A Testimony Of “The Extraordinary Influence” Of Louis Tomlinson: ‘The Love It Takes’ By Skylar Burton (And Louies)

Here at The Honey POP!, belief in the power of fans drips from our pores. We’ve seen fans single handedly fill world arenas with synchronised lights, host streaming parties across the globe, and even get albums to Number 1 with no radio play. And yes… every single accomplishment in this list can be ticked off the list by fans of Louis Tomlinson. And now, those dedicated fans and their support for Louis, has gone to print! ‘The Love It Takes – The Extraordinary Influence of Louis Tomlinson’ is here.

Yes, with true love, pride, and passion for Louis Tomlinson, and with the drive of one particular fan, that love is now catalogued in history, with its very own book! Author, editor and publisher, Skylar Burton has united Louies worldwide with ‘The Love It Takes’ – A book so unique in its vision, creation, and delivery, that we have sobbed, laughed, and not been able put it down since its arrival. A biography of sorts, ‘The Love It Takes’ brings together the collective journey between Louis Tomlinson and his fans through stories, poetry, art and more, solely by Louis Tomlinson fans. A declaration and testimony from the moving perspective of fandom, on just how much the book’s namesake impacts music, lives, and more.

We got to chat to author Skylar about this incredible undertaking, how fans delivered on their love for Louis, and her hopes for the message we, and hopefully Louis Tomlinson, can take away from this encyclopedia of fan love. Check it out!

Hi Sky!

Welcome Sky! We just received our copy of ‘The Loves It Takes’ and we’re so excited to chat with you about it. Would you like to introduce it and yourself to our readers?
I was in marketing out of college and eventually started a public relations agency in Silicon Valley San Francisco Bay Area. I am also an artist. I was gallery represented at one time and I still love to draw and paint. I’m also doing some writing (I would call it creative nonfiction) that I started during the pandemic on a couple of books I’ve had in the works and my intention is to get back to that.

I have always been drawn to people with creativity and authenticity and I know that’s where my admiration for Louis Tomlinson began and continues. He never seems to stop amazing me.

There are two reasons I wanted to do the book​. First, I believed something should be documented about his evolution particularly since the Faith the the Future tour. This tour has been a turning point for him and changes everything as we’re now seeing with the LIVE album. I felt like it needed to be acknowledged by his fans not by his management or PR people. I wanted it to be real.

The second reason is because he has a very unique and natural ability to bring people together, to make them feel comfortable. He has the ability to inspire and comfort and connect people that is unusual.  I’m not sure he fully recognized that. The stories in the book are relatable to so many people. They are similar to yours, ours, and the worlds. They acknowledge how hard it is to find our own perspective when we are herded into structures that want to keep us contained. I think the world could use that inspiration right now and I don’t think that’s something he would have even thought about. 

You’re a publisher and a Louis Tomlinson fan – what a magical combo! What does Louis Tomlinson mean to you?
That’s impossible to condense into a sentence or two. At the beginning of 2022 I joined Twitter specifically to watch Louis’ live streams. I had no intention of engaging with fans online. As I started listening (besides beginning to love the fan base and laughing all the time at the things that went on)  I just fell in love with Louis and the music and his ability to pull in an audience (from a live stream!). That surprised me. By mid-2022, I decided to go to Italy to see him in Taormina. Then the album came out and I remember hearing Faith In The Future for the first time thinking what a brilliant album it was. 

When I realized it wasn’t getting radio play, the PR person in me got angry. It’s very rare in public relations to come across an individual so unique. We’re always struggling to find the uniqueness in someone to exploit and rarely do we find someone like that. So as I’m hearing these concerts and seeing him perform I just couldn’t understand why we hadn’t heard more about him and why we weren’t hearing his music everywhere. 

I figured I should try to do something about it, so I started interacting more online and found people who wanted to do promo and we started with the Times Square videos and giving away tickets and it just sort of snowballed from there.

As I was thinking about doing the book, I thought a lot about this and what drove me to do this kind of thing because it’s not in my nature to really be a celebrity watcher. I’ve loved a lot of bands and been to a lot of concerts and festivals but I’ve never in my life been compelled to do promo and then a book!

But there’s one other thing that I realized rather recently. Coming from public relations and also from Silicon Valley technology which is where my background is, I knew the struggles of trying to be heard. Maybe it’s changed now, but at that time there was no being heard as a female in Silicon Valley (and I’m kind of a techie geek). I had to knock down a lot of doors. My mantra was always, “nothing’s ever easy” and now those are Louis’ lyrics and they are now tattooed on my shoulder.

