This was kinda cool.

This was kinda cool.

Now offering a limited number of free copies of SHE THE PEOPLE for schools via Etsy.

Now offering a limited number of free copies of SHE THE PEOPLE for schools via Etsy.

I’m a long-time history nerd. I stop to read plaques. 

Portrait by the amazing Rita Sapunor

Portrait by the amazing Rita Sapunor

My mother was deeply involved with the League of Women Voters during the push for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, and she made sure I knew about my foremothers. It's because of her efforts that I ended up writing SHE THE PEOPLE.

In 2008, I founded an Equal Rights Amendment page on Facebook in the hopes of renewing interest. My interactions on and around the page made me realize how little people actually knew about not only the ERA, but also how citizenship and democratic process works. That made me want to tell the story. 

As a result, my writing work is primarily focused on citizenship and gender, and the intersection of the two in the United States. I have written on these and connected subjects for the New York Times, Dame Magazine, and the Huffington Post, and have a story featured in Julie Klam's book, The Stars in Our Eyes.

On March 5, 2019, my book, SHE THE PEOPLE: A Graphic History of Uprisings, Breakdowns, Setbacks, Revolts, and Enduring Hope on the Unfinished Road to Women's Equality, was published by Seal Press.

Mom grew up in veterans housing in Winthrop, Massachusetts on Boston Harbor. Dad grew up in the Bronx. I grew up as a stealth Townie in a gentrifying working class neighborhood in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The brilliant teachers at Brookline High School taught me how to write and that just keeps paying off. I will always be grateful that I had access to excellent public education.

I got my BFA degree in theater from Emerson College in Boston after an unsuccessful year at Grinnell College in Iowa and a gap year spent trying to figure myself out in San Diego and Europe. That travel was funded with a cashed-out $2000 mutual fund that my Dad had started for me at some point. Thanks, Dad.

After graduating Emerson, I moved to NYC where I took a half-hearted stab at pursuing acting, and then ended up doing stand up comedy, which was fantastic. I made money temping, then consulting, which pays more and involves less Xeroxing. 

I was in NYC for nine years, and then moved home to Brookline, Massachusetts to marry and have a kid, not necessarily in that order. I now have an amazing teenager and a decent ex-husband.

I currently live in Cambridge surrounded by intellectuals and hipster cafés.

My exciting exploits have been documented in the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, Thrillist, Deadspin, Refinery29, the Boston Globe, and other fine publications. I also get to play pundit on WGBH's Greater Boston.

If you want to know what's going through my mind on a daily basis, you can follow me on Twitter. If you want to see what articles I'm reading, check me out on Facebook. If you want a listing of my various employments over the years, you can check me out on LinkedIn. If you want to see what books I'm reading (when I remember to list them), by all means hook up with me on GoodReads.


Jen is smart and knows a lot about everything.
— Gene Skurnick, retired

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Visit my Equal Rights Amendment FB page

Visit my Equal Rights Amendment FB page