Calli Taitz is one of Amy's closest and longest-running friendships. Instagram: callijade_. Portfolio: callijtaitz.wixsite.com. Phone: +1 (224) 515-0681. They met as Apple interns in Summer 2022 and have been in constant contact since.
Apple Summer
They met on June 16, 2022, when Calli texted "Hey Amy! This is Calli 😄 / I'm in a white turtleneck and overalls / am 4'11"/brunette" during Amy's second stint at Apple. The bonding was immediate and intense: shared work, CAD help (Amy walked her through NX sweeping curves), food obsessions, and intern social dynamics. Amy was doing her final presentation and got the return offer. Calli bombed her new-kids presentation but Amy reassured her. When Amy was leaving, Calli said "it won't be the same without you." They planned a Nobu dinner to celebrate Amy's offer.
Calli's job was Packaging Product Design — she worked on iPhone and iPad packaging, not Softgoods. She was adjacent to Amy's Softgoods world in the same buildings (Valley Green campus) and the same intern culture, but a different division. Her first major product shipped publicly in May 2024: she was the sole PD on the iPad Pro packaging launch, the one with the hydraulic press in the announcement video. She texted the group: "My first product is shipping!!!! / Like my LinkedIn post i'm a linkedin clout chaser i want to go viral like Amy did."
The Group Chat
The Calli iMessage thread is actually a group chat including at minimum: Calli, Amy, Matt (ID/freelance renderer, the group's most intellectual voice who explains the history of Isamu Noguchi), Daniel (Apple engineer who later worked at Tumi, tracked his RSUs obsessively), and by 2026, Austin (wingman for dating matchmaking). This is the friend group that formed during the best summer of all their engineering lives, and it's held its shape for four years.
Queen Elizabeth died while Calli was "sitting down to pee in IL" at the Apple campus. Calli said 12 when asked how many legs an ant has at trivia, becoming "the laughingstock of the office." Amy learned that Caffè Macs has sparkling water on tap and texted that her "life will never be the same."
Who She Is
Calli is 4'11", brunette, Jewish (kashrut: no pork), with a nut allergy (cashew, pistachio). She has had chronic insomnia for 21 years — sleeping 2 hours a night for most of her life before finally seeing a psychiatrist who gave her "the hard stuff." Her insomnia story came out in the very first late-night text exchange with Amy. "Was very high functioning/high achieving when I had insomnia / Once I started getting eight hours of sleep at night I got lazy." She sees herself as wired differently. She referred to the psychiatrist as "a pyscho" before correcting herself: "psychiatrist* / I don't know why I typed psycho."
She's from the Chicago suburbs (224 area code). She was Head Teaching Assistant for a class at Stanford. She took CS106A and considered injection molding classes. She has a boyfriend named Everett, who she eventually moved into an apartment complex with ("I'll be ur neighbor w Everett"). She now works at Apple full-time and lives in Cupertino.
Personality-wise, Calli is effervescent, ambitious, and quietly anxious. She celebrates small wins loudly and spirals about performance anxiety in the same breath. ALL CAPS enthusiasm ("AYYYY", "AMY THEY LOVE UUUU", "WERKKKKK") followed immediately by "I bombed" self-assessment. She performs confidence, then confides the fear.
Her "brownie diplomacy" — baking for coworkers strategically — is her love language deployed professionally. One colleague said: "u dont have to bake for us we already like u." She has a corgi plushie called "Corgi Girl" who is apparently twins with Amy's "Big Barker." She redecorated her entire apartment during the July 2023 Prime Day shopping spree: Roomba, ottoman, fuzzy socks, Noguchi lamp deliberations. Her 2023 theme, declared January 1st: "Hobbies that Don't Involve Electronics" — reading, crafts, leathersmithing, furniture refinishing.
