Amanda Chatel

Standing at 4’11 and 3/4”, Amanda Chatel is a force to be reckoned with. She currently writes for Bustle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, and Mic and is also working on publishing her own book. For Amanda, the cliché of always wanting to be a writer was not a cliché; it was a reality. Writing has and always will be her greatest love (excluding, of course, her dog, Hubbell). Amanda started writing about sex and relationships since a fateful article in 2010 which covered a blowjob class at Babeland. Despite it not being her first choice in format or content, Amanda writes about sex and relationships with a candor that can be difficult given our society’s tendency to suppress female sexuality. In her pieces, she uses honesty and accessibility to encourage women to understand their bodies and their minds. Discussing topics like female sexuality - sometimes unfairly labeled as taboo - can be difficult, but the support of her friends and family make things a lot easier who are liberal and feminist and recognize the importance of what Amanda is doing. She hopes that her honesty and willingness to share her personal experiences will resonate with her audience and make them feel less alone. As Amanda perfectly puts it, “Life is too short to be suppressed. Life is also too short to allow your thoughts to be dictated to you by the patriarchy.” Sex and relationships is by no means the limit for Amanda’s writing, and she’s currently working on a memoir that describes her marriage, its end, and the ways she dealt with the whole experience including consulting a Voodoo priestess in New Orleans and hosting a divorce party at The Plaza. When asked what advice Amanda has for young writers, she said “pitch like crazy” to the publications that you read, and network with other writers who are not your competition, but rather your colleagues. Lastly, she strongly advises you not to have a back-up plan because “Back-up plans make it too easy to give up.”