In December, we learned that xoJane’s legendary founder, Jane Pratt, was leaving the company and that the famously controversial personal essay hub would fold into InStyle, signaling the end times for the overly confessional hate-read. (Hearst’s The Mix, more or less cut from the same cloth as xoJane, quietly died…
In December 2015, readers at women’s site xoJane were enthralled and filled with all-caps rage by Rachel Brewson, a self-described “giant liberal” who boldly declared her love for a Republican named Todd. She described, in rapturous terms, how the couple’s political disagreements fueled an ecstatic third-date…
The hacked DNC emails have thus far provided an abundance of mostly non-revelatory riches, though some nuggets have been more useful than others. However, because tone and intent are often lost in translation, they’re also apparently easy to misinterpret, as xoJane discovered earlier today.
In a wonderful, wonderful demonstration of how the Internet Personal Essay Economy can go awry, xoJane ran a personal essay by a lady named Brenna Phares, about how she recovered from her painful breakup with the use of a “breakup box.” Turns out Brenna works for the company she was writing about, which she didn’t…
On Thursday, xoJane published an essay titled “My Former Friend’s Death Was a Blessing,” which outlines a series of petty grievances with a woman who, the piece reveals, later committed suicide. It’s a strange and deeply insensitive piece; simultaneously judgmental, self-absorbed, and unreflective, particularly since…
Deep within the extremely regular bowels of the vegan internet, there is an Australian YouTube personality by the name of Freelee the Banana Girl. Freelee eats 51 bananas a day, and she does not fuck around. Freelee is causing so much drama, you would not even believe!
In the past week, news has broken suggesting both that Time Inc. is buying both Jane Pratt’s website xoJane and Zooey Deschanel’s website Hello Giggles.
In an essay published on xoJane Monday by Melinda Coleman, the mother of the girl at the center of the closed Maryville rape case reveals further details about her daughter Daisy's recent suicide attempt, the harassment the family has experienced and their plans to open a rehabilitation center for young people who…
On Friday, xoJane published an essay written by Daisy Coleman, one of two girls at the center of the firestorm that is the Maryville rape case. The details of Coleman's story are much the same as they've been told before, but now they're fully in her own words, in almost excrutiating detail. And also, she's thanking a…
I've long hesitated to write much criticism about fellow ladyblogs. It's not a matter of camaraderie or believing that our peers are immune to criticism. It's more like: We're all trying to do our own thing and do it in our own ways, as best we can and, yes, I am aware, it's not like Jezebel is perfect. What's the…
You packed your sandals, several bikinis (with a sarong so you can blend into your exotic environment) and you've even Instagrammed several potential outfits, but then you hear the awful news: Your exotic travel destination just erupted with political protests and violent government crackdowns. Oh noes! But can you…
Enabling! What does it mean?! Are we all doing it?! Or, as we all remember from the iconic bedtime story of our childhood: If you give a mouse a cookie, it might overdose on heroin.
When my first and only long-term relationship ended toward the end of 2012, I was warned that I would likely do one or more of the following at my ex: date at him, eat at him, exercise at him or shop at him.
Today, Say Media launched its new beauty site—an offshoot of XOJane called XOVain—with a makeunder of Snooki. As far as celebrities with over-the-top looks go, Snooki seems like a real "get." With all of her artifice—extensions, acrylic nails, false lashes, pushup bra, etc.—it would seem that she could be dramatically…
During the first season of Girls, I wondered why Hannah didn't have a blog. Her self-obsession, lack of privacy boundaries, and conviction that she has important things to say about the mundane ("the voice of a generation") are all qualities that lend themselves well to the kind of confessional pageview bait that…
Now that Cat Marnell has left her post as beauty editor at xoJane—where, as the site's "beauty and health director" she infamously chronicled the intimate and more fucked-up details of her life like her drug abuse, mental health, and strained relationships—readers are wondering: What Will Happen Next? After all, the…
Gabi Gregg, "full time fat girl/personal style blogger" put together a slide show of 31 "hot sexy fat girls in skimpy swimwear" that was posted on XOJane today.
I'm fascinated by xoJane blogger Cat Marnell. She's ostensibly the Beauty and Health Director for Jane Pratt's site, but her posts — and I would know, because I read every single one — are usually long, rambling essays about her dysfunctional relationship with her father, past mental asylum stays, and on-again…
I knew that it was time to find a new doctor after she suggested I lie to my ex-boyfriend (I didn't even want to get back together with him) and say that I was pregnant. Even in my crazy, unstable state of mind — I knew that this was not the advice that seemed helpful.