Career After the Internship
Calli wanted to transfer to Softgoods throughout 2023–2024. She reached out to Stephanie (the Softgoods manager) and got an interview, traveled from Austin (Texas Apple location) for it, but ultimately didn't get the role. She also had a bad new manager experience in mid-2024: "my new manager is a micromanager and gives me negative feedback after everything and he is ruining my life / also i embarrassed myself by making a joke in front of the head of our dept that didnt land and she did not appreciate it." She seriously considered quitting: "So basically gonna quit / jk…. / or am i."
She worked 15–17 hour days during crunch periods. "The work life balance is terrible." But she stayed.
The Stalker Incident (July 3, 2023)
"This man just took a pic of my apartment number minutes after i got home." Calli was being followed or photographed by a neighbor/stranger near her Cupertino apartment. She emailed her leasing agent and asked the group how to report to police. "Everett gets in today luckily / Tg i have a camera." Amy and the group rallied immediately. This was the moment the friendship showed real depth — not just career gossip, but actual fear and mutual protection.
The Friendship
This is one of Amy's deepest female friendships, alongside Maddie Wang. They call each other "queen," "bestie," "sis." The bond runs through:
- Shared Apple experience and the intern summer that started it
- Both are hardware and physical product people
- Arts and crafts: Calli once said "when you get back we have to get straight to work on our arts and crafts startup"
- Anime, movies, food (Nobu, DQ, udon, Caffe Macs)
- CAD support: Amy helped Calli with NX modeling problems throughout Stanford
When Amy was struggling with Diego in July 2023, Calli responded with sustained emotional intelligence: "I hate that he is holding you back — that's just a normal thing to say and it's lighthearted. Maybe you need someone who will match your energy better." She followed up: "I'm sorry Amy. What do you want to happen?" And when Amy didn't know: "Do you see yourself with him forever? Like getting married? / If not it's better to nip it in the bud."
Calli had a horrific roommate at Stanford who was violent, had been in physical fights, drove four previous roommates out, and tried to injure an ex-roommate during a sports event. She confided the whole saga to Amy.
2026
Still very active. On March 29, 2026, Amy visited and stayed over at Calli's apartment. There was a group dinner in Mountain View with Matt and Austin, which Calli partially planned ("Can I veto the dumpling spot / we go there so much because my office is across the street"). Afterward: "i had the best time."
There's been matchmaking activity: Austin knows a guy named Kenneth (Apple coworker) who might be interested in Calli. Calli's requirements: Jewish, not Apple ("i cant date apple / i cant be myself around a coworker"). She gave her Instagram: "give him my insta callijade_ / i'm here for a good time not a long time." Amy clearly enjoyed orchestrating this.
Nalin used Amy's phone to ask Calli's group for car advice. He wants a sub-$6,000 tuner car: Miata, 240SX, Integra.
They're planning a September 2026 group trip, debating between Cartagena and Puerto Rico. Amy's AI assistant did full cost breakdowns for the group.
Inside Jokes
- "Our arts and crafts startup" — their founding vision that keeps getting referenced
- Nobu dinner — the dream meal they fantasized about but may never have actually had
- Calli vs. kangaroo — the group asked who would win in a fight (the kangaroo won, per Daniel)
- "I should disguise myself as a maintenance guy and start fixing things in honeybee midway through their meeting" — Calli, after not being invited to a meeting
- The ant legs incident — said 12 at trivia (correct answer: 6), became office legend
- "Cucked by Adobe" — her reaction to some software limitation, which made the group lose it
- Corgi Girl and Big Barker — their matching stuffed animals, confirmed soulmates
Significance
Calli represents the version of Amy's Apple life that worked. They met during the internship, became best friends, and stayed close four years later. No power dynamics, no equity disputes, no firings. Just two hardware people who bonded over sweeping curves and sparkling water on tap, and never stopped texting. She is Amy's most peer-equal friendship — both high-achieving product engineers from similar instincts (craft, making, materials) who collided at exactly the right moment.
10,098 messages. June 2022 to April 2026. Still going.