Lindy West
Lindy West is an American writer, comedian, and activist. She is the author of the essay collections Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman and The Witches Are Coming and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Topics she writes about include feminism, popular culture, and the fat acceptance movement.
Career
In 2009, West began working as the film editor for Seattle's alternative weekly newspaper, The Stranger. In 2011, she moved to Los Angeles, but continued to write for The Stranger until September 2012.She was a staff writer for Jezebel where she wrote on racism, sexism, and fat shaming. West's work has been published in The Daily Telegraph, GQ, the New York Daily News, Vulture.com, Deadspin, Cracked.com, MSNBC and The Guardian. Describing West's often-comedic approach to serious issues, Dayna Tortorici wrote in The New York Times that West:
has changed more minds this way than you could count. One of the most distinctive voices advancing feminist politics through humor, West is behind a handful of popular pieces — "How to Make a Rape Joke" on Jezebel, "Hello, I Am Fat" on The Stranger’s blog, "Ask Not for Whom the Bell Trolls; It Trolls for Thee" on "This American Life" — that have helped shift mainstream attitudes about body image, comedy and online harassment over the past several years. Culture molds who we are, West argues, but it’s ours to remold in turn.In 2013, West won the Women's Media Center Social Media Award, which was presented by Jane Fonda in New York City. Accepting the award, West said, "I hear a lot these days about the lazy, aimless 'millennials' – about how all we want to do is sit around twerking our iPods and Tweedling our Kardashians – and I also hear people asking, 'Where is the next generation of the social justice movement? Where are all the young feminists and womanists and activists?' Dude, they're on the internet."
Also in 2013, Kurt Metzger feuded with West and Jude Doyle via Facebook and Twitter during a defense of rape humor.
On September 19, 2015, West co-founded Shout Your Abortion, a social media campaign on Twitter where people share their abortion experiences online without "sadness, shame or regret" for the purpose of "destigmatization, normalization, and putting an end to shame". The social media campaign was initiated in response to efforts by the United States House of Representatives to defund Planned Parenthood following the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy.
On July 1, 2017, West became a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, after having written two op-ed columns for the Times in 2016. She wrote a weekly column on feminism and popular culture.
Books and Adaptations
In 2016, West won The Strangers Genius Award in Literature for her book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. On March 15, 2019, Shrill, the television series adaptation of West's memoir starring Aidy Bryant, premiered on Hulu. West was an executive producer and writer for the show, which ran for three seasons.West's second essay collection, The Witches Are Coming, was published on November 5, 2019, by Hachette Book Group.
In October 2020, Hachette Books released West's book Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema.
West's fourth book Adult Braces, a followup to Shrill, is slated to be released by Grand Central Publishing on March 10, 2026.
Newsletter and Podcast
West hosts a Substack newsletter called where she discusses movies, TV, her life, creativity and more. She also hosts a podcast called the Butt News Movie Club since 2023.Every Castle, Ranked
In 2023, West premiered her one woman show Every Castle, Ranked which remains on tour. The production has West presenting a slideshow where she discusses "all the best and the worst castles" while using castles as a metaphor for the squandering of childhood potential.Personal life
Originally from Seattle, Washington, West is the daughter of Ingrid, who is a nurse, and Paul West, who was a musician. She attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. In 2024, Occidental awarded West an honorary doctorate.On July 11, 2015, West married musician and writer Ahamefule J. Oluo, younger sibling of Seattle writer Ijeoma Oluo.
In 2022, West and Oluo revealed that they are polyamorous. West has defined their relationship as a "closed triad." West and Oluo have a shared partner named Roya and share a house.