedia memoir where songs unlock memory.



    Each story begins with a piece of music: a lyric, a melody, a moment and follows the memories it carries with it. Childhood, family, grief, motherhood, friendship, and the strange way certain songs seem to hold entire chapters of life inside them.



    Through essays, pixel art, and nostalgic fragments of culture, Searching for Stars explores how music becomes memory and how memory becomes identity.



    You can wander through the stories like a constellation.



    Every piece connects to another somewhere in the sky.


CHOOSE YOUR PATH:

Pixel art image of a floating CD store in space, representing music as memory, discovery, and emotional connection in a Searching for Stars universe.  The Cosmic Sound shop

The Cosmic Sound Shop

Stories sparked by songs & the memories music carries throughout time.

Pixel art image of a glowing movie theater at night, representing film, music, and shared memories in a Searching for Stars universe.  Cinematic Embers

Cinematic Embers

Moments ignited by films and the characters that embed into our memory.

Pixel art image of a floating post office in space, representing letters of gratitude, connection, and messages of hope sent across time in a Searching for Stars universe.  The Cosmic Post Office

The Cosmic Post Office

Letters of gratitude, reflection, and light sent into the universe.

Pixel art camera floating in a galaxy beside a polaroid photo of Lauren Nixon-Matney and her pixel art counterpart, representing the Searching for Stars digital scrapbook of memories, photos, and nostalgic life moments. A Live action/animation hybrid tribute.

Scrapbook!

Pixelated photograph nostalgia. Live action/animation hybrid fragments of memory.

Explore the Galaxy!


Searching for Stars isn’t a chronological story.

It’s a constellation of memories.

Follow whichever thread calls to you, they’re all part of the same sky.



Star Shuffle:

