E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally
Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves
DearTeenMe.com
E. Kristin Anderson has a fancy diploma that says “B.A. in Classics,” which makes her sound smart but hasn’t helped her get any jobs in ancient Rome. However, she did briefly work for The New Yorker. Currently living in Austin, Texas, Ms. Anderson is an assistant editor at Hunger Mountain. With Miranda Kenneally, she founded DearTeenMe.com, the blog upon which this book was based. As a poet she has been published in dozens of literary magazines all over the world. She wrote her first trunk book at sixteen. It was about the band Hanson, and may or may not still be in a notebook at her parents’ house.
Miranda Kenneally is the author of Catching Jordan (2011), a contemporary YA novel about football and femininity. Her other books include Stealing Parker (2012) and Things I Can’t Forget (2013). Miranda is the co-creator of Dear Teen Me. She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature, and loves Star Trek, music, sports, Mexican food, Twitter, coffee, and her husband. Visit her at MirandaKenneally.com.
Kathy Belge and Marke Bieschke
Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens
Facebook Page
Kathy Belge co-authored the book Lipstick & Dipstick’s Essential Guide to Lesbian Relationships and writes on lesbian life for Curve magazine and About.com. She has worked extensively with queer youth and was the director of the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center, Oregon’s largest program for LGBT teens. Kathy lives in Portland, Oregon.
Marke Bieschke is the former health and dating editor of Gay.com and PlanetOut.com and a current Senior Editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He has also spoken about gay issues on National Public Radio and CBS radio. Marke lives in San Francisco, California.
Lori Bergamotto
Skin: The Bare Facts
loribergamotto.com
Born and raised in Holmdel, New Jersey, Lori Bergamotto began her career in the beauty industry as an intern at Glamour magazine in 1998, while in her junior year at Rutgers College. In 2003, she moved on to Lucky magazine where she served as the associate beauty editor and senior beauty editor for two years. During this time she was tapped to be on MTV’s Made, as the coach to an unlikely Homecoming Queen hopeful. (And, yes, the teenager won!)
Since then, she has been a featured style expert with appearances on FOX, MTV, VH1, E!, CNN, CBS’s Early Show, NBC’s Weekend Today, and iVillage Live, as well as local NY network affiliates. In addition, Bergamotto has also appeared on over 20 different local talk shows across the country, satellite media tours doing beauty-focused segments, and acted as an emcee for industry events. She has also written for publications including Teen People, People StyleWatch, Real Simple magazine, and In Style Magazine.
Lori has lived in New York City, Rome, Italy, and San Diego, California, but enjoys traveling frequently. She currently resides in New York City, but splits her time between there and San Diego.
Laura Barcella
The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions From Pop Culture That You Should Know About…before it’s too late
laurabarcella.com
Laura Barcella is a freelance writer and editor who can’t decide between New York and San Francisco. During the past ten-plus years, this pop-culture junkie and Washington, DC, native has written about feminism, music, news, and lifestyle topics for more than forty publications, including Salon.com, the Village Voice, ELLEGirl, Time Out New York, NYLON, Bust, CNN.com, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
As far as other books go, Laura is the editor of the anthology Madonna and Me, a book of essays by female writers about Madonna (Soft Skull Press, March 2012). She has also contributed to the anthologies BitchFest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine, Somebody’s Child: Stories About Adoption, and It’s All in Her Head, a forthcoming collection about women’s mental health.
When she’s not writing or editing, she’s reading magazines, at the movies, watching bad reality TV, eating imported gummy candy, or hanging out with animals (she has two cats and a dog, all rescues).
Somer Flaherty
The Book of Styling: An Insider’s Guide to Creating Your Own Look
Girl in a Fix: Quick Beauty Solutions (and Why They Work)
Somer Flaherty is a California-based fashion stylist, journalism instructor, editor and writer with more than a decade of experience in the fashion industry. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, advertising campaigns, catalogues, and in the wardrobes of private clients throughout the country. She is a graduate of the journalism program at San Francisco State University.
