Today’s New York Times profile of Randi Zukerberg — 29-year-old older sister of Mark, the founder of Facebook — is a little odd. It appears to be about Ms. Zuckerberg starting a new business venture, R to Z Media. But this business profile is in the Fashion & Style section. Also, this business article begins with a quote from Ms. Zuckerberg: “Who wants a tequila shot?”
Zuckerberg went to Harvard, where she and her brother “hung out a lot.” Mark dropped out; Randi graduated. As everyone knows, by 2005, he had $12.7 million in financing for Facebook. She was working as a TV show production assistant, making $32,000 a year. Mark hired her to work at Facebook, and she was there until August, when she quit to start what she calls on her Facebook page “a mysterious and exciting new media venture.”
There’s not very much information about her new company in the piece, but we do find out how much she loves to sing and how she lip-synced at her bachelorette party in 2008 while clad in a white bathing suit and tiara. There are four different references to alcoholic beverages. And this: “Mr. Zuckerberg declined to be interviewed for this article even after his sister sent him an e-mail asking him to.”
It’s tough to tell if we’re supposed to think Randi is silly, smart, or a combination of both, but one does wonder whether her business news would be covered the same way if she were male. She seems conscious of this, however:
Older women who are mentors, Ms. Zuckerberg said, have warned her that she must tone down her flamboyant persona, but she refuses to take heed. “This is a new world we live in, and it should be possible for a woman to be taken seriously and still do what she loves,” she said.
The Other Zuckerberg [New York Times]