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I don’t know if it’s that there’s more-I think there’s just been a shift on the way we talk about them, and I think the internet has shaped that. I know that right now it feels like there’s so many memoirs by young women in particular.

So for the year that I was working on it really heavily, I didn’t read anything else, and that was actually around the time that Lena Dunham and Jessica Valenti’s books had come out.

SK: While I was writing the book I avoided other memoirs, because I don’t want to get distracted or pick up somebody else’s voice. Have you been reading that sort of thing, or have you been feeling intimidated or empowered by those works? MJ: I feel like I’ve been reading more and more books that are memoirs or essay collections from really incredible women-I don’t know if more are being produced or if it’s just what I’ve been hungry for, so it’s what I’ve been feeding myself. That’s the altruistic answer, and then the other version is, “Oh, I’m obsessed with myself.” I grew up on the internet, but the things that formed my understanding of the world and made me feel less isolated were books. But you hope that you write this thing that appeals to people in this really meaningful way. I write for the internet all the time, but there is something very different about writing a book that you’re asking people to buy. SK: It’s a delicate balance of narcissism and self-interest and money and the hope that you can write something and other people understand it. MJ: What made you decide to write the book? SK: Yeah, why not, right? Listen, I would also like to buy a boat. MJ: It must be kind of gratifying to be able to turn your obnoxious qualities from childhood into a way to make money as an adult. Those things are great to have, but if they are uncontrolled and wild, it can hurt you in the long term. I think that’s probably the same case with being bold or bossy or mouthy. When you’re a kid, it’s really obnoxious because you’re just being a dick all the time. But now I think a lot about when it’s worth it and what I’m doing it for. I’m not sure it’s so much about finding boldness as it is about retaining control at this point, because being mouthy has never been my problem. In my later life, it’s been beneficial, but when I was younger I didn’t know how to control it or what to do with it. I used to get in trouble all the time for…actually, the same stuff I get in trouble for as an adult. Scaachi Koul: I have the unfortunate inability to be quiet, and it did not serve me very well when I was a kid. It seems like you manage to be really outspoken in those spaces-where do you find that sort of boldness? Mother Jones: Part of what you talk about in the book is existing in spaces where you feel unwelcome in. “I have the unfortunate inability to be quiet, and it did not serve me very well when I was a kid.”