Get used to the feeling of having your words out in the world.

Jennifer Weiner

Author Jennifer Weiner was born March 28th, 1970, on an Army Base in DeRidder, Louisiana.

She attended Princeton University and worked as a journalist until her debut novel, Good in Bed, was published in 2001. She is the author of sixteen novels, including In Her Shoes (2002), Goodnight Nobody (2016), and Best Friends Forever (2010), as well as two mid-grade books and a non-fiction collection of essays, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing (2016). Thankfully this will have to be updated because she is still alive and writing.

She is an outspoken advocate against sexism in publishing – namely that stories about women and families and love written by women are called ‘Chic Lit’ while the same books written by men are marveled over and reviewed as ‘Literature.’ She also smartly presents body positivity and promotes the idea that non-skinny heroines are an act of feminism. 

Her website includes this valuable “Ten steps for becoming a novelist” that I was glad I read this morning.

Lesson from Weiner:

In her “steps for becoming a novelist,” #5 is “Write to Please Yourself.” Weiner carved out her own niche writing about rejected, full-figured heroines, giving voice to readers who found hope in her books. She couldn’t have done that following a formula.