making waves

Actor Sydney Sweeney feels most like herself when she's on the water, whether waterskiing or spending time with family. And that connection with home flows into all aspects of her public life.

- Lindsay Geller

This is a story about Sydney Sweeney... and a lake.

"I grew up on the water," says the 26-year-old. On the surface, she's referencing where she spent childhood on a lake in a small town on the Washington-Idaho border. But Sydney is sharing something deeper. To the self-described homebody turned starlet, the lake is more than a location; it's the place that shaped her into who she is, and where she returns to feel most herself.

There, she's not two-time Emmy nominee and FiftyFifty Films founder Sydney Sweeney; she's Lake Syd.

She soft-launched the idea of Lake Syd last summer after bringing her stylist and other members of her work team to her family's lake for a week. At the trip's end, she captioned an Instagram post chronicling their adventures, "wish you knew lake syd." So who exactly is Lake Syd? "She's truly just who I am at the core, everything stripped away," Sydney says. "I wrote that caption because everyone with me was like, 'Wow, really wish the world could see Lake Syd,' because it's just who I am."

Lake Syd goes on hikes with her rescue dog, Tank, and spends her free time organizing her house. She drives a four-wheeler in the woods and likes to jump off a rope swing into the water. She wears matching Christmas PJs with her family (including Tank) and dreams of opening an ice cream shop. More than anything, Lake Syd loves slalom waterskiing. Slalom is different from traditional waterskiing in that you strap both legs onto a single ski.

"The moment I could walk, my mom put me on what's called a U-board to learn how to ski," Sydney says. "I remember that whenever we would go by the docks of my grandma's or my cousin's house, I'd wave. I felt so cool because I could take off one hand. That's my earliest memory of skiing, but I've been doing it as long as I can remember. It's my favorite."