Karen Buscemi
Split in Two: Keeping It Together When Your Parents Live Apart
Born and raised in the metro Detroit area, Karen is an active participant in the Detroit literary scene. She is the editor of StyleLine, a high-end fashion, beauty and home magazine for metro Detroit where, in addition to writing, she styles and art directs all the fashion and beauty spreads. Karen is also a member of Detroit Inkslingers, a local writing group that meets regularly. Karen has written for national publications including Self, Women’s Health, Figure, and Successful Living.
Karen has a patient and supportive family, including husband Frank Buscemi, and sons Noah Correll, and Jesse Buscemi. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing Rock Band with her family, chasing her baby around the house or in her bathroom, trying out the latest skin-care products and cosmetics.
Halley Bondy
Don’t Sit On the Baby
Halley Bondy is a Brooklyn-based writer who has worked as a news reporter for the Newark Star Ledger, an arts journalist for Back Stage, and as editor for MTV Iggy. She is a playwright and comedian, and the winner of the 2008 Fringe Festival NYC for Outstanding Playwright.
Melissa Daly
87 Ways to Throw A Killer Party
melissadaly.com
Melissa Daly is a freelance writer and former Seventeen magazine deputy editor who has written for Cosmopolitan, Self, Men’s Health, and others. She pens a monthly sexual health newsletter for teens (published by Weekly Reader), which has won the Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award the last three years in a row. She recently helped produce the launch of GetHatched.com, a “chick’s guide to life,” as well as completed a two-year stint writing a news column for Fitness magazine. In addition to 87 Parties, she is the co-author of eight books in a ‘tween nonfiction series on health and relationships called Sunscreen. Melissa did her high school partying in the woods and basements of Marlborough, Connecticut, before moving on to fraternity parties at the College of William & Mary (during which time she also managed to squeeze in a BA in psychology). A New Yorker for 10 years, she now lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Erin Elisabeth Conley, Karen Macklin, and Jake Miller
Crap How to Deal with Annoying Teachers, Bosses, Backstabbers, and Other Stuff That Stinks.
karenmacklin.com
Erin Elisabeth Conley is a freelance writer and editor who splits her time between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Los Angeles, California. She is also the author of Zest Books’ Crush: A Girl’s Guide
to Being Crazy in Love, Dumped: A Girl’s Guide to Happiness After Heartbreak, and Uncool: A Girl’s Guide to Misfitting In.
Karen Macklin is a San Francisco-based writer, editor, and teacher. She has written for more than a dozen publications nationally, including The New York Times, San Francisco Weekly, and Yoga Journal on arts, culture, travel, health, and Eastern spirituality. She holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and her creative works, which include plays and poetry, have been produced and published in the United States and Italy. She has traveled and lived all over the world, and spent 2006 on a State Department fellowship teaching journalism in Guatemala City. She loves working with teenagers and helping to empower young people.
Jake Miller has written dozens of books for kids on topics like the history of the civil rights movement, the nature of communities, and the biology of lizards and spiders. He also writes for adults about culture, science, and travel, and has contributed several book reviews to the New York Times. He is the author of Zest Books’ Crap and Decoding Mom.
Hallie Fryd
Scandalous!: 50 Shocking Events You Should Know About (So You Can Impress Your Friends)
psychedandsuch.blogspot.com
Hallie Fryd grew up in Moorestown, NJ a Philadelphia suburb, founded by Quakers and voted best place to live in America by Money Magazine in 2005.
In High School, Hallie was that annoying kid who was always raising her hand, insisting that, “the book was better than the movie,” skulking around the art room, and stinking at volleyball. She was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Scholarship by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she graduated in 2000 with a BFA in Communication Design and a minor in History. She still can’t get over that C in woodshop.
Now living in Oakland, Hallie writes about pop-culture, politics, history and miscellaneous. A life-long history nerd Hallie hoped that a sugary spoon full of scandal would help what can be a dry dose of history go down. Researching and writing Scandalous! was the most interesting experience of her life, but it has left her interjecting only partially related historical facts into every conversation. When not interjecting (but more often, while interjecting), Hallie enjoys thrift shopping, seeing bands, yelling at cable news and hoping it doesn’t rain.
