Anne Helen Petersen

A BEST BOOK OF THE FALL AS SEEN Apartment Therapy • Book Riot • Business Insider • BuzzFeed • Daily Nebraskan • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • Fortune • Harper’s Bazaar • HelloGiggles • LinkedIn • O Magazine • Time Magazine“[A] razor sharp book of cultural criticism . . . With blistering prose and all-too vivid reporting, Petersen lays bare the burnout and despair of millennials, while also charting a path to a world where members of her generation can feel as if the boot has been removed from their necks.” — Esquire“ An analytically precise, deeply empathic book about the psychic toll modern capitalism has taken on those shaped by it. Can’t Even is essential to understanding our age, and ourselves.” —Ezra Klein, Vox co-founder and New York Times best-selling author of Why We’re PolarizedAn incendiary examination of burnout in millennials—the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic changeDo you feel like your life is an endless to-do list? Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because you’re too exhausted to pick up a book? Are you mired in debt, or feel like you work all the time, or feel pressure to take whatever gives you joy and turn it into a monetizable hustle? Welcome to burnout culture.While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in Can’t Even , BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the constant pressure to “perform” our lives online. The genesis for the book is Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has amassed over seven million reads since its publication in January 2019.Can’t Even goes beyond the original article, as Petersen examines how millennials have arrived at this point of burnout ( unchecked capitalism and changing labor laws) and examines the phenomenon through a variety of lenses—including how burnout affects the way we work, parent, and socialize—describing its resonance in alarming familiarity. Utilizing a combination of sociohistorical framework, original interviews, and detailed analysis, Can’t Even offers a galvanizing, intimate, and ultimately redemptive look at the lives of this much-maligned generation, and will be required reading for both millennials and the parents and employers trying to understand them.

From celebrity gossip expert and BuzzFeed culture writer Anne Helen Petersen comes an accessible, analytical look at how female celebrities are pushing boundaries of what it means to be an "acceptable" woman.You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated--too much. It's not that she's an outcast (she might even be your friend or your wife, or your mother) so much as she's a social variable. Sometimes, she's the life of the party; others, she's the center of gossip. She's the unruly woman, and she's one of the most provocative, powerful forms of womanhood today. There have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable "feminine" behavior, but there's evidence that she's on the rise--more visible and less easily dismissed--than ever before. In Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of "unruliness" to explore the ascension of eleven contemporary powerhouses: Serena Williams, Melissa McCarthy, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Hillary Clinton, Caitlyn Jenner, Jennifer Weiner, and Lena Dunham. Petersen explores why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures, each of whom has been conceived as "too" something: too queer, too strong, too honest, too old, too pregnant, too shrill, too much. With its brisk, incisive analysis, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.

1 hora y 47 minutos.In January 2019, culture writer Anne Helen Petersen set the Internet on fire with her viral BuzzFeed essay diagnosing "millennial burnout"—a chronic state of stress and exhaustion that’s become a "base temperature" for young people today. Now, she continues this generation-defining conversation in a brand-new format, interviewing millennials around the country about their own deeply personal experiences with burnout and the culture that creates it. Listeners will hear about how this issue has affected Petersen’s own life as well as the lives of five very different subjects: Kevin, a musician and Marine veteran; Kate, a first-generation college graduate working to repay her formidable student debt; Haley and Evette, young writers at different career stages in the digital media industry; and John, a pastor and co-founder of a new Baptist church in North Carolina.The conversations that comprise The Burnout Generation cover everything from debt to social media to the blurred boundaries between our professional and personal lives. In this illuminating and intimate audio project, listeners learn how and why this generation has been conditioned to "optimize" every aspect of our lives (Meal prep for the week! Find a side hustle! But practice self-care! And answer emails in bed!), and most importantly, how the consequences of this phenomenon play out in day-to-day life. ©2019 Anne Helen Petersen (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

Hollywood gossip meets history in this compulsively readable collection from Buzzfeed reporter Anne Helen Peterson.Believe it or not, America’s fascination with celebrity culture was thriving well before the days of TMZ, Cardi B, Kanye’s tweets, and the #metoo allegations that have gripped Hollywood. And the stars of yesteryear? They weren’t always the saints that we make them out to be. BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen, author of Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, is here to set the record straight. Pulling little-known gems from the archives of film history, Petersen reveals eyebrow-raising information, including:*The smear campaign against the original It Girl, Clara Bow, started by her best friend *The heartbreaking story of Montgomery Clift’s rapid rise to fame, the car accident that destroyed his face, and the “long suicide” that followed *Fatty Arbuckle’s descent from Hollywood royalty, fueled by allegations of a boozy orgy turned violent assault *Why Mae West was arrested and jailed for “indecency charges” *And much more Part biography, part cultural history, these stories cover the stuff that films are made of: love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups. But it’s not all just tawdry gossip in the pages of this book. The stories are all contextualized within the boundaries of film, cultural, political, and gender history, making for a read that will inform as it entertains. Based on Petersen’s beloved column on the Hairpin, but featuring 100% new content, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is sensationalism made smart.

From the author of the bestselling cultural touchstones Out of Office and Can’t Even, an honest, intimate, and often shocking look at how the events of the past three years have pushed parents to the breaking point—and how many of them are emerging stronger and more resourceful than before.Parenting is tough under the best of conditions. Thanks to the ongoing calamities of recent years, it’s more challenging than ever—for mothers in particular. Recent statistics show that more than 60 percent of women have taken on the majority of pandemic parenting and household duties, almost 50 percent are under regular stress, and 39 percent with children under five say they have either left the workforce or reduced their hours because of a lack of reliable and affordable childcare. In short, mothers are not okay.Plenty of news stories have reported on the increased pressure mothers have been under in the face of Covid, gun violence, inflation, racial acrimony, and more, but we’ve heard little beyond sound bites from women themselves. In this powerful account, Anne Helen Petersen, one of today’s most astute and empathetic cultural observers, gives women voice. Drawing on responses she received from more than a thousand mothers, Petersen shares the first-person stories of thirty-three of them. We hear from moms from a wide range of races, backgrounds, income levels, cities, and towns. Some are single, some divorced, some in same-sex unions. All of them are ready to talk.With cathartic, raw candor, these moms tell how they’re attempting to work through the anxiety, fatigue, and abject terror of the early 2020s. In stunning detail, they discuss how they’re grappling with the day-to-day emotional and economic fallout, and the deep demoralization that accompanies the sinking feeling that so few people in power are thinking about ways to help. During the shutdown and now, these mothers have felt alone and largely forgotten. For many, it’s increasingly impossible to do what feels like good parenting within the system as it is. Some of this is the fault of the pandemic, but some, too, is the ongoing unraveling of the social safety net and government failure to cultivate communities that support parents. As one mom says, “Most of my friends and their partners are barely hanging on.”But these stories also show something else: the resilience and adaptability of families. Despite their hardships and worries, these mothers have crafted ways to survive—and thrive. In the absence of political solutions, they’re building their own support systems for themselves and their children. Yes, these moms are pissed off and worn out, but they’re also, ultimately, hopeful.Not just a story for mothers, this is for friends, colleagues, employers, and even (perhaps especially) policymakers. The way we treat parents is the way we regard caregiving, labor, gender, family, and community at large. If we don’t figure out how to address these issues now, all of us will suffer. The Moms Are Not Alright will make parents feel seen, but it will also speak to the many who are eager to reconsider the way we think of community and care moving forward.