Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein is an American writer on the politics of everyday life, usually relating to gender. Her books include Boys & Sex, Girls & Sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter and Waiting for Daisy, as well as Unraveling, Don't Call Me Princess, Flux, and Schoolgirls. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times.

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."

Publications SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. New York: Random House, 1994. , Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. , Waiting for Daisy. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007. , Cinderella Ate My Daughter. New York: Harper, 2012. , Girls & Sex. New York: Harper, 2016. , Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life. Harper Paperbacks, 2018. , Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity. 2020. Unraveling: What I Learned About Life From Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater. Harper Paperbacks, 2024.