Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein (born November 22, 1961) is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Boys & Sex, Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter and Waiting for Daisy, as well as Don’t Call Me Princess, Flux, and the classic Schoolgirls. Her TED talk has been viewed over 5.5 million times.

A frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine, she was named in 2012 by The Columbia Journalism Review as one of its "40 Women Who Changed the Media Business in the Past 40 Years". She is Jewish.

Writing
In books and magazine articles Orenstein writes about the politics of everyday life, usually relating to gender. Her book Schoolgirls discussed educational inequity. In Flux she explored the life choices of a generation of ethnically diverse, middle class women in their mid-20s to mid-40s. Waiting for Daisy was her memoir of infertility, cancer, and motherhood. In Cinderella Ate My Daughter, she exposed the “girlie girl” culture being marketed to young children. Girls & Sex and Boys & Sex described teenage sexual behavior, sexualized media, and hookup culture, calling for healthier, open dialogue between parents and children and expanded positive-based sex and relationship education in schools. She has also written about breast cancer and the limits of mammographic screening and early detection.

Recognition
Orenstein has been named by the Columbia Journalism Review one of "40 women who changed the media business in the past 40 years".

She has also been recognized by the Council on Contemporary Families for her "Outstanding Coverage of Family Diversity.”

She has received two “Books for a Better Life” awards.

Her magazine work has also been honored by the Commonwealth Club of California, the National Women’s Political Caucus of California, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She was the recipient of fellowships from the United States-Japan Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council.

Selected works

 * SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. New York: Random House, 1994. ISBN 9780385425766,
 * Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. ISBN 9780385498876,
 * Waiting for Daisy. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007. ISBN 9781596912106,
 * Cinderella Ate My Daughter. New York: Harper, 2012. ISBN 9780061711534,
 * Girls & Sex. New York: Harper, 2016. ISBN 9780062209740,
 * Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life. Harper Paperbacks, 2018. ISBN 978-0-06-268890-3,
 * Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity. 2020. ISBN 978-0062666970