Peggy Orenstein
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Peggy Orenstein | |
|---|---|
 Orenstein speaks on Boys & Sex at Town Hall Seattle in 2020 | |
| Born | November 22, 1961 Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Website | |
| peggyorenstein | |
Peggy Orenstein (born November 22, 1961) is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Boys & Sex, Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter and Waiting for Daisy, as well as Unraveling, Don’t Call Me Princess, Flux, and the classic Schoolgirls. Her TED talk, “What Young Women Believe About Their Own Sexual Pleasure,” has been viewed over 6.2 million times on the TED site and YouTube.[1]
A frequent contributor to The New York Times, she was named in 2012 by The Columbia Journalism Review as one of its "40 Women Who Changed the Media Business in the Past 40 Years.”[2] She is Jewish.
Writing
[edit]In books and magazine articles Orenstein writes about the politics of everyday life, usually relating to gender. Her book Schoolgirls discussed educational inequity. In Flux she explored the life choices of a generation of ethnically diverse, middle class women in their mid-20s to mid-40s. Waiting for Daisy was her memoir of infertility, cancer, and motherhood. In Cinderella Ate My Daughter, she exposed the “girlie girl” culture being marketed to young children. Girls & Sex and Boys & Sex described teenage sexual behavior, sexualized media, and hookup culture, calling for healthier, open dialogue between parents and children and expanded positive-based sex and relationship education in schools. In ‘’Unraveling" she made a sweater from scratch--learning to shear sheep, process, spin and dye wool, and creating what she called “the world’s ugliest sweater"—as a way to explore the changing environmental impact of our clothing, her own life transitions, the death of her parents, and life during Covid 19 lockdown. She has also written about breast cancer including the limits of mammographic screening and early detection.
Recognition
[edit]Orenstein has been named by the Columbia Journalism Review one of "40 women who changed the media business in the past 40 years".[3]
She has also been recognized by the Council on Contemporary Families for her "Outstanding Coverage of Family Diversity.”[3]
She has received two “Books for a Better Life” awards.[3]
Her magazine work has also been honored by the Commonwealth Club of California, the National Women’s Political Caucus of California, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.[3]
She was the recipient of fellowships from the United States-Japan Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council.[3]
Selected works
[edit]- SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. New York: Random House, 1994. ISBN 9780385425766, OCLC 475227709
- Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. ISBN 9780385498876, OCLC 473835765
- Waiting for Daisy. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007. ISBN 9781596912106, OCLC 192169835
- Cinderella Ate My Daughter. New York: Harper, 2012. ISBN 9780061711534, OCLC 808058076
- Girls & Sex. New York: Harper, 2016. ISBN 9780062209740, OCLC 974491998[4][5]
- Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life. Harper Paperbacks, 2018. ISBN 978-0-06-268890-3, OCLC 1023574411
- Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity. 2020. ISBN 978-0062666970
- Unraveling: What I Learned About Life From Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater.’' Harper Paperbacks, 2024. ISBN 978-0063081734
References
[edit]- ^ Orenstein, Peggy (March 15, 2017). What young women believe about their own sexual pleasure. Retrieved April 17, 2025 – via www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/peggy_orenstein_what_young_women_believe_about_their_own_sexual_pleasure?language=en
- ^ "The divine sisterhood". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Orenstein, Peggy (2020). "About Peggy". Peggy Orenstein. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
- ^ Orenstein, Peggy (March 29, 2016). "'Girls & Sex' And The Importance Of Talking To Young Women About Pleasure". National Public Radio. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
- ^ Holbrook, Sharon (March 29, 2016). "Parents need to talk to their daughters about the joys of sex, not just the dangers". Washington Post. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- Peggy Orenstein at IMDb
- "The Divine Sisterhood", The Columbia Journalism Review, July 2012.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- Living people
- 1961 births
- Writers from Minneapolis
- Oberlin College alumni
- American feminist writers
- 21st-century American memoirists
- American women non-fiction writers
- Jewish American journalists
- Jewish American memoirists
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- Jewish American feminists
- Jewish women writers
- Writers from Minnesota
- Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area
- American women memoirists
- American women journalists
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American women