Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow.

Friends: Today is my last day at Jezebel.

In late 2006, I was, as a friend once put it, “languishing” at a teen magazine. The work was fun, but I was no longer happy and I really wanted to work online. There was a post on Gawker requesting “magazine-obsessed” writers for a “special project”; the copy stipulated that applicants not send a resume, but instead, a short email proving magazine obsession. My email to specialproject@gawker (or whatever) was written addressed to Anna Wintour; the body of the missive contained a serrated critique of everything I hated about Vogue: lack of diversity, focus on prohibitively priced couture, fetishization of thinness, dedication to nepotism and cronyism, etc. I believe the email ended, “But I still buy it. Love, Dodai.”

I had no idea, when I pressed send, that the recipient of that message would be Anna Holmes, with whom I’d worked briefly at Entertainment Weekly — and that the special project was to be called Jezebel. The site launched in May 2007; I started in July 2007.

The journey these last seven years has, without question, been a transformative experience. Jezebel has literally changed my life. The freedom to express myself openly, to work with brilliant people, to cover widely varying topics — from menstruation to Photoshop, from the Seasonal Affective Disorder that is the Urban Outfitters catalog to racism in the workplace — has been an exciting, exhausting, rewarding ride. Magic has happened here (and I don’t just mean the time writing about Kenny Styles led to meeting him, or the time we peed on a roof in Brooklyn, through a Shenis, for science. That video is sadly lost forever.)

I have LOVED writing about International Male, dystopian fiction, hot guys’ abs, half-naked pop stars, weight loss, weight gain, and hideous prom dresses. And more than that: Being a part of the smartest, funniest, most daring and outspoken crew on The Internet. These ladies are superstars.