Do You Want to Be Famous?

To be a woman in the spotlight is to walk a tightrope, to balance on the narrowest of beams, where every misstep or excess is magnified, and every achievement is fraught with the potential for ridicule or resentment. I've met some famous people in my time, including Taylor Swift, Jacques Derrida, David Steinberg, Oprah Winfrey, and I grew up next door to Judge Judy before she was "Judge Judy.” I knew her as Judy Blum, the dentist's daughter and the only other girl on the block who went to college. We look towards famous women to see how they did it, and to map their pathways (learning what to do and what to avoid) in the process of discovering our own.

Author: Gina Barreca Ph.D.

---