So the combination of me coming from public relations in Silicon Valley and having to push down doors and then knowing Louis story and all the challenges he’s had with the industry but also just trying to do things his own way all these years, I understood the battle and it felt very near and dear to me. Obviously a different industry but still very relatable in terms of the constant struggle to make things work, not just professionally but also personally.

How did the idea for the book come about? Was there a moment that triggered the decision to say “Yes, I’m going to do this?”
The idea of a book came to me when I was in Athens for Louis’ show in late September 2023. Athens was a place on my bucket list because of its importance as a center of philosophy and artistic achievement. It’s a place where things are still standing all these years later and what isn’t—is because it was destroyed by people. I felt a connection to Louis very strongly in Athens perhaps because of the endurance of a place like Athens and a man like Louis.

‘The Love It Takes’ is truly and uniquely driven by fans. When you put out the call to Louies or approached them, how did they respond?
It was slow at first because not that many people really knew me and probably figured I wouldn’t really go through with it. But eventually it started coming along and I put some videos together to show some progress and then more and more people came on board. I really didn’t think it was going to be this big of a book. I thought it was going to be half this size and it just grew and grew. 

We are all about the power of fandom here at THP, and that power shines throughout the book. What does fandom mean to you, both conceptually, but also as a big part of your life?
I think that’s a very interesting part of what I’ve learned. I’ve kept to myself a lot in the last eight years after I stopped doing public relations because I just couldn’t relate to it anymore in the way I was doing it and with the people I was working with in that industry. Then I decided to leave California and leave some of my negative past behind. I went on a 2-year road trip alone to get my head together and had really become a bit of a loner. And I was fine with that. When I started listening to the live streams I started engaging a bit online and so many people were friendly and happy and funny. I think it was the funny part that really got me hooked. Fans have a wonderful witty sense of humor and I found myself laughing all the time. Not at them but with them. I remember laughing hysterically at some tweet somebody made in early 2022 about “what the f*** is 369.” I remember I was eating dinner, waiting for a live stream, and almost choked I was laughing so hard at that thread.

I think I had lost a bit of the ability to laugh spontaneously and find the joy and humor in things. My background had been a little challenging, as everybody’s is, and I’d lost my sense of humor. Then I started interacting more and went to shows and met people and I’m just crazy about this fandom now. I think they are a wonderful, loving group of people. There’s some negative people out there but they seem to stay away from me. LOL

We have laughed and cried while reading ‘The Loves It Takes’ – is there a story or section that is your personal favorite or means the most to you?
I cried from happiness and sadness while I was reading those stories and deciding where to put them in the book and that’s really how I came up with all the sections. I can’t pick one story, there are too many that not only resonate with me but I knew they were going to resonate with a lot of his fans and people everywhere. But I do think the Surrounded By Light section might be my favorite because that is the section about inspiration and how Louis has inspired people to do something, be something, try something, not give up. 

What many people may not know is that this book is not for profit, and proceeds will be going to charity! What inspired this decision and do you have any charities in mind?
I didn’t feel like it was something I should do for profit. And as far as charity is concerned I haven’t decided that and I won’t decide that on my own and it will certainly depend a lot on how much we get. Right now I am keeping the price very low on Amazon so that there isn’t that much profit. Charity is important but I really want this book to be distributed further among the fandom but also among people in general so the profit is a little bit beside the point at the moment. But as the book grows hopefully then we can figure out what to do with the money. Personally I would like to see it go to some sort of group that does music therapy for people and children that are in need of that kind of support. 

However before that happens I would like to get this out to a lot of people and want to figure out that kind of promotion first. I would also like to do a Spanish version and I have some volunteers but that’s a whole other topic. I also bought the domain name for the book and I am thinking about how I can put it online for free and I’ll have to explore that when I get back from my trip.

‘The Love It Takes’ is a beautifully authentic way to share the love for Louis Tomlinson with the world. In fact, it was #1 on the Amazon Hot New Releases Pop Artist Biography chart! What do you hope the world takes away from ‘The Loves It Takes?’
That’s the second reason I did the book. I want to reach beyond the fan base with the stories in this book. The book isn’t so much about fans and his music, although obviously there’s that too, but it’s really about how he inspires people to be better people and to continue going when things get tough and I think that’s a message for the world.

