Sometimes the universe just says yes.
I have been trying to get Jane Pratt on The Daily Whatever Show for months.
Jane Pratt—founder of Sassy magazine, the publication that told a generation of GenX girls they were enough exactly as they were, before anyone was saying that. The woman who put Kurt Cobain and Courtney on the cover, who championed Michael Stipe when he was just some kid with a band, who at 15 decided she was going to make something better for girls because the magazines that existed had hurt her so badly.
Yesterday she messaged: yes. Right now. Fifteen minutes.
Of course I said yes.
We talked about what Sassy was and why it mattered. We talked about her new Substack, anotherjaneprattthing.com, where she’s doing It Happened to Mes and Unpopular Opinions and living in the comments the way she always lived in the letters. We talked about how personal storytelling is political — how every story we share is an attempt to write the cultural narrative back from the people who’ve stolen it.
I got to tell her about the time my indie music publication, Three Imaginary Girls, once got a shoutout in Jane magazine. It was one of our greatest achievements.
She told me that I Write Out Loud reminded her of the writers she’d championed. I’m not going to pretend that didn’t mean everything. It did.
Jane and I are messaging again, trying to get that official date for a The Daily Whatever Show appearance. This time, it’s going to happen. In the meantime, enjoy this short-but-lovely chat with one of my personal heroes.
And if you’re not already subscribed to Another Jane Pratt Thing, well, you know what to do…
Thank you Diane Johnston, Rose, Courtney, Tricia Robbins, Barbara, and many others for tuning into my live video with Jane Pratt!
