Our Mission

If you can see this, you’ve caught us with our pants down — we haven’t actually launched yet! (For a fuller-fledged mission statement, check out this letter from the editor, which served as franklyjenn.com’s original and sole landing page.)

The idea for Frankly Jenn began as 55% a joke, but maybe 45% serious? The very notion of a “lifestyle guru” is this inaccessible, out-of-touch thing. Worse, when a celebrity rebrands as a self-styled expert, he or she tries to upsell you on a $62 blue bandana neckerchief. We can do better than this.

And no, I guess I’m not totally opposed to the Sundance Catalogification of celebrity, but it just isn’t realistic, and it isn’t what I want to read. What is realistic? Throwing a killer backyard cookout. Learning French in your bathtub. Making an amazing no-fuss risotto. We’re full of charming ideas.

So consider Frankly Jenn your clever, frugal-but-not-too-frugal, slightly bratty sister you never had.