Nobody Knows How to Be a Grown-up, Least of All Cecily von Ziegesar

When von Ziegesar was only 22, she assumed she should be writing about fully grown adults. But in a visiting writer’s workshop with Grace Paley, the renowned author read one of von Ziegesar’s short stories, about an Upper East Side mom, and told her she was too young to be writing about parents — she should focus on teenagers instead. Ultimately, von Ziegesar ended up dropping out of the creative writing graduate program she was in at the University of Arizona. She met her husband, moved to England with him, and worked as an assistant editor for children’s books. But just before turning 30, she remembered Paley’s advice, and while working at Alloy Entertainment (a book-packaging firm), she began writing what would become Gossip Girl. “I don’t know if I’m a late bloomer or what,” she told me, “but I feel like I was still a teenager almost as a writer then.”

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At least this one person’s having good sex during the pandemic. If this story is true, it’s the most nuts tale of retribution we’ve ever heard: “Acupuncturist takes revenge on cheating boyfriend by inserting over 600 needles in his genitals.” This audio montage replays the sounds of 2020 in thirteen intense minutes. House Democrats are putting increased pressure on Joe Biden to cancel federal student debt. Things are bad this year, no doubt, but beware toxic positivity. And this man really did hack Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password, ‘maga2020!,’ Dutch prosecutors say.

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