A lot of awful things are going on right now in the world. I hope this book is given away to people who need inspiration, who need support, who are depressed and need an uplifting thing to read instead of a lot of the strange things on television that are bringing people down. My goal is to take it further than that and reach out to other organizations or publications but that’s a slower process that will take some time, particularly since I don’t have a team working for me. LOL

We have no doubt that ‘The Love It Takes’ will get to Louis Tomlinson, it has to. What do you hope Louis takes away from ‘The Love It Takes?’
I’m going to try to get it to him or his team in the next 6 weeks but I’m under no Illusion that it will be directly. I suspect he may have seen it by now since we know he lurks online and we love that about him. He’s always known he’s had a loyal fan base but during this Faith In The Future tour, I believe that really became clear. And with each concert it’s obvious he has grown in confidence and knows the level of support he has.  I hope that if he’s ever in doubt about that, because we all have our moments of doubt, that he can flip through the pages of this book again and remind himself that his fans absolutely adore him and respect him and recognize what his music, lyrics and voice do for people. I suspect that he has compared himself and his voice to others in the past and I hope he doesn’t do that now. I think that with this tour it has become clear to him that his fans accept him the way he is, his new musical sound, and for whatever he wants to do and I’m not sure he knew that before.

This might be a sticky question to end on, but in true Louie style, we live for the chaos. Leave us with your favorite Louis Tomlinson song?
We’ve certainly had a lot of chaos in the past few weeks. I think it bothers me less than some people. I trust Louis’ process. He knows exactly what he’s doing and whatever that is, it seems to be working. He seems happy and that makes me happy.

My favorite song at the moment is ‘Chicago’ but a close second is ‘Holding On To Heartache’ and his ‘All This Time’ mix.  I liked the whole Walls album too but this album is even better. And now LIVE is unbelievable. Between doing all the festivals this year and putting out a LIVE album he’s doing exactly what I think he needs to be doing in terms of promo, public relations, and expanding his fan base. 

Thanks for sharing this with us! And finally, as you’re about to head off to more Louis shows, we hope you have an incredible time! We’re not jealous at all…
Thank you and I’m very excited to be leaving soon and I’ll be 6 weeks on the road to see concerts and the Away From Home Festival, plus I get to meet a whole bunch of lovely fans I’ve only spoken to online, and every time I do it’s a fantastic experience. Speak to you soon, many thanks,

Review: ‘The Love It Takes’ Captures Everything We Feel About Louis Tomlinson

From the front cover to the final word, every second of ‘The Love It Takes’ had us laughing, crying, feeling, and reminiscing. We could not imagine any book, magazine or documentary, capturing the essence of the man, better than what has been created here by Skylar Burton and Louies. From his music, to his philanthropic care, to his impact on his fans, and determination in the face of adversities, ‘The Love It Takes’ is like a recipe book of ingredients that make up the connection with Louis. If you are a Louis Tomlinson fan, everything that made you so is reflected in ‘The Love It Takes.’ And the pride felt for Louis, is only echoed here by the pride we feel in his fans for what they have created together.

‘The Love It Takes’ is a soaring success of everything Skylar Burton set out to achieve with this book. And while we didn’t think we could love Louis Tomlinson more than we already did, seeing it across this 210 page testimony, condenced every feeling we have towards Louis, into one big feeling… pride. Pride in fellow fans and the good we can all do. Pride in the collective journey we are on together and how far we have all come. And most importantly, pride in Louis Tomlinson, for everything he is, everything he does, and everything he makes us feel.

Dear Louie reader… If someone ever tries to discredit your fan voice and fan joy again, give them this book and walk away, because we would challenge anyone to not “get it” after taking in ‘The Love It Takes.’
Dear reader Louis… “If you ever feel alone, don’t.” (Sorry) Pick up this book and feel every ounce of the collective support around you, from people who love and care so much that they made a literal book about it.

Every thought has been given throughout the creative process of ‘The Love It Takes,’ to fill the hearts of readers with the joy that Louis Tomlinson exudes. With the input of over 250 individuals, highlights include fan photos showing the talent of fan photographers on a grassroots level, fan art celebration by young fans, stories of tour mishaps, friendships formed, personal impacts on fan lives, fan-led kindness projects, and more. ‘The Love It Takes’ took us on a journey of growth, resilience, and love, that we will always hold on to.

Okay, is that enough convincing that you need your own copy? Good, our work here is done. Order yours now on Amazon.

Did you spot The Honey POP! in ‘The Love It Takes?’ – Surprise, “we made it” into the book too! We’re so honored to be a part of this creation! Want more Louis content from us? We’re way ahead of you! What was your favorite moment from ‘The Love It Takes?’ Tell us it all over on our socials by tweeting us at @thehoneypop or visiting us on Facebook and Instagram.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SKYLAR BURTON & ‘THE LOVE IT TAKES’:
INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | THE LOVE IT TAKES WEBSITE

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT LOUIS TOMLINSON:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE