Thank You Thursdays: Ann Friedman

A few months ago, one of our veteran bloggers, the inimitable Ann Friedman, stepped down as an editor at Feministing to take the prestigious and kick-ass role of Executive Editor at GOOD Magazine. While Ann’s blogging petered down over the years, we would be remiss not to reflect on the tremendous presence she was at Feministing (and as the managing editor at the American Prospect). We never gave her a proper good-bye, so this week’s Thank You Thursday goes to one of my best friends and most influential colleagues: Ann Friedman.

You might remember Ann for some of her best posts like The Pocket-Guide to Vaginal Euphemisms, her critical analysis of the “It Gets Better” campaign, or her writing about being tall. These are just a few of her many entries that mixed expert reporting and analysis with snark and an almost intuitive sense of what is going on right now. And if you have continued to follow some of her personal work, you already know about her hilarious parody of the the New York Times articles on male journalists in D. C. (an ongoing series). Turns out for Ann it really does get better.

But on a more personal level, Ann has been one of my most ardent supporters. She is not only one of my best friends (I mean just yesterday I sent her pics asking advice on what I should wear for an event), but she has from her early days helped me massage my tangential rants into something that made sense and something that was palatable for wider audiences. I credit Ann to much of my writing success as she gave me the tips I needed to survive in a the very competitive world of online intellectual writing and dialogue. And frankly, that’s what really good editors do. They support your self-esteem, while giving you critical feedback and help you get out of your head so you can make better arguments. And this is what Ann did for me and for countless other writers that she has worked with. And not just any writers, Ann has always focused on writers that were telling stories no one else was hearing, she focused on “us”, the voices most marginalized in the mainstream media.

(pic by the amazing Ann Larie Valentine). Ann and I being bad-asses at SXSW. You might also remember this gem of a video we did.

This is the stuff about Ann you wouldn’t know unless you are behind the scenes, working next to her and seeing her brilliance day to day, something I only got to do once in a while. Ann helped make what Feministing is today, with her own writing, her editing support and her vision for the site, and we are indebted to her for all of that. So let’s give our lady a late, but great thank you for the amazing work she did with us and the great work she continues to do.