You’re also known for being very active on Twitter. Yes, that darkness has always been in me. Interesting that you mentioned the cemetery first. There was always a cemetery, and a guy who ran the cemetery, and there was a priest. I would draw little villages on napkins, and make up stories about the people living in the village. I’ve read that you started writing at age 4 - is that true? Yeah. As long as people are reading, good things are happening, unless they’re reading, like, “Mein Kampf.” I think reading is reading, and I’m not going to be ashamed of a goddamn thing I read.
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What did you think of that? I think it was written by a really smart critic, but I just disagree. There was a piece on Slate recently arguing that adults should be embarrassed to read young-adult fiction. No matter where I lived, Jessica and Elizabeth were there with me. My family moved around a lot when my brothers and I were young, so it was a familiar thing. I could sublimate my loneliness and angst into the lives of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. How did you become so obsessed? Growing up, I was such a nerd and so unpopular and “Sweet Valley High” offered me a lot of really satisfying wish fulfillment. Your book contains an essay about your ongoing love for the “Sweet Valley High” series. It’s catchier than “Imperfect Feminist.” I thought the title would be an interesting juxtaposition to the actual nuance that there is in the book. But eventually it was just that I wanted to own feminism and acknowledge that I’m inconsistent and human, but still, my heart and my head are in the right place. I began calling myself “bad feminist” sort of tongue in cheek.
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You embrace your flaws and the way they influence your feminism.
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To me, the book seemed at least as much about the “bad” half of the title as the “feminist” part. I’m very committed to making sure that we do get there somehow.
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But as you begin to expand the definition, it’s that women deserve to have full and satisfying lives in the same way that men do. ” Is your definition still so succinct? At its basis, I just don’t believe that women should be treated like for being women. Toward the end of your new essay collection, “Bad Feminist,” you cite your favorite definition of feminists: “women who don’t want to be treated like. The author speaks with Jessica Gross about her favorite definition of feminism, ‘‘Sweet Valley High’’ and the fetishization of bad writing.