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Virginia Sole-Smith on Muck Rack

Virginia Sole-Smith

(She/Her)
As seen in: Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith, Apple Podcasts, Elemental, Medium, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Yahoo Life, Business Insider, HuffPost, Shutterstock, TIME and
Covers:  obesity, eating disorders, women's issues, mermaids, women's health, body image, hunger, beauty industry, poverty, beauty standards,
Doesn't Cover: plastic surgery, weight loss products, romance, self help, fad diets
Author of the NYT bestseller FAT TALK and Burnt Toast on @SubstackInc. Don't use DMs here.

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Virginia Sole-Smith’s Biography

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As a journalist, Virginia Sole-Smith has reported from kitchen tables and grocery stores, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid’s tail. Virginia's 2023 book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, was an instant New York Times bestseller investigating how the "war on childhood obesity" has caused kids of all ages to absorb a daily onslaught of body shame from peers, school, diet culture, and parents themselves. It offers research-based strategies to help parents…

Virginia Sole-Smith’s Journalist Portfolio

The Pink Pyramid Scheme

The Pink Pyramid Scheme

How Mary Kay preys on desperate housewives and profits off a "you can have it all" fantasy of modern womanhoo…

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The Hungry House

The Hungry House

Right here in the United States, one in four children don't have enough to eat. The impact on their health is…

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Mexico's Squid Sweatshops

Mexico's Squid Sweatshops

Grotesque working conditions are just the beginning of problems for the people of Santa Rosalia, a town of a…

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Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

Virginia Sole-Smith went to beauty school and all she got was this interesting perspective.

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My year in waxing school.

My year in waxing school.

Naked people don't tip well and more tricks of the trade.

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Articles

Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

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By Virginia Sole-Smith
| Substack
I’m figuring out the weight room, which classes are nice and which are diet culture hellscapes, and more. You can read the first installment here, and the whole series will eventually live here. We’re talking about her new book, Black. Single. Mother., and getting into who gets to claim the title of “single mother” and whether dating…especially for single moms… can become a diet?
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Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

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By Virginia Sole-Smith
| Substack
Right after this piece dropped (so yes, at 5:45am on a Tuesday morning!), my mother texted to ask why my hand is on my head in so many of these photos. If you’ve wondered the same thing (but held yourself back from asking, always an option???): It’s because I only have, like, two poses that work in the mirror I do outfit selfies in, and also sometimes I think my hair looks flat. What can I say. Photos are hard!! Anyway, all of my spring outfits are linkedright over here.
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Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith

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By Virginia Sole-Smith
| Substack
Some of these tips are my advice, some from the Burnt Toast team and former pod guests, and a lot from YOU because y’all are very wise. None of them is about taking a bubble bath (no hate to bubble baths!). My favorite: Pee when you need to pee!! And! Wear the fun glasses. (Photo: Molly Haley) Emma joined us to chat about her gorgeous new short story collection Fat Swim.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Features Assistant, Seventeen Magazine. (After many an unpaid internship!)

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Strictly for vintage street cred. I found a hulking metal typewriter from the 1920s on Etsy and used it as the guest book at our wedding.

What does it mean to be a journalist?

Integrity, honesty, perspective.

Awards

National Bone Marrow Donor Program’s Excellence in National Media Award

2011 - National Media

Awarded by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and Be the Match to Virginia Sole-Smith and All You Magazine, for an in-depth, five-page feature on marrow and cord blood transplantation that reached more than 1 million readers.

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American Academy of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology’s Samter Journalism Award

2008 - Print Journalism

The Samter Journalism Awards were developed to recognize the best reporting of the role of the allergist/immunologist and allergy, asthma and immunologic disease. The Samter Award is named in honor of Max Samter, MD, FAAAAI, a former AAAAI President and ardent advocate for public education in the area of allergic disease.

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