Reading List: 21 Outstanding Stories from Women’s Magazines and Websites

se-smith:

longreads:

Are women’s magazines avoiding “serious journalism”? Guess it all depends on who’s deciding what’s serious.

The New Republic asks that question in a new article, and our biggest problem with this debate (and, to be honest, the term “longform journalism”) is that it can often run everything through a male-skewed filter of what counts as “serious journalism.” We’ve seen serious storytelling in both. 

The other problem is that we’re still relying on National Magazine Awards and print-only publishers to reflect the zeitgeist. I’ve mentioned that 65% of all #longreads started out in print, but we also should spotlight the work of online publishers who are pursuing in-depth storytelling.

So, here’s a start: 21 stories from women’s magazines and sites that we’ve featured on Longreads. On Twitter, Rebecca Traister is curating some of her favorite serious work. And we’d love for you to add your favorite women’s magazine stories in the comments.

Allure

• The F Word, Jennifer Weiner

Marie Claire

• The Big Business of Breast Cancer, Lea Goldman

Tiger Beatdown

• The Percentages: A Biography of Class, Sady Doyle

O, The Oprah Magazine

• ‘I Will Never Know Why’, Susan Klebold

• ‘We Thought the Sun Would Always Shine on Our Lives’, Paige Williams

• Promises of an Unwed Father, Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Is Ecstasy a Viable Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?, Jessica Winter

Rookie

• Higher Learning, Staff

XO Jane

• How A Gun-loving West Texas Girl Learned to Fear Assault Weapons, Haley B. Elkins

• It Happened To Me: My Parents Adopted a Murderer, Amity Bitzel

More

• How I Lost $500,000 for Love, Aryn Kyle

Vogue

• Notes on a Scandal: Jenny Sanford Vogue Interview, Rebecca Johnson

• Sheryl Sandberg: What She Saw at the Revolution, Kevin Conley

• Susan Rice: She’s Got Game, Jonathan Van Meter

Elle

• I’m For Sale, Genevieve Smith

The Hairpin

• My Brother, My Mother, and a Call Girl, Mara Cohen Marks

• He’s So Unusual, Jane Marie

• A Goodbye to Ambien in Dubai, Amy Schumer

• The Evolution of Ape-Face Johnson, Carolita Johnson

Glamour

• Relationship Violence: The Secret That Kills 4 Women a Day, Liz Brody

Jezebel

• What Can a Civilian Possibly Say to a Wounded Soldier?, Chloe Angyal

***

Share your picks in the comments

[Image: A vintage Marie Claire cover.]

Them ladies, they write serious stuff? Who knew?!

I’m a little affronted that the IHTM about the mom who ran an underground railroad for battered women isn’t on this list! That’s one of my favorite xoJane pieces of all time.