By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
*A letter of light for Rosie Blair* Okay this is going to sound oddly specific but stay with me... You remind me of a very particular kind of feeling. The kind that lives somewhere between fall air, soft lighting, and a childhood movie that most people forgot existed, but the ones who remember it? Oh we remember. The 1987 Chipmunk Adventure! Which I did not expect to ever connect to another adult human about, and yet here I am. There’s just something about that movie the movement, the music, the chaos, the fun, the outfits, the chipettes... like being in motion and color and sound at the same time. And watching you feels like that again in a weirdly beautiful , full circle way. Not in a “this is aesthetic content” way more like a “this is a person who actually lives inside her life” way. And ironically that’s what makes your aesthetic top notch in my opinion. Cozy but not fake. Honest and raw but not too harsh. Funny without trying to perform funny. (which is rarer than people think) There’s a warmth in how you show up that feels familiar in a way I can’t fully explain but definitely recognize. I came across you scrolling my phone, postpartum, trying to find my footing again. At the time I was in that weird in between space, relearning my body, trying to feel like myself inside something that had completely changed... yet again. And you showed up in your space on instagram in a way that felt real. Authentic. Original. Not “perfect body positivity” not curated confidence just a woman existing in her body dressing it, living in it, laughing in it and making that feel normal again. Healthy. Beautiful. Fun! Something I really grew to respect about you was that you didn’t stay frozen in one version of that message or yourself just to make people comfortable. You shifted. And I really admire the way you talk about Changing your mind. Leaving spaces that don’t feel right anymore. Figuring out that loving yourself isn’t one fixed version it evolves. That kind of honesty is quietly powerful and extremely profound. You evolved and changed your mind out loud. And people always have something to say when a woman does that... but you stayed steady anyway. That kind of self trust? That’s the part people don’t talk about enough. That’s what bravery looks like in real time! You don’t just create content, you create an honest space for people to re-meet themselves in whatever version they’re currently in. It’s the kind of magic that doesn’t need to be announced it just exists, and people feel it when they orbit around it. You didn’t just show up on my feed, you showed up in a moment where I needed to feel like myself again. Like a song you forgot you loved until it comes back on and suddenly you remember everything. And somehow through outfits, honesty, humor, book reviews and a lot of zany ingenuity... you saved parts of my girlhood that likely make me a better mother. Thanks so much for being you! Thanks for being real. Thanks for taking up space, your energy’s reach is more powerful than you ever might have imagined. P.S... I have to add this because it lives rent free in my brain! That Taylor Swift workout series you did?!? absolutely unhinged in the best way It was funny and chaotic and somehow still motivating… I'm not deep in Taylor Swift knowledge territory, but it made me pause and go “okay wait... there’s something here.” The way she owns her work, reclaims it, redraws the line that I own me energy it felt incredibly aligned with what you were doing too. With love, light and gratitude, Stay Weird! -Lauren “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” -Louisa May Alcott
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Queen: Another One Bites The Dust
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Film: Hope Floats
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Film: Donnie Darko Jams from The Donnie Darko Soundtrack!
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
*A letter of light for Rosie Blair* Okay this is going to sound oddly specific but stay with me... You remind me of a very particular kind of feeling. The kind that lives somewhere between fall air, soft lighting, and a childhood movie that most people forgot existed, but the ones who remember it? Oh we remember. The 1987 Chipmunk Adventure! Which I did not expect to ever connect to another adult human about, and yet here I am. There’s just something about that movie the movement, the music, the chaos, the fun, the outfits, the chipettes... like being in motion and color and sound at the same time. And watching you feels like that again in a weirdly beautiful , full circle way. Not in a “this is aesthetic content” way more like a “this is a person who actually lives inside her life” way. And ironically that’s what makes your aesthetic top notch in my opinion. Cozy but not fake. Honest and raw but not too harsh. Funny without trying to perform funny. (which is rarer than people think) There’s a warmth in how you show up that feels familiar in a way I can’t fully explain but definitely recognize. I came across you scrolling my phone, postpartum, trying to find my footing again. At the time I was in that weird in between space, relearning my body, trying to feel like myself inside something that had completely changed... yet again. And you showed up in your space on instagram in a way that felt real. Authentic. Original. Not “perfect body positivity” not curated confidence just a woman existing in her body dressing it, living in it, laughing in it and making that feel normal again. Healthy. Beautiful. Fun! Something I really grew to respect about you was that you didn’t stay frozen in one version of that message or yourself just to make people comfortable. You shifted. And I really admire the way you talk about Changing your mind. Leaving spaces that don’t feel right anymore. Figuring out that loving yourself isn’t one fixed version it evolves. That kind of honesty is quietly powerful and extremely profound. You evolved and changed your mind out loud. And people always have something to say when a woman does that... but you stayed steady anyway. That kind of self trust? That’s the part people don’t talk about enough. That’s what bravery looks like in real time! You don’t just create content, you create an honest space for people to re-meet themselves in whatever version they’re currently in. It’s the kind of magic that doesn’t need to be announced it just exists, and people feel it when they orbit around it. You didn’t just show up on my feed, you showed up in a moment where I needed to feel like myself again. Like a song you forgot you loved until it comes back on and suddenly you remember everything. And somehow through outfits, honesty, humor, book reviews and a lot of zany ingenuity... you saved parts of my girlhood that likely make me a better mother. Thanks so much for being you! Thanks for being real. Thanks for taking up space, your energy’s reach is more powerful than you ever might have imagined. P.S... I have to add this because it lives rent free in my brain! That Taylor Swift workout series you did?!? absolutely unhinged in the best way It was funny and chaotic and somehow still motivating… I'm not deep in Taylor Swift knowledge territory, but it made me pause and go “okay wait... there’s something here.” The way she owns her work, reclaims it, redraws the line that I own me energy it felt incredibly aligned with what you were doing too. With love, light and gratitude, Stay Weird! -Lauren “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” -Louisa May Alcott
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Queen: Another One Bites The Dust
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Film: Hope Floats
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Musical Echolalia


Sometimes a song unlocks an entire chapter of life.


A single lyric, and suddenly you’re standing in a room you haven’t visited in years… hearing voices, feeling the air, remembering who you were then.


I call this musical echolalia:

the way music echoes memory back to us.


Certain songs replay not just sound, but moments: childhood summers, heartbreaks, friendships, quiet victories, the people who shaped us.


Searching for Stars is built from those echoes.


Every story begins with a song that refused to stay in the past.



Learn More Here!