Jessica Bennett

From now on “the future is female” is once again reserved for second-wave le***an separatist communes only!!!!

Wrote about how Kamala is not falling into the trap — and how it is in fact quite brilliant as a strategy

Linked in bio!

RIP Francine Pascal, the woman who gave us the world’s most popular chick-lit series, arguably launched a generation of millennial body dysmorphia (or at least mine lol), and was an absolute legend.

I had the pleasure of profiling Pascal in 2011. We sat in her living room in midtown, where this lifelong Jewish New Yorker from Queens — who, fun fact, had never set foot in California when she birthed her California beauties — paged through stacks of hand-typed manuscripts, and the book’s original pitch letter, to Bantam Books, in 1982, where an editor told me the arrival of her book’s manuscript caused a flurry of “squealing women” in the office.

She also showed me the Sweet Valley “Bible”—a thick guide to all things Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, down to the color of Jess’ legwarmers, their aquamarine blue eyes and their “perfect size 6” frames.

The girls may have been shallow, sure, but the books also tackled issues like date r**e, drugs, and divorce. “There were many superficial things about them, but when it came right down to it, readers were getting my politics, my ethics, my morals,” Pascal told me then. “And I wanted these girls to drive the action.”

I launched a podcast with my pal Susie but I need you to know that this was all just an excuse to stay up all night making a zine 🍒✨

New episode on the impact of the cherry red swimsuit on Baywatch — featuring Pamela Anderson, the media scholar Susan J. Douglas and the story of my middle school walkout (it was called “Skirtfest” and we staged it after got suspended for wearing a skirt) — out now.

You can find us , at the link in my bio or wherever you get your podcasts !!!