Jessica Schiffer

New York

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Director of Special Projects at Wondermind

Director of Special Projects @LetsWondermind Writer || @NYTimes @VogueBusiness @BoF @Allure @Time +

Articles

How to write about your life online

4 weeks ago | readbugging.com | Jessica Schiffer

I’ve been writing about my life online on and off for roughly 14 years (excluding the early teenage years of Xanga and Blogspot, when I was largely speaking to myself). It’s been an interesting exercise in learning about myself and other people.
The hamster wheel

2 months ago | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

Living with chronic pain that no one you know can truly relate to feels like attempting to communicate through one of those inflatable human hamster balls. You try to convey what’s going on to the normals but they can’t really hear you and you look a bit blurry. They strain their faces to try to make it out but give up quickly—it’s too hard and your blow-up prison makes them uncomfortable.
A chill of familiarity

Dec 10, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

We live in a country with so many senseless killings it is sadly rare that any of them stand out. Most of them don’t break through the noise of daily living, their horror normalized and made to seem routine, like a poor wallpaper choice we’re simply supposed to look past. The murder of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has felt particularly chilly because for the first time in my life, I have something significant in common with the perpetrator—a life disrupted by chronic pain.
Permission slip

Nov 7, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

I had planned weeks ago to take the day off after election day so that I could go to three important doctor’s appointments. I hoped that, despite some expected exhaustion, I’d be moving through the city with some adrenaline and excitement taking the edge off all of my physical pain. Instead, I dragged myself from appointment to appointment with a perma-frown and a sense of defeat, my body raging at me like normal.
We're all a little Martha

Nov 2, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

I don’t really cook and, though I love getting my favorite people in a room, hosting elaborate parties where I’m responsible for the food and decor has never been my thing. But watching Martha, the new Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix, I understood the appeal. Beyond a simple appreciation for beauty and nice things, being the perfect host is a means of control over oneself and one’s image—a desire most women have tasted at least briefly.
Moments Vol. 1

Oct 26, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

Living with severe pain heightens every experience, the good and the bad. Youāre forced to become so aware of your bodyāevery twinge, creak, flush of heatāthat that awareness eventually extends outward. Rooms get louder, conversations seem more intense, every minute that passes feels weightier than it did before. You find yourself thinking more deeply and feeling more deeply, always somewhat on the cusp of crying.Ā *My gynecologist is a fascinating woman, a hard nut to crack.
Falling for tennis

Sep 10, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

Over the past two weeks, I could not think about anything other than tennis. I thought about it first thing in the morning and lost sleep over it at night. Even now, with the US Open painfully in the rearview mirror, I find myself refreshing sports media, Reddit, and Twitter like a lab rat looking for a hit, seeking out even the smallest hints of tennis wherever I can find them.
Pockets of peace

Feb 11, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

I’m currently on prednisone for the third time in two years. If you’ve ever been on this drug then you know it’s a shaky mix of heaven and hell—warping moments of euphoria and painlessness with sleeplessness and jitters. When you google it, the horrors it can cause abound—it’s bad for your bones, your skin, your stomach, your adrenal glands…the list goes on. But it’s also one of the only medications that can (at least temporarily) tamp down inflammation and the pain that comes with it.
Influence

Feb 3, 2024 | jessicaschiffer.substack.com | Jessica Schiffer

I’ve been reading a lot about “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” and the coverage has been almost as delicious as the show appears to be. What’s struck me is how much more aspirational I find the “older” women in the cast (Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane, Demi Moore, Naomi Watts, Chloë Sevigny) than I do the sea of influencers given more airtime today, with their hydrofacial’d faces, perfectly matched workout sets, and Revolve closets.
The 15 Best Self-Care Products to Gift Your Partner On Valentine's Day

Jan 29, 2024 | wondermind.com | Hilary Sheinbaum |Jessica Schiffer

Highly Recommend Link Copied Valentine’s Day gifting is no longer limited to giving your partner flowers and chocolate. I now see February 14th as an opportunity to spoil the people in my life that I adore: friends, family, and the superintendent in my apartment building. And I’m not above giving myself a Valentine’s Day present either. But if you are in a romantic relationship, it’s still a great opportunity to treat your person, and what better way than with the gift of self-care? Self-care...