Stephanie Dolgoff's Blog, page 23

It's Formerly/Finally Friday again!

Happy Friday, people!

This week's Formerly/Finally Friday star is Jennie, one of the kindest, most spiritual and generous women I know. When she told me what her Formerly was (Formerly Rude, in case you can't read her sign) I was shocked. She declined to elaborate (English is not her first language) but said, "I wasn't always so nice."

I've had the opposite experience. I was much nicer when I was younger, and more polite, too. Not that I'm spitting on people's shoes or making unsolicited...

Examiner.com's review of My Formerly Hot Life

And it doesn't suck! In fact, it's good. Whew. Here it is:

Funny and moving book from Stephanie Dolgoff.courtsey of Ballantine Books

My Formerly Hot Life: Dispatches From Just The Other Side of Young is both a lighthearted and profoundly revealing offering from author, editor and sometime television personality, Stephanie Dolgoff. A memoir of a woman who has come to the realization that she is no longer considered young or hip, the book offers humor filled insights into what Dolgoff calls the...

Win a free copy of My Formerly Hot Life!

My friends at Self Magazine are so lovely as to help get the word out about My Formerly Hot Life. Here's what they're doing–incredibly cool:

There will be an excerpt from My Formerly Hot Life in the August Issue, on  newsstands in a couple of daysI will be blogging about your favorite topic and mine on SELF.comPlus, there will be a bunch of giveaways, the first of which is…THIS! Click on the link, register, and be entered to win a free copy of the book! Just as cool, you'll get all kinds of...

Shameless book whoring! Yes!

Regular visitors may have noticed the lovely new pink banner above the logo…which doesn't link to anything. It will. For details on the HOW I AM BRIBING YOU–I mean incentivizing you–to preorder My Formerly Hot Life, for now, just click here.

Thanks! Steph

And in other boob news (product review!)

It has been pretty well established in fashion circles that the bra strap showing alongside the straps of your camisole, if it was ever OK, is probably no longer, not for Formerlies anyway. It seems like women (like me) who actually need bras are the ones who have to work the hardest to conceal them, because displaying your magenta lace straps to hint at how easily your shirt might be enticed off is a whole lot cuter when you're a little perky-boobed 20something who could probably get away...

So now "cougars" are age 27 and up

First of all, vomit. Did Time really have to headline this piece "The Science of Cougar Sex: Why Older Women Lust"?

It's a report on a study by evolutionary psychologist David Buss, the guy at UT Austin who explains much of current human behavior in terms of our being programmed over time to seek out characteristics that reflect reproductive fitness in our partners. In the past, Buss's work was used to explain how men are basically hardwired to be horndogs for younger, easily impregnateable...

It's FORMERLY/FINALLY FRIDAY

But I got nothing! That's not true–I have an excellent one from my friend Freddi, but that will have to wait until next week because it's also about work and career and ambition and parenthood, and thus too close to others that I've written.

So consider this an ask, as the marketing people say: Send me your Formerly and your Finally. If taking the picture holding the sign is too much–believe me, I get it–just send me your story.

Have a fantastic weekend. Not that I'm telling you what to do.

Why we need more scientists

Much has been written about how the US is being outpaced by China and India when it comes to graduating engineers who will lead the world in important scientific and technological breakthroughs. Naturally, the President is concerned, as are legislators who predict that because we're net importers of technology and not taking science and math education seriously enough, that our kiddies will have a lower standard of living than us and we'll be forever dependent on foreign oil for energy.

Blah b...

It's FORMERLY/FINALLY FRIDAY!

If this woman were holding a sign, it would say "FORMERLY AMBITIOUS." And if she were not afraid of what her future employers might think, she'd show her face. Suffice to say she's a friend of mine who has done spectacular things in her career, mostly in public service, and always helping others.

Now, at 40, she's pregnant for a second time, has a toddler who likes to dive face first in her sleep out of her crib and has my friend up every few hours to make sure she's safe and still pretty...

Thankfully Formerly

A month or so ago, my friend Rachel and I were in Union Square park here in NYC filming a scene from the book trailer. Because the scene took multiple takes, she and I had to walk repeatedly along a pathway that was lined with benches up to a certain mark, then go back to start and do it again.

The mark was just past a couple in their early 20s, maybe NYU students, sitting on one of the benches, angled towards each other. The guy was breaking up with the girl. Because we didn't linger to...