Nikol Hasler
Sex: A Book for Teens An Uncensored Guide to Your Body, Sex, and Safety
nikolhasler.com
Born in 1979, Nikol Hasler spent her childhood and adolescence in the foster care system, moving frequently. Because of this she was given the opportunity to experience a diverse variety of life perspectives. The upbringing itself was tumultuous and lacking consistent strong role models, which led Hasler to self destructive behaviors including drug abuse, eating disorders, and promiscuity. At the age of 18 she became pregnant, dropped out of college and was homeless for the duration of the pregnancy and into her son’s early months. Hasler moved with her son to Wisconsin in 1999, where she often worked three jobs at a time to support her family.
Now the mother of three sons, Hasler has always felt a special connection with teens. Her early work with high school students involved facilitating creative writing workshops and giving presentations on writing poetry. It was during those workshops that she recognized the strong response teens had to her straightforward and sometimes sarcastic approach.
In 2007 co-founded The Midwest Teen Sex Show, a sex-education podcast for teens. In 2008 she began to write a relationship and sex advice column called “Love, Sex, Etc.”, and in early 2010 she also began writing a sex column for Crushable.com called, “Sex, Honestly”. She’s also written for other publications, including Alternative Press Magazine, The Onion’s A.V. Club Chicago, Beatweek Magazine, and Glamour. Sex: A Book for Teens is Nikol’s first book.
Arne Johnson and Karen Macklin
Indie Girl: From Starting a Band to Launching a Fashion Company, Nine Ways to Turn Your Creative Talent Into Reality
girlsrockmovie.com
karenmacklin.com
Arne Johnson has been a film journalist and filmmaker for nearly 10 years. Most recently, he collaborated with Shane King on the feature documentary Girls Rock!, which has been seen at several film festivals around the world–including the 2007 Hot Docs Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival–and opened in theaters in March 2008. He was also an editor on the documentary Out of the Poison Tree, a movie about one woman’s journey back to the killing fields of her Cambodia homeland, and is currently producing the feature documentary Cartoon College. He is a partner in (your name here) productions and has written for The Onion, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the San Francisco Examiner. Visit his website here: www.girlsrockmovie.com
Karen Macklin is a San Francisco-based writer, editor, and teacher. She has written for more than a dozen publications nationally, including The New York Times, San Francisco Weekly, and Yoga Journal on arts, culture, travel, health, and Eastern spirituality. She holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University and her creative works, which include plays and poetry, have been produced and published in the United States and Italy. She has traveled and lived all over the world, and spent 2006 on a State Department fellowship teaching journalism in Guatemala City. She loves working with teenagers and helping to empower young people.
Samantha Moss
Where’s My Stuff? The Ultimate Teen Organizing Guide
samanthamoss.com
Samantha Moss is co-author of InSPAration, a book for teens on healthy living, and author of Pottery Barn Flowers and Pottery Barn Photos. She also edited the award-winning Pottery Barn Design Library, a series of ten books filled with style ideas for the home. Samantha is based in Oakland, California, where she lives with her husband, Boyd, and a shy little dog named Belly.
Corinne Mucha
Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations, and Other Nonsense
maidenhousefly.com
Corinne Mucha is a Chicago-based author and illustrator. Among her credits are the Xeric award-winning graphic novel My Alaskan Summer, numerous minicomics, and the Philadelphia Inquirer comic strip etiquette column, “Barnyard Etiquette.” She grew up in southern New Jersey, and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she graduated with a BFA in Illustration in 2005.
Mimi O’Connor
Reel Culture: 50 Classic Movies You Should Know About (So You Can Impress Your Friends)
The Dictionary of High School B.S.
mimioconnor.com
Mimi O’Connor is a Brooklyn, NY-based freelance writer and editor. Under the name Lois Beckwith, she is the author of The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit (Broadway Books) and The Dictionary of High School B.S. (Zest Books).
She is a contributing editor at New York-based event planning magazine BizBash, attending and reviewing corporate and non-profit events, and writing industry news oriented features. As a freelance journalist, she has written for publications such as Time Out New York, Glamour, Book, and Publishers Weekly, and appeared as a talking head on the humorous CNN series Not Just Another Cable News Show.
Lexi Petronis
47 Things You Can Do For The Environment
lexipetronis.com
New Mexico native Lexi Petronis fell in love with writing at the tender age of eight, when she started an animal fashion magazine with her brother and best friend. They only published one issue, but that’s all it took for Petronis to discover her passion for swirling words together on paper. Since then she has been a writer and editor, contributing to publications such as Parents, CosmoGIRL!, Glamour, SELF, and Fitness.
