Acknowledgments

THE BIGGEST THANKS go to my parents, who always encouraged my writing efforts no matter how ridiculous those efforts seemed at times. I know my late dad would be insanely excited and proud of my work on this book.

Cheers also to all the friends, families, and therapists(!) who have listened to me discuss this project for years, from its inception as a rosy nascent idea, to my obsession discouragement when it looked like it might not happen. These folks encouraged me in so many small and large ways.

A massive thanks to my agent, Brandi Bowles, for her unwavering support of this project, even when it was deal-less. (And thanks to Erin for introducing me to Brandi in the first place.)

And kudos to my editor, Laura Mazer at Soft Skull, who helped me many times along the way, offering lots of strong feedback and advice throughout a winding process.

Thanks to Jessica Valenti for writing a kick-ass foreword despite being utterly swamped. And thanks to all the uber-talented contributors, who cheerfully endured countless revisions and tweaks to their essays. Thanks, too, to all the writers who submitted but didn’t reach the finish line—there were so many great pieces! It was extremely hard to narrow it down to the thirty-nine essays that ended up in this book.

And finally, I must tip my hat to Madonna, the inspiration of this book, for being strong and controversial and always unfailingly herself. Obviously, this book wouldn’t be here if she weren’t.