I spent seven years as a culture editor at BuzzFeed News. Here are some pieces I edited that I’m especially proud of:
Features
Jason Isbell Is Tired Of Country’s Love Affair With White Nostalgia by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
He Was 5'7". After Surgery, He’ll Be 5'10" by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
How Did Lauren Duca’s Revolution Backfire? by Scaachi Koul
Is The Shade Room Too Toxic To Function? by Michael Blackmon
Two Black Lives Matter Protesters Allegedly Set An Empty Cop Car On Fire. Now They Face Up To Life In Prison by Albert Samaha and Ruby Cramer
Black Farmers Grapple With An Uncertain Economy by Bim Adewunmi
I Toured A $43 Million Home With The Guy Who Made Selling Sunset by Scaachi Koul
Natasha Trethewey Wants An American Reckoning by Hanif Abdurraqib
Michael Wang Didn’t Get Into Harvard. He Thinks It’s Because He’s Asian by Esther Wang
Kiese Laymon Knows His New Memoir Is Raw. But It’s Not Trauma Porn. by Bim Adewunmi
Why Millennial Women Are Flocking To Fillers by Zan Romanoff
Pickup Artists Are Still A Thing. And They Want You To Know They’ve Evolved by Scaachi Koul
Personal Essays
How Native American Is Native American Enough? by Tommy Orange
I Walked From Selma to Montgomery by Rahawa Haile (included among Longread’s best essays of 2018; to be featured in Best American Travel Writing 2019)
Queering Barbie by Kristen Arnett
The Generosity Of Toni Morrison by Hanif Abdurraqib
What My Mother Didn’t Talk About by Karolina Waclawiak
AMC's The Terror And The Truth About Japanese Internment Camps by Aja Gabel
The Time I Went On A Lesbian Cruise And It Blew Up My Entire Life by Shannon Keating
My Mother And I Went Halfway Around The World To Find Each Other by Jennifer Hope Choi (included in Best American Travel Writing 2018)
I’m Finally Ready To Talk About How My Parents Died by Anonymous
Tikka Masala Is A Scam And Other Lessons From Pakistani Restaurants by Ahmed Ali Akbar
What A Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew by Mariama Lockington
I Thought Going To Korea Would Help Me Find Home by E. Alex Jung
My Abortion Wasn’t Like Ben Folds Said It Would Be by Adriana Widdoes
Cultural criticism
What You’re Feeling Isn’t A Vibe Shift. It’s Permanent Change by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
I Don't Feel Like Buying Stuff Anymore by Anne Helen Petersen
Why I’ve Had Trouble Buying Hollywood’s Version Of Girl Power by Alison Willmore
Why A New Mixed Race Generation Will Not Solve Racism by Lauren Michele Jackson
Oprah's No Good, Very Bad Few Months by Niela Orr
The Problem With Rupi Kaur's Poetry by Chiara Giovanni
The Rich, Black, Southern Heritage Of Hip-Hop Majorettes by Frederick McKindra
Ellen Degeneres And The Limits of Relatability by Shannon Keating
How Did This Liberal Feminist Writer Fall In With The Dark Web? by Elisabeth Donnelly
The Real Housewives Of Atlanta Is Really About Housing Anxiety by Niela Orr
How The Kardashians Reflect Changing Ideas Around Plastic Surgery by Zan Romanoff
When Will Kirsten Dunst Get Her Due? by Elisabeth Donnelly