Listen:
I loved sitting down with award-winning author Melissa Fraterrigo, whose latest book, The Perils of Girlhood, is a memoir in essays that examines identity, fear, body image, motherhood, memory, and the cultural touchstones that shaped so many girls growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Together, we explored the moments that define girlhood, from fear and body image to parenting, consent, pop culture, and the stories we carry into adulthood, and how writing about them can open conversations we rarely have out loud. Fun fact: We got to talk about Judy Blume (who I have loved Forever!) and Madonna, two of my favorite cultural touchstones.
In This Episode
- The real fears that follow girls into adulthood, from unsafe encounters to inherited anger
- How pop culture influences like Judy Blume, Madonna, and true crime stories shaped a generation
- The challenge of talking to teenage daughters about consent, body image, and safety
- Using braided essay structures to layer personal experience with cultural reality
- Turning difficult memories into narrative without judgment or sensationalism
- Why reading your work aloud can reveal emotional truth
- Teaching writing in a way that encourages students to find and trust their voice
Watch on YouTube
About Melissa
Melissa Fraterrigo’s memoir, The Perils of Girlhood was published by the University of Nebraska Press in Fall 2025. She is also the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), which was named one of “The Best Fiction Books of 2017” by the Chicago Review of Books as well as the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from storySouth and Shenandoah to Notre Dame Review, Sou’wester and The Millions. She teaches creative writing at Purdue University, in the Butler University MFA in Creative Writing program, and is also the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana, where she offers classes on the art and craft of writing. She lives with her husband and two daughters in West Lafayette, Indiana and can be found at melissafraterrigo.com.
Connect with Melissa
Get More from Estelle
NYU (Zoom), 6-week course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir, Essays & Articles. Learn to beat writer’s block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. Find out more information and register here.
Private small-group memoir class: January and March are sold out. The next 6-week session starts May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.
Substack Post: How to Pitch Slate: Advice, Ideas and Examples For Writing Essays and Articles From My NYU Editor-on-Call Event: If you missed my Editor-on-Call session with Slate’s Rebecca Onion, I put together a recap with everything writers need to know—rates, story types, what they’re commissioning, and the pitch mistakes editors see most often.
Upcoming Webinar with Writer’s Digest
Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET
If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar.
Learn more and register here.
Article Highlight: In Provoked Magazine
I wrote When Your Colleague Isn’t a Friend. She’s a Frenemy.
This piece, one of my most personal and vulnerable ones in a while, explores the subtle ways professional relationships can undermine us, why we tell ourselves it is personal, and how to recognize what is really going on. This story came from an experience that stayed with me, and writing it helped me see it with more clarity.
Here is a line from the piece that captures the heart of it:
“In the face of her snark, I became a lesser version of myself and didn’t deliver a more characteristic-of-me clap back. And felt like crap about it.”
If you have ever dealt with someone who smiled to your face while undermining you, or felt the sting of being minimized when you were simply trying to shine, I think you will relate to this one.
Read the full essay here (and please feel free to leave a comment and share it). We are all in this together.
My Latest Craft Essay
Open Secrets Magazine featured my newest craft essay, “How to Make Concessions When Writing Confessions.”
In it, I explore how personal essayists can strike the right balance between honesty and discernment—what to reveal, what to withhold, and how thoughtful concessions can actually elevate the emotional power of your story. This is a resource for those polishing those end of year essays. Read the full piece here:
Explore More
- 📘 Writing That Gets Noticed – Buy the book | Audiobook
- 🎤 Watch Estelle’s TEDx Talk: How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond
- 📰 Subscribe on Substack: https://estelleserasmus.substack.com
Latest posts: “How To Pitch Slate, Why Every Memoir Needs the Echo Effect, When Writers Are the Ones Blocking the Page: 6 Ways to Move Forward (and An Offer); Stop Counting Your Words. Start Shaping Your Story” and “How to Get Published in Cosmopolitan or Seventeen” - 🎧 More episodes: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast
About Estelle
Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, author of Writing That Gets Noticed (named a “Best Book for Writers” by Poets & Writers), and host of Freelance Writing Direct—2025 Podcast of the Year (Education), American Writing Awards. A Contributing Editor for Writer’s Digest and adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP: The Magazine. She’s served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.
