Jane Marie and The Secret Life of Marrieds

July 28, 2014 7:38 PM

Jane Feltes was a producer for This American Life. She changed her name, left TAL, and became a coeditor at The Hairpin, where she created the How to Be a Girl series that included Beauty Q&A; the Friday Bargain Bin, in which Jane told us how to spend our weekly allowance; and a collection of beauty tutorial videos, the highlight of which might possibly be The Cat Eye Tutorial for its use of office supplies and magic. Office supplies as magic? Jane also came up with Women Struggling to Drink Water (previously). Jane left The Hairpin in 2013 and currently writes a beauty column for Rookie as a well as the occasional longer piece, such as the inspirational and practical (for teens and adults) A Guide to Finding Yourself. She also has a weekly column with Cosmopolitan in which she talks to married couples and gets them to share insight into their lives together: The Secret Life of Marrieds.

- Why We Kept Our Marriage Secret for Years

- Erin and Lindsey: "Well, we were gonna be roommates but we started dating instead."

-The Couple That's "Too Weird to Be With Anyone Else"

- She Was a Virgin, He Was a Porn Addict

- How One Couple Survives Fights About Money

- This one is Jane interviewing herself and her husband: We Wanted Lots of Kids, But Our First Changed Everything

More The Secret Life of Marrieds.

posted by danabanana (15 comments total)

She is hilarious, and I have a big Internet-crush on her! Her Big Hair tutorial is really great too.

The Secret Life of Marrieds is interesting, but I had to stop reading after just skimming a few. It made me sad that I'm not married myself! It captures the relationships really really well, I think.
posted by sockermom at 7:53 PM on July 28, 2014

This is great!
posted by clockzero at 8:08 PM on July 28, 2014

This is really sweet.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:12 PM on July 28, 2014

Women Struggling to Drink Water is no Women Laughing Alone With Salad
posted by angerbot at 8:13 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Today I learned that one of the (I guess now former) producers of This American Life is also responsible for that cat-eye video. Hilarious. I don't know why but I always get a kick out of learning what voices on the radio look like. (When I saw Ira Glass for the first time it simultaneously made perfect sense and no sense at all.)
posted by chrominance at 8:21 PM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Boy, those columns make all these marriages seem really . . . ill-conceived.
posted by Anonymous at 8:41 PM on July 28, 2014

"To Weird to Be With Anyone Else" describes us also. We have both had the experience of dates looking at us with utter confusion or possibly fear/dislike when we talk about things we love or whatever we are obsessed with at the moment. So when we met each other, and that didn't happen (well, maybe confusion, but never fear/dislike) then we started to believe it might be a long-term thing.

If they lived near us we would happily eat Thai food and watch Home Movies with them. That show was amazing.
posted by emjaybee at 8:55 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

These are great. She sounds fun to hang out with, and I like her voice in the columns.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:42 PM on July 28, 2014

JAAANE! In The Hairpin's heyday there was some semi(completely)-serious heroine worship going on for her. I lost track of her after she left and am excited to read more of her writing!
posted by sonmi at 10:56 PM on July 28, 2014

emjaybee: "To Weird to Be With Anyone Else" describes us also. We have both had the experience of dates looking at us with utter confusion or possibly fear/dislike when we talk about things we love or whatever we are obsessed with at the moment. So when we met each other, and that didn't happen (well, maybe confusion, but never fear/dislike) then we started to believe it might be a long-term thing.

That reminds me of a quote I came across that somewhere, and I had my best man read it my wedding.

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.” (Robert Fulghum)
posted by filthy light thief at 11:40 PM on July 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

Love Jane Marie. I had no idea she used to be a producer for TAL. Her beauty videos on The Hairpin were just about perfect, what with the drinking and the big hair and the eyelining. Glad to see she's married and mothering and still awesome.
posted by GoLikeHellMachine at 12:50 AM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

I stopped reading The Hairpin after Jane left. The Friday Bargain Bin was one of the web highlights of my week! And I'm far too old (in more ways than one) to even look at the front page of Rookie, so I'm thrilled to find more Jane!

Jane: I think I was afraid of getting married. Not to you, but in general, because I had a failed marriage. I wasn't super confident, but it wasn't you-specific.

This. I'm on my second marriage too and I was reallllllllllly gunshy about it and kept telling my now-husband "it's not you it's meeeeeee" when he kept asking/hinting about marriage.
posted by kimberussell at 6:10 AM on July 29, 2014

"The Couple That's 'Too Weird to Be With Anyone Else'"

I look forward to her follow-up investigations, "That Person That's 'Too Weird to Be With Anyone Else'", "What's that cat's story?", and "Really, just what is your deal, man?"
posted by octobersurprise at 6:37 AM on July 29, 2014

Not to you, but in general, because I had a failed marriage

One of my favorite undergrad profs carried a coffee mug that said "Stamp Out First Marriages."

Now I have googled that slogan for the first time ever and I see that it was thing way back in the day. I did not know that.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:49 AM on July 29, 2014

I think these types of stories are fascinating, but then again I was obsessed with "can this marriage be saved?" from Ladies Home Journal when I was, like, 8.

(also LOVED Friday Bargain Bin)
posted by armacy at 5:06 PM on July 30, 2014