How I Lost My Post-Herpes Virginity

October 4, 2015.Reading time 16 minutes.

He must have been nervous, too. When the night finally arrived, he pulled a Ziplock bag out of his backpack full of condoms from the student health center.

Why “Peeple” Is Dangerous To Survivors… and, Really, Anyone

October 1, 2015.Reading time 10 minutes.

UPDATE 3/7/2016: Peeple has launched, with a new paid “truth license” that allows you to read hidden reviews to come soon. You can read my latest take here. I work in social media. It is part of my job to stay up-to-date on the myriad new social networks that spring up like weeds every day. Some […]

Why I Cut My Hair

September 21, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

I’ve been offline. Or as offline as someone who works in social media can be. Somewhere around my site hitting 14k hits in a single day, somewhere around seeing my face appear over and over again on my Twitter feed, somewhere around co-worker #8 coming up to me in the kitchen and saying, “I SAW YOU ON […]

A Lesson In Herpes Stigma, Via Facebook Comments

September 12, 2015.Reading time 10 minutes.

The classic mantra of reading, writing and merely existing on the Internet is “Don’t read the comments.” Internet comments, and Facebook comments in particular, are widely discredited as a cesspool of nastiness and trolling. If the writer or subject of a given article is anyone other than a straight, white man, the comments are even worse. […]

Some Thoughts on Going Viral (Again)

September 11, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

As I write this, an article about me is the number two trending story on BuzzFeed. My friends have been texting me all day to say that their friends have been texting them about me popping up on their newsfeed. The daily traffic to this blog has spiked into the thousands. Two different TV producers […]

The Herpes+ Writer Directory

September 4, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

Here’s a list of herpes+ writers you need to be reading, AND, if you’re a journalist or an editor, contacting about writing for your publications.

Who Would I Be If I Hadn’t Gotten Herpes?

August 26, 2015.Reading time 1 minute.

The lovely ladies over at Femsplain let me write about my fixation with parallel universes for their August theme “jealousy.” I’m not an especially jealous person beyond the usual who is that girl in that picture with my man moments on Facebook. But I do wonder about the Ella who never got herpes, and whether or not her […]

How I Use Trigger Warnings

August 13, 2015.Reading time 15 minutes.

So The Atlantic published another (another?!) article about trigger warnings this week, meaning my Facebook and Twitter feeds were full of outraged baby boomers yet again. Trigger warnings have become emblematic of the over-sensitivity and out of control political correctness of my generation, if you believe the media and its breathless coverage of the “trend” […]

Unpopular Opinion: I Hate Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’s Sex Education Segment

August 10, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

This is the hottest take of all hot takes because I literally just watched the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver sex education segment and loved it and then got REALLY ANGRY in the final few minutes. I haven’t seen any of the glowing coverage of the segment address this point, so I’m doing that angry writing thing. […]

The Herpes Interviews: The Best Friend

August 7, 2015.Reading time 47 minutes.

I had a secret weapon when it came to dealing with my herpes diagnosis: my best friend. This interview is different from the previous two I’ve done—BFF is not a romantic partner, but she knows me better than any boyfriend ever could. We grew up together in those stupidly formative years of college, navigating hookup culture, […]