Leslie Morgan Steiner
Encyclopedia
Leslie Morgan Steiner is an American author, blogger and businesswoman.
with a B.A. in English, Steiner's first published work was an autobiographical account of her teenage struggle with anorexia nervosa
, published in Seventeen
in September 1986. The article, "Starving for Perfection", was written under the pseudonym Isabel Johnson and received over 4000 reader letters, at the time a record for Seventeen, and appeared in the anthology The College Reader (Harper Collins, 1993).
Steiner went on to work in the Articles Department for Seventeen from 1987-1988. She was a freelance magazine writer and consultant from 1988-1990. She earned an MBA degree in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania
in 1992.
Her corporate marketing career included stints at the Leo Burnett
advertising agency in Chicago
and Johnson & Johnson
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
. At Johnson & Johnson she launched the low-calorie sweetener ingredient sucralose
, also known as Splenda Brand Sweetener, internationally from 1994-2000. She oversaw the public relations program for the sweetener's United States Food and Drug Administration approval on April 1, 1999.
In early 2001 Steiner returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C. to become general manager of The Washington Post Magazine. While working for The Washington Post, Steiner became interested in the struggles of and tensions between American working and stay-at-home mothers. Her anthology, Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face off on their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families was published in 2006 by Random House
and the essays by a range of at-home and working mothers such as Jane Smiley
, Susan Cheever
, Carolyn Hax
and Jane Juska
generated extensive media interest and controversy among conflicted American mothers, including mommy bloggers, daddy bloggers and publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Steiner continues to interpret the mommy wars, most recently the controversy created by the nomination of Alaska governor Sarah Palin
as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, and Michelle Obama's position as the first African American first lady.
From 2006 to 2008, Steiner wrote On Balance, an online column exploring work/family conflicts for washingtonpost.com, the internet site for her employer. On Balance, one of washingtonpost.com's first forays into the blogosphere, quickly became popular among a diverse audience of men and women with and without children. Over the course of two years, Steiner's column became one of the most popular "mommy blogs" on the web. Steiner wrote over 500 columns, and the site accumulated over 100,000 comments from online posters. The readership weighed in with up to 700 comments per day. Over the course of 27 months, 112,898 total comments were submitted by 11,735 different posting names and 16,632 anonymous posters.
Steiner currently writes a weekly column, "Two Cents on Modern Motherhood", for Mommy Track'd. She is a contributor to On Being Fearless by Arianna Huffington
and The Huffington Post
. She recently finished Crazy Love, a memoir about surviving domestic violence
that spent three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Steiner is currently working on The Crazy Love Project, a documentary profiling abuse survivors.
Steiner is married to Perry Winter Steiner, a fellow Wharton business school graduate who works in private equity for Washington, DC - based Arlington Capital Partners
. The couple has three children and lives in the District of Columbia.
Life and career
Morgan was born in Washington, D. C. A 1987 graduate of Harvard CollegeHarvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
with a B.A. in English, Steiner's first published work was an autobiographical account of her teenage struggle with anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
, published in Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
in September 1986. The article, "Starving for Perfection", was written under the pseudonym Isabel Johnson and received over 4000 reader letters, at the time a record for Seventeen, and appeared in the anthology The College Reader (Harper Collins, 1993).
Steiner went on to work in the Articles Department for Seventeen from 1987-1988. She was a freelance magazine writer and consultant from 1988-1990. She earned an MBA degree in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1992.
Her corporate marketing career included stints at the Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett was an advertising executive who created the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger....
advertising agency in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
. At Johnson & Johnson she launched the low-calorie sweetener ingredient sucralose
Sucralose
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body and therefore it is non-caloric. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. Sucralose is approximately 600 times as sweet as sucrose , twice as sweet as saccharin, and 3.3...
, also known as Splenda Brand Sweetener, internationally from 1994-2000. She oversaw the public relations program for the sweetener's United States Food and Drug Administration approval on April 1, 1999.
In early 2001 Steiner returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C. to become general manager of The Washington Post Magazine. While working for The Washington Post, Steiner became interested in the struggles of and tensions between American working and stay-at-home mothers. Her anthology, Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face off on their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families was published in 2006 by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
and the essays by a range of at-home and working mothers such as Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
, Susan Cheever
Susan Cheever
Susan Cheever, , daughter of John Cheever and sister of Benjamin Cheever, is an author whose books include My Name is Bill - Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson; Home Before Dark, a memoir about her father, John...
, Carolyn Hax
Carolyn Hax
Carolyn Hax is a writer and columnist for the Washington Post and the author of the eponymous advice column Carolyn Hax — formerly titled Tell Me About It. The column debuted in 1997 and is published Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday – syndicated in more than 200 newspapers...
and Jane Juska
Jane Juska
Jane Juska is an American author and retired English schoolteacher whose first book, A Round-Heeled Woman : My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance , documented her search for sex at 67 years of age....
generated extensive media interest and controversy among conflicted American mothers, including mommy bloggers, daddy bloggers and publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Steiner continues to interpret the mommy wars, most recently the controversy created by the nomination of Alaska governor Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, and Michelle Obama's position as the first African American first lady.
From 2006 to 2008, Steiner wrote On Balance, an online column exploring work/family conflicts for washingtonpost.com, the internet site for her employer. On Balance, one of washingtonpost.com's first forays into the blogosphere, quickly became popular among a diverse audience of men and women with and without children. Over the course of two years, Steiner's column became one of the most popular "mommy blogs" on the web. Steiner wrote over 500 columns, and the site accumulated over 100,000 comments from online posters. The readership weighed in with up to 700 comments per day. Over the course of 27 months, 112,898 total comments were submitted by 11,735 different posting names and 16,632 anonymous posters.
Steiner currently writes a weekly column, "Two Cents on Modern Motherhood", for Mommy Track'd. She is a contributor to On Being Fearless by Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and syndicated columnist. She is best known as co-founder of the news website The Huffington Post. A popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, she adopted more liberal political beliefs in the late 1990s...
and The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
. She recently finished Crazy Love, a memoir about surviving domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
that spent three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Steiner is currently working on The Crazy Love Project, a documentary profiling abuse survivors.
Steiner is married to Perry Winter Steiner, a fellow Wharton business school graduate who works in private equity for Washington, DC - based Arlington Capital Partners
Arlington Capital Partners
Arlington Capital Partners is a Washington, DC based private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout and recapitalization investments in middle market companies. Since inception in 1999, the firm has raised approximately $1.0 billion in investor commitments across two private equity funds.In...
. The couple has three children and lives in the District of Columbia.
External links
- Official website
- Official Site to Book Leslie Morgan Steiner as a Speaker
- The Diane Rehm Show March 2006
- The Today Show March 2006
- On Balance archived columns
- Mommy Track'D weekly column
- New York Times Mommy Wars excerpt in Modern Love
- CNN Leslie Morgan Steiner Busts the Work/Life Myth
- Newsweek "Smart Moms, Hard Choices"
- BusinessWeek
- Huffington Post columnist Leslie Morgan Steiner
- The Root "How Michelle Obama Passed for White"
- CNN "Commentary: Michelle Obama"