Journalism

My journalism career began in the 1980s, like when maybe only NASA had the internet. (It also includes many beloved publications that are no longer with us, including Mademoiselle, Nerve, and George. Remember George?) Over the years, I wrote about gender, pop culture, women, comedy, politics, relationships, religion, parenting, and disability, sometimes all at once.

I was a contributing editor at Glamour, a weekly culture writer for The New York Daily News, a frequent contributor to the New York Times (Magazine, Book Review, Op-Ed, and the daily), and a regular features writer/founding Broadsheet blogger at Salon. I also wrote for Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, SlateNPR.orgThe Nation, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parade, and a zillion more. I also wrote a column for Tablet (formerly Nextbook) called “The Rabbi’s Wife,” from experience.

awards and impact

  • The Hidden World of Dating Violence, my 1996 cover story in PARADE Magazine, which I conceived and pitched, broke the term “dating violence” into the mainstream. In the two weeks after the article ran, calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline doubled. (Stand by for updated PDF.)
  • Our Daughters Should Not Be Cut (Salon) received a Planned Parenthood Maggie Award and inspired U.S. Reps Joseph Crowley and Mary Bono Mack to introduce The Girls’ Protection Act, making it a federal crime to transport a minor outside the United States for the purpose of female genital mutilation.
  • Who You Calling a ‘Midget?’” (Salon) is referenced multiple times in Andrew Solomon’s bestselling Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
  • They’re Autistic–And They’re In Love (Glamour) received a Mental Health America award for excellence in media and helped inspire a documentary and other major national attention to adults with autism in relationships.
  • Could You Get Hooked On These Pills? (Glamour) (pre-online magazines) received a Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award.

Fun fact: I wrote advice columns for Glamour, Seventeen, New York Magazine, and MSN.com, not to mention BreakupGirl.net, so I know what to do in like literally every situation. So you should also read the archives of my (searchable!) Breakup Girl advice column (1997-1999). It’s highly literary, and except for some snark about early online dating (“If you think waiting by the phone is lame, try waiting by the computer”) remains really very relevant.

Anyway, here are some cherry-picked articles that do not require anyone to deal with a scanner and a pdf.

recent and recent-ish

Laugh in the Time of Corona(Ok, one pdf.)
Entertainment Weekly, June 2020

Zoom shiva is shiva distilled to its essence
The Forward, May 2020

Describing the indescribable: My mother’s Jewish journey
Medium, May 2020

I’m raising my daughter to be funny—and so should you
Kveller, November 2017

Louis C.K. is just the latest reason we need more women in comedy
TIME Motto, November 2017

With “I, Tonya,” Is It Finally Time For Tonya Harding’s Public Redemption?
NBC News, December 2017

I Was “Breakup Girl”, and Then My Job Dumped Me
TueNight, March 2017

some classics

The New York Times Magazine, “Lives”: I Was A Tonya Harding Look-Alike

The New York Times: Criminals, Like Me

The New York Times Sunday Book Review: Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling, The Second City Unscripted; Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave; Anatomy of a Secret Life

Salon: Late Night’s Real Problem

Salon: MTV’s Shockingly Good Abortion Special

Salon: Shelter from the Storm

Salon: Is It All Right To Say The Word “Retarded?”

Salon: Smart Parent Tricks

Salon/The Guardian: Forgotten Casualties

The Nation: When Teen Pregnancy Is No Accident

The Washington Post: The Stork is Dead; New Self-Help Reads; Cuba, For Better or Worse; Advice for the Lovelorn

Barnes & Noble Review: Love is the Drug; Comedy at the Edge; Born Standing Up