Now back in New Mexico, Petronis serves as the managing editor for the Alumni Relations department at the University of New Mexico, where she edits the alumni mag, tweets with abandon, and has the fabulous excuse of getting reacquainted with her alma mater. She is also a freelance writer, and stays busy by keeping her 4-year-old daughter from feeding her new goldfish uncooked spaghetti, and by constantly chasing after her toddler son, who just discovered how to start walking.
Kenrya Rankin
Start It Up: The Complete Teen Business Guide to Turning Your Passions Into Pay
kenrya.com
Kenrya Rankin is a Washington, DC-based writer and business reporter who writes about everything from entrepreneurship to health, technology, politics, relationships and education reform. Her work has been translated into 21 languages. She has long been a volunteer and mentor, and has taught students the basics of financial literacy and entrepreneurship with Reaching Youth Through Saturday Education.
Nikki Roddy
How to Fight, Lie, and Cry Your Way to Popularity (And A Prom Date): Lousy Life Lessons From 50 Teen Movies
Take Me With You: Off-to-College Advice From One Chick to Another
nikkiroddy.com
Nikki was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in sunny Irvine, California. At the age of 14, she took her first trip outside of the United States, spending two weeks in Kiev, Ukraine. She visited children hospitals, orphanages, and helped organize a summer camp for Ukrainian youth. From that point on, Nikki was addicted to traveling, and by the time she graduated high school, she had spent time in Germany, Australia, Singapore, England, France, Italy, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
In 2001, Nikki attended the University of California Santa Cruz and graduated in 2005 with an honors B.A. in Psychology. During her time at UC Santa Cruz, she held the position of Treasurer for Psi Chi, The National Honors Society in Psychology. In 2007, Nikki left California to live abroad in Southeast Asia, travel, and pursue her passion for writing. She went to India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, and settled in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While in Kuala Lumpur, she worked as an editorial assistant and staff writer at Expatriate Lifestyles, Malaysia’s largest quality lifestyle magazine.
Nikki returned to the U.S. in 2008, moved to San Francisco, and joined Zest Books as a Research Editor and Marketing/Web Manager. She is also a freelance videographer and writer. Her musings on culture, fashion, and music can be found in 944 Magazine, Bandega.com, and SOMA magazine. Her hobbies include attending backyard bbqs, reading YA fiction novels, and watching live music shows.
Erika Stalder
The Look Book: 50 Iconic Beauties and How To Achieve Their Signature Styles
The Date Book: A Teen Girl’s Complete Guide to Going Out with Someone New
Fashion 101: A Crash Course in Clothing
97 Things to Do Before You Finish High School
In The Driver’s Seat: A Girl’s Guide to Her First Car
erikastalder.com
Erika Stalder is a California-based journalist who has penned five nonfiction books for teens, including The Date Book, Fashion 101: A Crash Course in Clothing, and The Look Book: 50 Iconic Beauties and How to Achieve Their Signature Styles—all with Zest Books. She has written articles for magazines and websites including Wired, Gizmodo, Missbehave, Planet, and MTV Style. She writes Dear Erika, a weekly advice column for teens in conjunction with ABC Family’s hit show The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and is finally working to realize her teenage dream with the launch of an online magazine for teens at ErikaStalder.com.
Erika Stalder and Steven Jenkins
97 Things to Do Before You Finish High School
Steven Jenkins is a San Francisco-based cultural critic whose writings on film, music, art and literature appear in national periodicals, exhibition catalogues and artist monographs. He is the author of City Slivers and Fresh Kills: The Films of Gordon Matta-Clark and Model Culture: James Casebere, Photographs 1975-1996.
Erika Stalder is an author, advice columnist and blogger who writes about teen life, lust and adventures behind the wheel. Her latest book, In The Driver’s Seat: A Girl’s Guide To Her First Car (fall ’09) helps turn new drivers into savvy ones. She’s all about helping teen girls find and develop their passions so they can become happy, fulfilled, kick-ass women. She’s also all about bacon. Mmmm, bacon.
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